<p>Could anyone offer insight on some of the following ideas:</p>
<p>Does the location of AU truly give it THAT much of a leg-up with internship opportunities, compared to a school that is not in D.C.? (Will networking be easier at AU because of its D.C. location?)</p>
<p>What is it about the School of Public Affairs (SPA) that sets it apart from a Political Science department at a school like Wake Forest?</p>
<p>Politics is a HUGE passion of mine… Is it truly “worth it” to go to AU because of it’s location and (the center of everything political, etc.) and SPA?</p>
<p>I am considering an MPP/JD or a BA/MPP then a JD. Can anyway speak on both American’s ranking among MPP programs and JD programs…? ALSO, how does AU compare to other top schools in SENDING grads to top MPP or JD programs???</p>
<p>LASTLY, why is American “ranked” so high by USNWR? I know that rankings is not everything, but 79TH AMONG NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES…? There must be some explanation for this! (Retention rate, SAT scores, etc. ???)</p>
<p>“Does the location of AU truly give it THAT much of a leg-up with internship opportunities, compared to a school that is not in D.C.? (Will networking be easier at AU because of its D.C. location?)”</p>
<p>Where are you going to get an internship with a major national non-profit during term at Wake Forest? Or with a national political party? Where are you going to get an internship in a Congressperson’s office, at the Treasury Department, or in the White House? Where are you going to get an internship with an international accounting or banking firm, or with a private equity start-up? These are all in-term internships that AU students have.</p>
<p>More accurate question would be, why is American ranked so LOW? If you go by the kind of caliber of students AU is attracting (in terms of SAT and GPA etc), AU should be ranked in the vicinity of top 50 or even better. I believe the ranking system punishes schools like AU because of the “transient” nature of some of the faculty and perhaps because of the lack of doodah Ph.D. level research</p>
<p>Also, what are your political leanings? These two universities are very much on the opposite sides of the spectrum. AU on the liberal side with very high score on diversity vs. WF a very conservative southern school. </p>
<p>I was thinking about WF for my son, but when I read a post by a current student who is SO happy there saying “Oh, in terms of diversity, it’s fine. there is only one fraternity that is known to not admit blacks. No biggie. If you are black, I am sure you can find fraternities that will accept you”. Well, I immediately crossed this off the list of potential schools. My S is not black, but no way I will send him to a school where the nice thing about the school is that there is ONLY ONE frat that won’t admit blacks.</p>
<p>Our daughter chose between WFU and AU. Because her primary interests were history and politics, AU became a natural choice for her because of the opportunities to apply her learning in real world settings. For her, I am certain it was the perfect choice, and of course she grew up with WFU, so going there would have been much less of an adventure than going off to DC.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Wake Forest (my alma mater) is a really good school with what seems to me a very good department of Political Science (the department chair, Professor Harriger, is truly outstanding!). Wake also has very unique international programs (it operates several overseas campuses staffed with WF faculty) which might provide unusual opportunities in Political Science.</p>
<p>I will say that AU, perhaps because of its lower ranking, works really hard to make students feel wanted. Service excellence is a powerful part of the culture there. And they do award a fair number of merit scholarships, which are in very short supply at Wake. AU’s application is not hard work (Wake’s, I’m told, is), so even if you’re leaning toward Wake you should probably apply to AU anyway, since the net cost at Wake is likely to be considerably higher unless you are a either at the very top or the very bottom of the acceptance list, or have a lot of demonstrable financial need.</p>
<p>All other things being equal, you will need to decide whether academic rigor, which is found in abundance in almost every department at WFU, is more important to you than opportunities for practical application, which will necessarily be limited in the Triad area of NC. And there is quite a bit of difference in the two campuses, the respective athletics offerings, the social atmosphere, surrounding resources, etc. So visit each place, ask a lot of questions, and trust your instincts about the right fit.</p>
<p>@lizmane, I can’t prove it, but your explanation for why AU ranks lower than it should makes perfect sense to me. I imagine AU’s faculty has, on balance, more real world experience and perhaps less impressive academic credentials than do those academicians whose opinions drive the reputation rankings. As for Wake, it is almost certainly more conservative and more affluent today than it was when I went there, but I am confident that the intolerance you referenced is either extremely rare or, more likely, the product of an overactive imagination or sour grapes. As at most schools its size, WFU has people of widely disparate ethnic, political, religious, and socioeconomic backrounds, and it continues to work hard on diversity.</p>
<p>You are exactly correct as to why AU does not rank as highly as one would guess (“part-time” faculty are penalized, even though they provide a huge real-world experience for students at Georgetown, AU, and GW in particular and are not the typical adjunct or part-time faculty at most other schools; also AU suffers from a low endowment and low alumni giving rates, in part because of a tendency for AU grads/alumni to give to other areas than back to AU–also, AU struggles with being #3 in DC behind Georgetown and GW–I believe that it would be ranked higher if GU and GW didn’t exist). AU students are more cosmopolitan, politically active, diverse (in terms of demographics but also culturally and philosophically) than what you will find at Wake Forest. It certainly makes a huge difference educationally to be in DC than in NC–people can do summer internships or a semester in DC, but there is nothing like the opportunities to go to school and intern/work/take advantage of DC during the academic year–summers and “semester in DC” cannot compare. Finally, I’d rather be at the solid #3 school in DC than be at the #3 or #4 school in NC (behind Duke, Davidson, and UNC-Chapel Hill).</p>
<p>Note that since then, AU registered an acceptance rate significantly below 50% for the class entering in 2010, and I expect that this will help rankings in the future…provided that AU maintains or improves upon this year’s 43% rate.</p>
<p>Another reason why WF came off the list of schools for my S is the reputation for grade deflation. My S is an ROTC candidate. Based on everything we learned so far, when an ROTC cadet is finally commissioned into the active duty, GPA plays a very important role in getting or not getting the kind of position/career path in the Army. Army rank orders everybody and assigns the most coveted positions based on the ranking score. AND, Army is strictly number driven, so much so that Podunk Univ 3.6 trumps MIT 3.5. </p>
<p>It sounds very mercenary, but we have to think ahead about things like this because it could make a difference of S getting his dream “job” in the Army or not after working hard for four years. ROTC already requires 10-20 hours a week. If he had to work in a system known for grade deflation, this is not a good news. (For this reason Boston Univ came off S’2 list too).</p>
<p>By the way, I hear that law school admission works the same way. Just raw number GPA and LSAT largely determine the admissions outcome, regardless of which school the candidate comes out of.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: My S is a HS senior applying to schools. AU is on his list, but we in no way have anything to do with AU, and have no direct experience or observation. Just results of some research he and I have done so far.</p>
<p>@lizmane, I failed to mention that another of the factors in my D’s choice of AU was that, while WFU gives credit for APs at about the same rate as AU (something like 30 hours at each school, and she had 67 hrs. of credit), at Wake APs cannot satisfy divisional (general education) requirements. This meant that to use her APs, she would have exhausted roughly 30 hours of electives or made a minor/double major much more difficult. This weighed heavily in her decision. At UNC or UVa she would have been able to use almost all of her 67 hrs., but she really wanted a smaller school and had no interest in limiting her college experience to two years. AU was a reasonable compromise.</p>
<p>AU is very well managed financially. Of all universities, they have some of the best bond ratings, and their investments were not affected by the stock market (unlike many other private universities). Despite the economic downturn, they were running a surplus. In 2009, the trustees voted to use the surplus to expand the teaching staff.</p>
<p>The political emphasis at AU is really strong. It seems like half the kids I met who are friends with my son are either studying political science or in the School of International Studies. The whole campus feels very political, and yes, it is very liberal.</p>
<p>Because it is in DC and easy for people to get to, AU is successful at getting a lot of interesting people to speak on campus. Just as an example, Rudy Guiliani will be speaking there later in Oct (I know, he’s not a liberal, but that’s just the next speaker).</p>
<p>@hoyasaxa1, I don’t put much stock in USN&WR rankings, but WFU passed UNC this year. Still, UNC is an amazing value for in-state students.</p>
<p>I honestly think the four NC schools you mention are so different that their relative rankings are pretty meaningless. Same for the three DC schools. Anyone who bases their choice on the rankings is doing themselves a great disservice. My D was accepted to six top 30s and AU. She chose AU, and I think it was a wise choice.</p>
<p>@katytibbs, I hate to be so cynical, but you and all of your co-workers can hear Rudy Giuliani (and Colin Powell and Zig Ziglar and maybe even George W. Bush) at a Get Motivated! seminar for $9.95. Rudy is less relevant than the USN&WR rankings. :-)</p>
<p>Rudy Guiliani is not really my point, I wish I had a clearer example, but, unfortunately, he’s the next speaker they have scheduled. They are always having politicos come speak. I am not into politics so I don’t remember any of the names, but while we were down there last year, my son’s roommates were ushers at a political event (might have been the head of the Republican National Committee). And of course, Obama spoke there during his campaign.</p>
<p>Thank you to all who offered insight in this thread! I am applying to both schools, and as different as they may be, I feel as if I can be equally happy at both AU and WFU.</p>