News

Drexel Plummets Miserably in New “Best Colleges in America” List

And the University of Pennsylvania falls out of the top ten.


The mascot at Drexel University. The school just plummeted more than 100 places in the new NIche "Best Colleges In America" ranking.

The mascot at Drexel University. The school just plummeted more than 100 places in the new Niche “Best Colleges In America” ranking. (Photo by Eric Berg/Wikimedia Commons)

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Drexel Plummets Miserably in Niche’s New “Best Colleges in America” List

Niche just came out with its annual “Best Colleges In America” list and it’s fair to say that Drexel should be very unhappy with its report card. Last year, Drexel was 99th on the best colleges list, making it the fifth school from the Philadelphia area to make the top 100. But no such luck this year. Drexel has dropped all the way to 203rd. Yikes. The University of Pennsylvania was in sixth place last year. This year? Twelfth place.

There are 1,000 schools on the list, and here is where Philly area schools fall:

    • #12: Penn
    • #36: Swarthmore
    • #68: Villanova
    • #69: Haverford
    • #134: University of Delaware
    • #203: Drexel
    • #231: Temple
    • #280: Bryn Mawr
    • #365: Thomas Jefferson
    • #375: Rutgers (Camden)
    • #407: Rowan
    • #476: St. Joe’s
    • #708: La Salle

We don’t consider Princeton to be in the “Philly area.” But it’s #8.

If you’re wondering how the hell Niche comes up with these numbers, you can read about your methodology here.

By the Numbers

$100: What Bellevue hotel guests will have to pay to experience the new “Cheesesteak Maître D’ Service” that includes a white-gloved butler delivering the sandwich to your room on a silver platter. At least they didn’t make the mistake of referring to it as a “Philly Cheesesteak.” Still, no. Just no.

1999: Year that Guerino “Gino” Marconi was murdered in South Philly in a mob-style killing. 26 years later, police say they finally have their killer

$5 billion: Amount a Korean company is investing in shipbuilding at the Hanwha Philly Shipyard in South Philly.

Local Talent

Two years ago, Philly Mag named the debut novel from Roxborough native Ken Jaworowski, an editor at the New York Times, one of the best reads of the summer. That book was called Small Town Sins, and Sony TV has since optioned it for production. Jaworowski was also nominated for an Edgar Award for that one. Now, he’s back with his sophomore novel, What About the Bodies. Like Small Town Sins, this new novel is set in Central Pennsylvania and has some nods to Philly in it. Local bestseller Lisa Scottoline says the new book is “unputdownable.” It comes out on September 2nd, and you can pre-order the novel here.