Tell me about American University

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've always pictured AU as a super liberal left wing SJW woke school. Georgetown has a bit of that element, too, though it probably isn't a realistic option for the typical AU hopeful. GW is the most politically balanced of the DC schools.

Thanks do you find Fox News too liberal?

[Anonymous]

From my experience, there is a lot of stigma against schools with religious affiliations but you can get good education at good price and no one can force religion on you, at most you may have to take a class or two, which probably is a good chance to know what drives billions of religious folks. If you are getting merit or aid, go without worries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AU is affliated with the United Methodist Church although that connection is less prominent than say Georgetown's connection to the Roman Catholic Church.

All that means is the bylaws require the campus chaplain to be Methodist, but the spiritual center supports ecumenical and non-Christian worship. https://www.american.edu/ocl/kay/

The professors in the religion department have no affiliation.

It also means children of United Methodist ministers get a break on tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was quite biased against schools with religious affiliations until I saw undergrads from American, Pepperdine, Baylor, SMU, Duke, Trinity and Rhodes holding their ground against T20 grads in medical school. I’ll have no hesitance if my kids decides to go to one of these schools on a merit scholarship.

AU’s religious affiliation is meaningless in practice. The school charter requires the campus minister to be Methodist, that’s all. Campus faith events are nondenominational. And nothing to do with the Religion department.

Went to AU, had no clue that it was religously affiliated until someone mentioned it at graduation. Plenty of schools that were founded by religious groups but have no real ongoing connection. Pretty sure that there were more Jews than Methodists in my dorm by a good bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was quite biased against schools with religious affiliations until I saw undergrads from American, Pepperdine, Baylor, SMU, Duke, Trinity and Rhodes holding their ground against T20 grads in medical school. I’ll have no hesitance if my kids decides to go to one of these schools on a merit scholarship.

AU’s religious affiliation is meaningless in practice. The school charter requires the campus minister to be Methodist, that’s all. Campus faith events are nondenominational. And nothing to do with the Religion department.

+1 And it's an expensive college, not known to be generous with merit.

I went to AU on almost a full ride. They were pretty generous with me.

You are likely an exception. And old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you were to rank colleges solely based on percentage of classes under 30 and total number of classes offered (both of which I value highly), they would beat out every Ivy on the former and all but Cornell and Penn on the latter. It's pretty easy to beat them on one, but doing it on both is very rare--tough to be strong on both measures. The only other school I know of that beats so many of them is Northwestern.

Note: Columbia doesn't publish their Common Data Set, so not included. Their numbers seem more likely to be in line with the 5 American beats rather than Penn and Cornell.

You didn’t really mention American in the same sentence as Penn, Cornell and Columbia? Lolololol

It’s the Syracuse/Tulane of DC. Not comepetitive for good students to obtain admissions. High priced and partiers.

Too companies don’t hire there. These graduates are at the back of the line to Georgetown grads.

If you ever come back here: I wish you’d start your own DMV college guide thread. Example: George Mason looks as if it’s on the ride. Is that true or an optical illusion?


I recruit from both schools and while it may be true that Georgetown students are stronger as a whole, I have hired more star employees from AU. I suppose Georgetown ends up with more offers but not by many. Not at the back of the line by any means and well ahead of many local schools, including GW, UVA and W&M.

[Anonymous]

DD was accepted this year but decided not to go. She felt like unless you are in one of the big majors that are AU's niche s (international studies, political stuff, business) that it didn't make sense to go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AU is affliated with the United Methodist Church although that connection is less prominent than say Georgetown's connection to the Roman Catholic Church.

All that means is the bylaws require the campus chaplain to be Methodist, but the spiritual center supports ecumenical and non-Christian worship. https://www.american.edu/ocl/kay/

The professors in the religion department have no affiliation.

It also means children of United Methodist ministers get a break on tuition.

And do you think that's a significant portion of the student population?

[Anonymous]

Not at the back of the line by any means and well ahead of many local schools, including GW, UVA and W&M.

This caught my attention... especially since my MD kid is trying to decide between GW, AU and W&M for political science/govt/public affairs. Why would AU be ahead of those other schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Not at the back of the line by any means and well ahead of many local schools, including GW, UVA and W&M.

This caught my attention... especially since my MD kid is trying to decide between GW, AU and W&M for political science/govt/public affairs. Why would AU be ahead of those other schools?

College Transitions has a reference on quality undergraduate programs. American is on the Political Science list (with GW and W&M), but not on Public Policy (UVA and W&M are on that).

https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-colleges-political-science

https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-colleges-public-policy

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the links above!
My kid and husband just got back from GW's admitted students day. There wasn't a schedule available yesterday so I didn't know when I could sneak away from work for an hour to see something.
They reported that they didn't come across any professors or any current students (which was odd, compared to other colleges' admitted students days where profs and students have been on panels and given speeches and been available for questions, etc).
I'm not sure why some people think AU is a tad below GW. In everything I could find (class size, student-to-advisor ratio, campus, specific leadership programs and cohorts and trips within the public affairs and international relations schools, guaranteed internships for freshmen, and just general giving-a-damn effort), AU seems better and a more personal experience. The AU location in NW DC isn't as good for getting to the Hill for internships, so maybe that's it. That was the only thing I can see.
It's just interesting to me but maybe I am missing something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was quite biased against schools with religious affiliations until I saw undergrads from American, Pepperdine, Baylor, SMU, Duke, Trinity and Rhodes holding their ground against T20 grads in medical school. I’ll have no hesitance if my kids decides to go to one of these schools on a merit scholarship.

AU’s religious affiliation is meaningless in practice. The school charter requires the campus minister to be Methodist, that’s all. Campus faith events are nondenominational. And nothing to do with the Religion department.

+1 And it's an expensive college, not known to be generous with merit.

I went to AU on almost a full ride. They were pretty generous with me.

You are likely an exception. And old.

Maybe I am an exception but I'm not that old. Thanks, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was quite biased against schools with religious affiliations until I saw undergrads from American, Pepperdine, Baylor, SMU, Duke, Trinity and Rhodes holding their ground against T20 grads in medical school. I’ll have no hesitance if my kids decides to go to one of these schools on a merit scholarship.

AU’s religious affiliation is meaningless in practice. The school charter requires the campus minister to be Methodist, that’s all. Campus faith events are nondenominational. And nothing to do with the Religion department.

Duke is T20 and let me know how much merit they give your DC.

[Anonymous]

Please tell your AU kids that while pedestrians have the right of way, they shouldn't get used to just walking into the road without looking. That's a bad habit to get into.
Their entitlement < a big truck.

[Anonymous]

Former Big 4 accounting employee who also did some campus recruiting.

You don’t have to be super smart for accounting majors. That’s why you don’t see many Ivy graduates doing accounting. AU accounting is not a bad choice. It is one of three target schools in DC (if you ignore HCBUs)

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/careers/entry-level/recruiting/recruiter-map.html