With decision day fast approaching, Drexel University has admitted a respectable number of students in line with previous years. Out of the 40,204 applicants from fall of 2023, 31,171 were admitted, making the 2024 admission rate 77.5 percent.
This aligns with previous years, as the admission rate from 2019 was 74.7 percent, starting a steady rise that peaked in 2021 at 82.6 percent. The number of students admitted that will actually enroll is yet to be seen, however Drexel has made changes to this year’s enrollment that should help admitted students in their decision.
As Britt Faulstick, executive director of news and media relations for Drexel University, explains “The Drexel Commitment: 2024 and moving our admission confirmation deadline… are efforts to support prospective students amid delays with the new FAFSA rollout.”
The new deadline for admitted students to commit to Drexel is June 1, as opposed to the traditional May 1 that most universities know as “Decision Day.”
The Drexel Commitment: 2024 is a direct response to the fact that Free Application for Federal Student Aid information was not released to universities until March this year. This limited Drexel’s abilities to create accurate financial aid packages for prospective students.
Drexel has chosen to honor the full amount provided to any prospective students in the financial aid packages it has provided. Each financial aid package will be made using an estimate of how much federal grant aid they will receive. If the actual amount of federal aid is less, Drexel will still match the original package using additional funding.
While it is too early for the 2024 enrollment numbers to be out, Drexel performed very well in the 2022-2023 year with 2,914 new students enrolled. The Institute of Education Sciences reports that Drexel enrollment was above the median in 2022.
Similarly, 2023 enrollment was strong, with President John Fry noting in a message on May 3, 2023 that Drexel was on track to meet the 2023 enrollment target of 2,825 students. He also noted that the 2023 class held a median SAT score of 1350 and an average GPA of 3.85, both higher than the previous year.
While the fall 2024 class introduction has not yet been posted, presumably due to the delayed commitment date, Drexel’s total enrollment is still a reasonable size for the university.
Drexel’s total enrollment is 23,589 with 13,156 undergraduates and 4,333 graduate students. College Factual also reports that within the undergraduate population, the majority are men at 53.5 percent. White students are represented the most at 51.9 percent, with Asian students making up 16 percent and Black students comprising only 7.9 percent of the undergraduate body.
The IES also showed that 2022 enrollment was diverse as Asians represented 19 percent of enrolled students, with the median nationwide being 15 percent, and Black students making up nine percent, with the median being six percent.
In 2022 the top 5 Drexel majors graduating with a Bachelor’s, were, in descending order: Nursing Accelerated Career Entry, Finance, Mechanical Engineering, Nursing and Computer Science.
Drexel should maintain its healthy and relatively diverse total enrollment due to an above average freshman retention rate of 88 percent and a strong graduation rate of 65 percent.
While Drexel has a 31 percent graduation rate in four years, according to US News, this statistic does not reflect the fact that various programs at Drexel cause undergraduates to spend more than the typical four years here.
This would also explain why the university is ranked 98th in the country by US News, despite them also ranking Drexel second for co-op in the nation.
Overall, the enrollment for Drexel has been strong in the recent past, and shows no signs of declining. The university holds a diverse and academically strong total enrollment, with a semi-selective admission rate and respectable graduation rate.