<p>I'm going back and forth between these two. Can anybody help with info?</p>
<p>Do you want a liberal arts education or to focus on politics and/or international relations. If the latter go with AU. If the former, try Occidental.</p>
<p>both schools strongly value international relations (my intended major)</p>
<p>is au overwhelmingly political?
can anyone tell me about the immediate area surrounding au?</p>
<p>What’s the financial situation?</p>
<p>schmisar, my D, a junior at AU (and not a poli sci or international relations major), is a pretty non-political person, as are her friends, and she has never complained that AU is too political. I know the guidebooks tend to give the impression that everyone is constantly running around agitating for a cause or engaging in heated political discussions, but most of the time they are just being typical college students.</p>
<p>As for the area, I’m sure you know that AU has a true campus, unlike many urban schools. It’s situated in a pleasant residential neighborhood that is just down the street from Embassy Row (several miles of embassies, many housed in stately mansions). The subway, which takes you pretty much everywhere you’d want to go (the buses do the rest) has a stop that is a 10-15 minute walk or a very short shuttle bus ride from campus. The area around the stop, Tenleytown, is commercial (Whole Foods, Starbucks, etc.). One subway stop away is an elegant shopping area in Chevy Chase. The campus certainly seems very safe, but it is of course open to anyone who wants to stroll in, and it’s necessary to take the same commonsense safety precautions you would in any city.</p>
<p>FWIW (and I have no idea if it’s worth anything), earlier this year Foreign Affairs magazine ranked AU tenth on it’s top ten list of best undergrad international relations programs. (Occidental’s not on the list.)</p>
<p>Hope that helps on the AU side.</p>
<p>Glad to c this posting! S accepted to NYU, Occidental, and American…Oxy and American giving fifteen in scholarship, NYU ten. Oxy is about the same price as NYU, surprisingly enough! American costs about seven thousand less per year. S looking at economica and poly sci…2210 SATS, SAT II 700 Math 2 and 780 US HX, 5s on last years APs Stats, Eng Lang, and US (self studied) This year taking 6 APs…Hard worker, looking to consider what will give best opportunity for both college experience and work after college! Thoughts? Feedback? Help! We are from NY. Oxy campus is lovely. NYU is NYU. Visiting American next week.</p>
<p>Cal is in financial trouble, as we know, and many west coast kids are coming east. Also, Oxy has had four college presidents in five years. Thats a bit disturbing. Hear lovely things tho about faculty, small size is a plus, d3 athletics is a plus (s is 4.0-4.5 tennis player and hopes for walk on shot at a D3, definite warm fuzzys on our visit to Oxy. American has wonderful location for internships and networking for ir, econ, poly sci, etc. Also has some cool addon programs…university college, three weeks in Rome (7,000…eek, but probably a wonderful experience) Wish we had gotten more scholarship money to clinch the choice!!!</p>
<p>Thanks for the input everyone!</p>
<p>Right now AU has given me 205000, which makes the school a possibility. I haven’t received my official financial aid letter from Oxy yet, so that’s to be announced. Of course that will play a major role in the decision process once that letter is given to me. </p>
<p>The area surrounding AU sounds great - I’m visiting in a week, so I’ll be able to see for myself. I visited Oxy in November and thought it was great.</p>
<p>Cal is in financial trouble, but Oxy is a private school, so should that factor in hugely? </p>
<p>What does the change in presidents mean? </p>
<p>Both schools seem awesome. I don’t think I can go wrong either way.</p>