U.S.News & World Report Names Drexel University

One Of Nation’s Top Six “Up-and-Coming Schools” For 2009

SACRAMENTO — Drexel University, which will begin offering nine master's programs in Sacramento in 2009, made the very short list of national universities that have made “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 national rankings, and is now ranked 89 of 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 among 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 Dr. Papadakis arrived as president in 1995. In just the past six years, as Drexel has acquired the nation’s largest private medical school and opened a new law school that has already received national recognition, it has catapulted from being a third-tier university to among the nation’s elite, according to U.S. News. In January 2009, it will open a new Center for Graduate Studies in Sacramento, California, the capitol 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.