American University
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Anonymous
| My son is only a sophomore in HS (FCPS highly ranked), but I am curious about kids from the DMV who go to American. In my line of work, I meet many recent American grads and am almost universally impressed by them. My DS likely won't have the stats to go to UMD/UVA type flagships but still a good A/B student and we can afford private. I don't see AU mentioned much on this board. Any thoughts as to why? |
Anonymous
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Probably most kids want to be further from home?
If your kid likes DC and wants to some sort of career in public policy/int'l relations/"the government"/be an attorney/etc. I say go for it. I was an AU grad and nearly everyone I keep in touch with has a master's/JD/MBA, so I would tell your kid to plan on grad school. |
Anonymous
| AU, like all the DC colleges, is a big draw for politically active students, but from my understanding it doesn't have the ideological balance of, for instance, GW, and the overwhelming majority of the students are super woke left wing SJW liberals. To be fair, that assessment comes from stuff I read several years ago, so the climate might have changed since then (though I doubt it). It's just something to watch out for. |
Anonymous
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There's nothing wrong with AU. It's a respectable school. I think the main reason you don't hear of AU much on this board is because it's local and in the shadow of Georgetown and GW. It's also in a boring part of DC, Upper Caucasia. Who wants to live or go to school in that part of town?
If it were my kid and I had money to burn, as it appears you do, I'd look elsewhere. By the way, no need to describe your FCPS as "highly ranked." When it comes to college admissions, they're all considered similar in quality. |
Anonymous
| yeah i think it's because its so close to home and tends to fall to #3 slot for DC behind Georgetown and GWU. My son considered it as a safety but we were just not impressed with the campus at all, didn't feel like the college experience as much as some others. He is interested in foreign affairs though so the program was definitely impressive. |
Anonymous
It's "farther" from home, not further. |
Anonymous
and before i get hopped on for the use of "we", I meant to say "he" LOL |
Anonymous
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It is more competitive than GW. This has been discussed on these boards previously.
GW - 40%+ acceptance rate American - 36% acceptance rate |
Anonymous
How obtuse can you get? You have to look at who's applying and who's getting in. At AU the mid SAT range is 1220 to 1380. At GWU it's 1310 to 1440. That's a pretty big difference. |
Anonymous
Pretty obtuse on DCUM. There are hundreds of past comments in dozens of threads re how easy it is to get into Virginia Tech because of the high acceptance rate. |
Anonymous
yes, people are very clueless about what these metrics actually mean. |
Anonymous
| American University is a horrible name for a school. It is a vestige to colonial racism and all of the evils this country represents, they should change the name. |
Anonymous
Maybe you shouldn’t go, then. |
Anonymous
sorry your snowflake wasn't accepted |
Anonymous
What? That school isn't even on my snowflake's radar. Even Radford and UMD would be above American... |