How to strengthen your Drexel application

Sign up + add your profile to see your specific gaps for Drexel.

Best application round for you

EA gives you an early decision without a binding commitment. Same or slightly better odds than RD.

What Drexel weights most

Drexel prioritizes applicants who show clear professional focus and readiness for a hands-on, career-oriented curriculum, especially in engineering, business, design, and health sciences. They favor students who have taken relevant coursework, pursued internships, research, or significant extracurriculars tied to a career trajectory, and who can articulate how a mandatory co-op will advance their goals. Compared with peer private universities, Drexel is more forgiving of lower traditional academic markers if a candidate presents compelling experiential evidence and practical ambition.

Supplemental essay strategy

Tie your essay directly to Drexel’s co-op model and specific programs or faculty - name the co-op office, a research lab, a particular employer partnership in Philly, or a course sequence in your major, and explain how a co-op placement will build exact skills you need. Demonstrate geographic/industry fit with Philadelphia and use one concrete past experience to show you will thrive in alternating work-and-study cycles rather than offering vague career aspirations.

Recommended competitions

Where to focus next

If you only have time for one thing this month, do this:

1. Read 2 admitted-student essays from Drexel (search official admissions site or Reddit r/drexel). Notice the level of specificity — that's the bar.
2. Write the ‘why this school’ supplement first, before anything else. If you can't fill 250 words with school-specific reasons, pick a different school.
3. Find one current student to ask about their experience — admissions offices often connect prospective applicants with current students. The follow-up email becomes specific essay material.