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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Drexel University has been branded as being America's "Ugliest Campus" by Radar magazine.

The magazine's September issue, in its "America's 50 Worst Colleges" piece, says that Drexel's "cracked sidewalks, decrepit classrooms, structural blight megatons of gray concrete and a giant, looming smokestack will leave you wondering what brutalist fiend slapped together this sorry excuse for a campus."

The piece goes on to quote unnamed students trash-talking the cleanliness of the campus and the classrooms, and discussing allegedly being mugged on campus.

"The information you are prepared to validate through publication is years, if not a decade, out of date. If you visit our campus, you can quickly see for yourself the report is false," begins a statement from Philip Terranova, a vice president of the university.

Terranova refutes Radar's report with details of $500 million in improvements or construction projects since 1995 and also "a significant investment in campus security to ensure the safety of students, faculty, staff and visitors."

He cites other errors: The school has 21,000 students, not 13,000 as Radar states. "Spreading demonstrably false reports, under the guise of calling it gossip is something we hope the Daily News will not assist. More than that, Radar is not a magazine deserving of the Daily News' attention." Oh, well.

Posted by Dan Gross @ 9:13 AM  Permalink | 83 comments
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Posted 09:29 AM, 08/20/2008
dww2001
utleyrules, in this case I actually agree with you. Schools spend way to much money on appearances and ridiculous amenities and jack up tuition to obscene rates. Frankly, give me a solid degree that will take me far rather than some pretty buildings anyway. And much like the neighborhood its in, the aesthetic of the campus is improving rapidly.
Posted 09:33 AM, 08/20/2008
dartvader
Sorry, it's pretty ugly. And any school that's beautiful is spending too much on architects and not enough on instructors and financial aid. It's like eating at a stephen Starr restaurant... your $25 entree is an $8 meal and $17 worth of cheesy decor.
Posted 09:43 AM, 08/20/2008
xxx
Lots of 'on campus' muggings at drexel and Penn. Although, the on-campus crime statistics will not revel the true problem because both schools are private and do not consider the sidewalks as campus property. Get mugged in front of the engineering building @ Drexel, you'll be lucky if a Drexel security patrol even looks at you.
Posted 09:56 AM, 08/20/2008
dan19148
Why even reprint this? My 9 year old nephew for the first time showed interest in going to college one day mostly because we took him thru a walk thru Drexel campus to see the big kids, etc. and the dragons.
Posted 09:57 AM, 08/20/2008
dcomputer
I am a graduate from Drexel and the campus was never great looking but it has a huge amount of improvements already done and more being done since I was there in 96. I think that back in 96 was one thing and today it is a completely different campus.
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Posted 10:19 AM, 08/20/2008
demarco
That comparison is right on dartvader. What the heck is Radar magazine anyway?
Posted 10:57 AM, 08/20/2008
Jack Daniels on the rocks
I graduated from Drexel a couple years ago. The chicks there sure loved the cafeteria.
Posted 11:52 AM, 08/20/2008
X210
Get a degree from Penn State it's a third of the cost, ranked much higher by US News and Princeton review and you will become a member of the largest alumni network in the world. Not to mention a beautiful state of the art campus which becomes the third largest city on the state on football weekends.
Posted 11:52 AM, 08/20/2008
X210
Get a degree from Penn State it's a third of the cost, ranked much higher by US News and Princeton review and you will become a member of the largest alumni network in the world. Not to mention a beautiful state of the art campus which becomes the third largest city on the state on football weekends.
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