Quote:
Originally Posted by hammersklavier
Random morning thought:
I wonder how ambitious Drexel is? I mean, as a school? They're traditionally known as a working- and middle-class-oriented tech school, but it feels like they're aiming to increase their prestige in much the same way Temple feels like it's aiming to be listed in the same breath as Pitt and Penn State as a top-tier public school.
At a certain level, we're already part of the way there. Even our more traditionally working-class institutions tend to be more nationally prestigious in terms of academics than many of our peer cities'. And in a lot of markets, the most prestigious institutions lay outside the city proper (whereas here, we've got them in the core). Think about where UM is in relation to Detroit, or CU in relation to Denver, or -- heck -- even Oregon and Oregon State in relation to Portland.
A lot of American higher-education markets have prestige without real proximity to the core city. Others have schools in the core that suffer from a relative lack of prestige -- think about Georgia State, which should be Georgia's Temple (to Georgia Tech's UPenn/Drexel) but is a fraction as prestigious an institution as Temple is. Or perhaps Wayne State in Detroit and Cleveland State in Cleveland. Relatively few markets have a critical mass of prestige right in their core.
This is a major advantage Pitt and Boston leveraged, and that New York, Chicago, and LA don't really need to leverage. It's also an advantage that Houston has (look how close prestigious Rice and working-class UH are) -- but, interestingly enough, the Dallas metroplex may not. Most importantly for us, it's an advantage which we're leveraging just as we're becoming more confident as a city and region.
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Outside of mechanical engineering, Drexel's largest student body is Biology. My guess is that its all about the biotech innovation. All universities are moving into the "innovation" direction...Jefferson, Penn, Drexel. ie...innovation neighborhood. If they continue to grow, continue to build, and obtain patents while fostering innovation, students will keep on coming. Think less of it as a "school" and more of it as a "university" which encompasses much more than just getting people degrees. They have been this for a long time now, but they are really pushing it these days...