U.S.News & World Report Names Drexel University One of Nation's Top Six "Up-and-Coming Schools" for 2009

Business Wire, August 22, 2008

PHILADELPHIA -- Drexel University made the "up-and-coming" short list of national universities that have achieved "the most promising and innovative changes in academics, faculty, students, campus, or facilities," according to top college officials polled by U.S.News & World Report for the 2009 edition of "America's Best Colleges." Only 20 universities in the country made the list.

These are "universities that have recently made striking improvements or innovations -- schools everyone should be watching," according to the publication. "These colleges may not be at the top of the rankings (yet), but they're tops for innovation."

Underscoring the point, Drexel jumped 19 positions in the U.S. News national rankings and is now ranked 89th among the "Best National Universities." This is the first time that Drexel has broken into the top 90. It also places Drexel among the top 50 private universities in the country.

"Drexel provides a superior educational experience to students and outstanding use-inspired scholarship and research opportunities to faculty," Drexel President Constantine Papadakis said. "Our success in doing so, under the stewardship of our trustees and the active leadership of our faculty, has led to Drexel's unprecedented qualitative and quantitative growth."

Drexel is also identified by U.S. News as offering one of the best cooperative education programs in the country. In Drexel's cooperative education program, students alternate periods of classroom study with full-time employment in positions aligned with their academic interests.

Drexel has achieved unprecedented growth since Papadakis arrived as president in 1995. In just the past six years, as Drexel acquired the nation's largest private medical school and opened a new law school that has already received national recognition, it has catapulted among the nation's elite, according to U.S. News. In January 2009, Drexel University will open a Center for Graduate Studies in Sacramento, Calif., the capital of the sixth-largest economy in the world.

The U.S. News rankings group schools based on categories created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The rankings will be published in the magazine's Sept. 1 issue, on newsstands Aug. 25, and available online at www.USNews.com/colleges beginning today.