Is Drexel or Rutgers considered more prestigious by employers and grad schools?

Rutgers is usually viewed as having the stronger overall name recognition, especially by graduate programs and by employers outside the Northeast. It is the flagship public university of New Jersey, has a broad national research profile, and its graduate and professional schools give the Rutgers name more academic weight across many fields. Drexel is well respected too, but its reputation is more tied to specific strengths than to broad institutional prestige.

For graduate school, Rutgers tends to carry more clout because of its scale, research activity, and long-established presence in academia. Drexel can still place students well into grad programs, but it is more often known for practical, career-oriented training than for being a university with the same across-the-board academic profile.

For employers, the picture is a bit more mixed because Drexel has a real advantage through its co-op system. In industries where work experience matters a lot, Drexel students often graduate with stronger resumes and more direct employer connections, which can outweigh pure school reputation. Rutgers has the broader name and larger alumni network, but Drexel can feel especially strong with employers who know its co-op model and recruit in Philadelphia or nearby markets.

So if by prestige you mean overall institutional reputation, Rutgers usually comes out ahead. If you mean immediate job-market perception in certain applied fields, Drexel can be just as compelling and sometimes more so because employers are often responding to experience, not just the school name.