Summer Term is Over!!

Wow the last ten weeks have flown by but this week was by far the best! Srav came back to visit earlier in the week and Andrea is moving back today! I am so excited to see everyone again!

Also work has been thoroughly enjoyable this past week! At Women's Way I got to go and see Hillary Clinton speak. Im not veyr political and I'm not sure how I feel about Hillary Clinton being president, but it was still exciting to go and listen.
Last night I got to go to the Eagles Kickoff Party as part of a fundraiser. I was one of those people who tries to get you to sign up for the Eagles credit card. Not too bad, plus there was some free food involed. We also got to stay after we finished working and saw the All-American Rejects perform... FOR FREE!!!! Definitely the highlight of the week!!

I am excited for a break over the next few weeks tho!

-Mary Kate
DWC

Labor Day Weekend!!

Wow, where did summer go? I can't believe it is already Labor Day Weekend! I can't wait to start classes again, but summer is my favorite time of year. I really don't want to think about having to break out the scarves and gloves again soon.

Anyways the good part about school starting again is that everyone is coming back to campus who had gone away for summer break of co-op. I saw one of my friends yesturday who had come back to campus and in the next week, even more people will be arriving on campus!!

Being a sophomore is going to be awesome. 4 terms of classes in a row may be a bit of an issue, but I'll deal, lol. Anywhoo I cannot wait to get the holiday weekend started!

Have a great weekend and enjoy the rest of your summer!!

-Mary Kate
DWC

Phillies game!!

I am so excited about this weekend!! Tonight I am going to the Phillies game with some friends from home. It will be nice to see them all again before they head back off the college.

Tommorrow I will get to relax and I cannot wait to just kick back and sit around all day. Sunday is going to be fun too. It will be busy, but fun. ALl of us DWCs are getting together to have a BBQ, and I looovvveee BBQ! Also another Eagles game on Sunday night, woot!!

I hope you are all enjoying your extra long summer!!!

- Mary Kate
DWC

Fall Schedule!!

So I registered for my fall classes on wednesday! I'm super excited about how the scheduling worked out. I have Fridays off so I can still intern downtown in the fall which I am very excited about!

I like the summer and all, but I am a bookworm at heart so I cannot wait to be back in classes and to see my friends again!!

Hope you are all getting excited for classes too!!

-Mary Kate
DWC

Busy Busy!

Wow this week has flown by. I had to keep reminding myself that it was Friday! Anyways, this week has definitely been a lot of fun. I can't believe we only have 3 more weeks in this term, then break, and then classes start up again!! I am so excited to see everyone again.

This summer has been a lot of fun. Hopefully I will get the chance to go home at least one more time before everyone heads back off the college.

I was so busy earlier this week that I completely forgot to make plans for this weekend. Maybe I will go and see a movie. Personally I cannot wait until next weekend when "Superbad" comes out, it looks soooo funny!

Have a great weekend y'all!!
Mary Kate
DWC

August!

Wow I can't believe it is already August! The past month or so has just flown by so quickly! A lot of my friends from high school are getting ready to leave again and head back to college. Some of my friends who just graduated this spring are preparing to become college freshman. It is so crazy! I like the idea of being a sophomore this fall. I will know my way around campus, have set friends to hang out with, maybe take a class or two with.

While I am really excited to start classes again, I definitely want to savor my last summer!So far I have only been to the beach once, but I'll be down the shore again tommorrow so I will have that covered. I was hoping to go to a few barbeques though, hmmm maybe labor day weekend I'll check out that scene.

Well I you all are having a great summer and enjoying every minute of it!!

MK
DWC

A good week!

So i finished Harry Potter, I won't give anything away, but I will say that it was indeed awesome!

I got to see my awesome, awesome friends Srav and Michelle yesturday. I haven't seen either in a long time and it was nice to get to catch up with them.

I'm going home for a bit this weekend and I am so excited!! I haven't gotten to hang out with my mom in a bit and I miss some of my at home friends.

Well I hope all of you are having a great summer! I can't believe it is almost August, luckily for us Drexel kiddos we have until the end of September before we start up the fall term!!

MK

HARRY POTTER!!!

Ok so I am an eleven year old at heart, most definitely, and I will be in line at midnight to purchase my 7th and final Harry Potter book tonight!!! I can't believe this is the end, how sad! But I will be locking myself away this weekend to read it, if anyone so much as whispers what the end is I will be so sad. Oh man I'm so excited but a little sad that it is all ending.

I saw the 5th movie last weekend. It def. wasn't as good as the other movies. Like they could have been movies on their own without the other ones in the series to support them; but this most recent movie felt like a sequel. I mean obvi you wouldnt go see just the 5th movie if you hadnt seen the first 4 or if you hadnt read the books, but that is no reason to slack on the filmaking.

Ok thats my deal with that

Talk to you at the end of like 1,000 pages of Rowling genius

Mary Kate
DWC

Orientations!!

Ok so orientations have started and I am having a blast. It has been so nice to finally meet the students who I have been talking to from facebook and future dragons! The Dac Pac event has been really fun, if you haven't been to orientation yet then you should definitely stop by and check it out! Other than that the ice cream socials have been a huge success! It has been so great to see some pre-froshes come out of their shell and start dancing.
Other than that this week has been super busy, between interning, and working, and orientating, I have barely had a moment to catch my breath! Well I am definitely enjoying this summer, however the gross humidity has got to stop!

See y'all around!
Mary Kate

4th of July

So this 4th of July was indeed a rainy one, but it was still nice to have a day off in the middle of the week. I got to wake up late, relax, and hang out with my friends. I had the chance to stay in for a while and watch "Independence Day", a truly amazing moving, but later on I had the opportunity to go out with my friends as well. Some of my friends from home came in and we walked down to the parkway early to watch Hall and Oates and see the fireworks. It started to rain though and I got really drenched so I ended up coming back to campus early but I still got to see the fireworks from my window.
In all this was a very relaxing holiday. I hope y'all had a great time too!

-Mary Kate
DWC

Interviews and Internships

So I was anticipating a long lonely summer, with most of my friends at home, far away from me at home. Not that I don't love my fellow DWCs but I knew I would miss my other friends so much. I have really found a great group of friends here at Drexel and I was so sad to see them leave for the summer. Luckily for me almost all of them are on a fall/winter co-op cycle. Why is that so good? They are here on campus to go to interviews for their co-ops now! For the past week or so my friends have been back on campus for a day or so at a time and they are so awesome, they stopped by to visit me after their interviews!

In other exciting news, aside from working as a DWC this summer I also have an internship downtown! Drexel really helped to open some doors for me when it came to getting this internship. This summer is definitely shaping up to be a great one!

-Mary Kate
DWC

The beach!!

Yes! Summer has truly arrived. I spent the weekend at the shore. While the traffic there and back was obscene and i was able to take decent naps in the car ( i wasn't driving, lol) it was so worth it. I got to see some family members who came in from Nebraska, they usually come out to visit once a year. I have really learned to appreciate the shore so much more because of them, they drive two days to get to the beach. I think a three hour traffic jam in comparison is not anything to complain over.
Anywhoo, getting to see them again was so great! Going down the shore in general was awesome. I met up with some of my super-cool friends from Drexel Sunday morning and spent the day with them. I think it's nice that two very different parts of my life can merge!
In all it was a great weekend and a great way to kick-off the summer. I might go down again next weekend to see my family off. Right now I am just going to enjoy the fact that I avoided suburn and will try not to day-dream too much, lol.

Old Blogs, New Tricks

Ok so finals are over and summer has begun, so last week I was sitting around I realized I hadn't been on my Xanga in ages. So I logged on and proceeded to read through all of my old posts. I was mildly amused with my random posting of song lyrics and cute little anecdotes about the boys I was crushing on at the moment but it was kinda lame. Honestly, who really wanted to know that I had Duran Duran stuck in my head on April 6th? Whatever it just cracked me up a bit. So pretty much instead of reading through old diaries from middle school we now have online diaries to remind us of bad hair choices and awkward encounters. Gotta love it!

Speaking of mildly random, thats pretty much what that last paragraph was, whoops. Sorry to get all philosophical there, it probably wont happen again, lol.

-Mary Kate
DWC

Congratulations!!

Hey Class of 007, Congratulations on finishing high school!! This is such an amazing and exciting time. Enjoy your summer, and I hope you will all have a great time and be able to start out your college experience on a high-note!!

Finals week!

It's finally finals week! I'm half way done I just have two more exams tomorrow and then I am done for the summer, er well for a week before summer term. I am only take on course, but it's free and it looks so cool. It is called "Law, Literature, and Politics", its only one class a week, and should be fun. I am too much of a nerd to not take a class over the summer, lol j/k. I am also super excited for DWC this summer, I hope all of you incoming freshman are getting pumped for orientation. I know I had so much fun on my orientation, I'm sure you will too! Well, Physics is calling, I'll be in touch!

Week 10!!

WOWZAA!!! Spring Term went by so fast. I can't believe week ten is half over, I have two more classes and I have already finished my presentations in both of them so I get to sit back, relax, and listen to my classmates present for the next two days, sweet deal. I only have 4 final this term which is nice, I'll be done with my first year of college in exactly one week. Wow, that is so weird. I remember my graduation so well; it really feels like it was just yesturday that I was super excited to start here at Drexel and now I am almost done my first year. Wow that is so crazy. I've learn so much and seen so much this past year. I can't imagine not knowing my friends from Drexel now.
This summer is going to be so great though. I'm excited to be able to take a break from classes for a bit. I'm also super excited to get to stay at Drexel this summer and get to hang out with my awesome DWC friends and get to know them better without crazy schedules or deadlines getting in the way. Besides, roadtrips to the shore, I think so!!! lol

Later!
- Mary Kate

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend was so much fun. I went home for the weekend to see some of my high school and it was so nice to get to catch up with everyone! Being able to get home on the R7 made it so easy to just hop on home and have some fun.
I was kind of bummed that I missed what was going on here at Drexel. Some of my friends went to the beach, others took the long weekend to relax and enjoy the city in the summer.
Being able to see my friends made me so happy. That is just what I needed to get me through these last few weeks of school!!

-Mary Kate
DWC

YAY!

Ok I'm am writing because I am so excited right now! Last week I found out that a got a bid to join Phi Sigma Pi, the National Honors Fraternity (it's Co-ed!. The chapter at Drexel is the Gamma Xi chapter and I am so happy the get the chance to be a part of it. There are still a few more weeks to go before I am officially a brother, but it is going to be so much fun getting to know everyone!

Greek life here at Drexel is pretty cool in general. Not only are there academic fraternities such as Phi Sigma Pi ( there are fraternities for different academic areas specifically) , but there are also social and cultural fraternities and sororities. There are definitel a wide variety to choose from here at Drexel.

The good part is that Greek life isn't the most important factor at Drexel. It is there for those who want to join. While Greek life is important to our community, always seen on campus with a fundraiser or event going on, you can still enjoy your Drexel experience without joining.

Ok well time to get working on some homework!

-Mary Kate
DWC

Engineers!

Hey All,

As you may know I am an economics major. However a lot of you who are reading this may be looking into other majors, especially engineering. I personally do not know a lot about the engineering program, but my good friend here at Drexel is a Mechanical Engineering Major and is very involved in her major. Here is her Drexel experience thus far:

Hello all.
I’m a freshman mechanical engineering major in the five-year program. I hail from somewhere near the backwoods of New York State. When I was in your shoes last year, I had offers to attendDrexel, Stevens, RPI, RIT and WPI. Obviously, I choose Drexel, and I’m happy with that decision and want to convince you to come here too.
I’m taking calculus, physics, chemistry, bio, basic computer science, and English courses this year. What is so impressive about Drexel is what is offered outside the classroom. There are so many opportunities for academic, personal, and career growth here that is phenomenal. The first one that always gets brought up is co-op. By this point you might have some idea about how that works. But you may not be aware that there are very few schools that have a Co-op program integrated into the curriculum. At Drexel, most people do at least one, in a very well-organized system that offers a huge variety of companies and positions.
But Drexel has more than just co-op. We have the city of Philadelphia, a learning experience if I ever saw one. For any of you who, like me, are not from an urban home, its a huge adjustment, but one that will benefit you. More engineering jobs are in the city than the country. Not to mention the culture (museums, shows, orchestra, etc.) that you can find just outside your door.
We also have another rarity in an engineering school – a great study abroad program. Not many engineering schools even offer one country to study abroad in. Drexel is part of a global exchange where you can study abroad in over a dozen different countries. I’m planning on going to Hong Kong, and someone else I know is going to Turkey. For both of us, classes will be taught in English.
And for hands-on experience, we have ENGR-101, a three term course with projects and modules that give you an introduction to engineering. If that’s not enough for you, you can seek out faculty and ask to assist them with their research. Not all professors need assistants or take on freshmen as assistants, but no one can stop you from participating in engineering competitions. There are a few competitions Drexel participates in as a school and even more that various organizations participate in as Drexel’s representative. For example, I am in ASME, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, who recently sent a team to SPDC, an engineering competition held up in New York City. So if you want to be involved in engineering early on, I would join the organization for your major. Those groups do competitions, and the older members could answer questions you may have about approaching faculty to be a research assistant.

I don’t know how many of you are what major, but I can’t do something like this without promoting my own department. Mechanical engineering is a very large department with truly top-notch faculty. But there’s still an individual attention to students, because those professors, PhD’s doing amazing research, really do care about the students, and are willing to help them out if you just ask. I’m not just throwing generic reassurances out either. I do work-study in the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics (MEM) department office. So I see first-hand the professors I won’t have until third year and the way they interact with students even outside class. And it makes me excited to me an MEM student.
When I came to visit Drexel as an Accepted Student, I was Undecided Engineering. The department head of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics, Dr. Mun Choi, noticed that and spoke with me about MEM (which I was considering). He also told me about a scholarship offered by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers that I could apply for. He gave me his card and still remembers my name. After that, I switched major, applied for and got the scholarship. I also became an active member of ASME (which is free for freshmen to join, so you should do it when you get here- meet people and have fun). I went to weekly meetings, the Christmas party, some fun and/or informative events, and was nominated for and elected as secretary of ASME for next year. So that worked out really great for me.


If you have any questions feel free to ask me, if I can't answer them I will forward them to my friend and see if she can answer them for you.

-Mary Kate
DWC

Weekend!!

Oh man I am so happy it is Friday. The week went by so fast, but still it will be nice to relax for a bit. Hopefully I will be able to hang out with the usual gang and head over to Ross Commons and get a Schuykill Burger and sit upstairs on our usual couches and relax.
That is what I really love about Drexel. My friends here are awesome. They make me so happy and sure I miss my friends from high school and I visit them when I can, but I wouldn't trade my Drexel friends for anything. I have loved being able to have movie nights in the dorms where we all lounge around and watch classic movies, or well just movies that need to seen by everyone!
This week has been so busy and a little hectic at times, but that would have happened at any school. But having great friends to see my through, that I have found here at Drexel and I am so happy about that!

Off and running

So, it's only week two but things are moving along well this term. Yesturday I signed up in the Honors Office to go and see "The life of Galileo" and the Wilma Theatre for FREE!! I know, so awesome. That's something I have definitely taken advantage of here at Drexel, the University offers so many opportunities for all students to be able to go into the city and visit museums or see shows for free or at least at a sweet discounted rate. I've found that it is so easy to just stay in our "University City Bubble" because of all there is to do on campus that having the chance to get off campus and do something fun and artsy with friends, for free, is pretty awesome!

Also, for anyone in my DWC group reading this, or any student who will be starting at Drexel Undergraduate next year as a freshman I will be available on AIM from 8-10 pm on Tuesdays.
My screen name is :drxldragon8

-Mary Kate
DWC

Home This Weekend

Wow, this week has gone by so fast, and I stil have to get through Friday! Ill be comuting tommorow to help out my parents. That's one of the things I really love about Drexel. We are only a few blocks from 30th Street Station, it is so easy to walk on over and hop on a train and get home if I need to. You could probably get anywhere from there, there is a train that runs to New York, DC, even to the airport! The rates are pretty decent too, also free is always best, lol.

That's one of the things I love about being in a city, I don't need a car to get around. There is public transportation that can take you all around the city. The trolly stop on campus is nice too, just a short walk down the street and I can get down to Independenca Hall or go to the Opera.

Well, looks like it is time to head on out!

Mary Kate

Spring Term

Wow, I can't believe it is spring term already. Time has really flown by this year! So far all my classes seem great. The teachers haven't been boring at all and sure the work wont be fun, but it never is, lol. Right now i'm predicting Business Communications and Acting will be the best ones this term, but who knows.

The weather has been great so far this week, the campus really seems to come alive when it is so nice out like this. Everyone is outside and lounging arounding in the quad or next to the fountain at North. Im excited for picnics at Rittenhouse Square, should be fun!