<p>Hey everyone, I am a rising sophomore at AU, (in SIS, CAS, Kogod) here to answer anything that I can 
I noticed one of these types of threads hadn’t been made in a while, I figured I’d come help out incoming freshmen and their parents with questions about academics/dorms/campus life/specific classes/ the school in general. So ask me anything and I’ll do my best to answer :)</p>
<p>Congrats on AU everyone!</p>
<p>do you happen to know anything about the music business program at American?</p>
<p>The B.S. in Business and Music (BAM) is a joint program between Kogod and College of Arts and Sciences. It requires 36 credits of business classes (accounting, management, finance, information technology, and international business). The 36 credit business core is set, meaning there in’t much flexibility in it, but it really encompasses the basics of business that any type of business major should take.</p>
<p>The major also requires 36 music credits. These are a bit more flexible. You’ll take musicianship, performing arts:music, and applied music (ensambles, private music session etc.)</p>
<p>You will also have general requirements like a statistics class and macro/micro economics. Overall the major is 86 credits (ten of the of them overlap with your general education requirements, so it’s really 76.)</p>
<p>Given that this is one of the largest majors at AU, you’ll have to plan your schedule carefully.</p>
<p>My experience with Kogod is that it is not insanely hard. Not to say that the business courses are easy, but as a general rule if you actually do the work you will be fine. Usually they don’t require too much reading -its more about applying concepts. With many of the business classes there will be group projects/work so I would suggest making friends early in the classes.</p>
<p>There really is no way to determine how hard the music classes are, since it’s not about intelligence so much as talent. I do know they are no joke, but as a general rule the teachers care more about you learning than giving out grades.</p>
<p>As with any Kogod program, yo’ll have good academic advisors and probably a lot of internships to apply to (some internships are through AU alumni and are just for Kogod students.) </p>
<p>Hope this helps. :)</p>
<p>Hi,
In your description you mention you are in SIS CAS and Kogod. Does this mean you are triple majoring within the three schools? Also, can you describe your typical thurs-sunday night at AU, both with on campus parties and DC? Do students like staying and partying on campus or venturing out more to DC. Also, are students generally friendly or are cliques quickly formed and exclusive.</p>
<p>Hi to you too, kingsquirrel :)</p>
<p>Yes I am triple majoring between the three schools - its difficult in terms of scheduling but it is doable (I did come in with about 40 AP credits though and that helped a lot). There is some nice overlap between my CAS Computer Information Systems major and my Kogod Business major (my focus is IT). SIS is actually a deceptively manageable major (given that 18 credits of it ovelap with your genEd requirements and another 4 overlap with your university math requirement). Tripling is of course not the norm and is not usually possible (due to it being too many credits) - I was jus fortunate in AP credit and course overlap between majors.</p>
<p>Double majoring is quite common at AU however. The programs are managable so most people can double major while staying within 120 credits and graduate on time. Unless you pick a huge major like the Business and Music, or Business, Lanuage, Culture (both of which are about 80 credits), doubling shouldnt be a hassle - just some careful planning.</p>
<p>Generally on weeknights like thursday, people will do on-campus things: dorm parties, frats(which I guess ar technically off campus but still 
), on-campus concerts, cultural events, watch the political speakers that come or maybe do some relaxing hookah in the amphitheater by Leonard and McDowell Halls. During the week, I spent most of my nights with friends - my floor was fun and we generally had fun on our floor most week nights. Especially for early in the year this is good bonding with the people you might want to spend your weekends with.</p>
<p>Weekends are more off-campus oriented. I know AU has things to do at night on the weekends, but in all honestly most students party off campus on the weekends. After all, no school can compete with the offerings of one of the most exciting cities in DC. Lots of people go clubbing, to hookah bars, off-campus apartment parties, raves, etc. Honestly ther are so many options and the metro can take you just about anywhere. Overall, I would say AU kids generally reserve the hardest partying for the weekend- when the weekend comes, literally everyone goes out. </p>
<p>I haven’t found the students to be very clique-oriented at all. My experience has been that everyone is pretty friendly. The only clique I can say that definitely exists is the floor clique. Students usually bond with their floors pretty quickly during welcome week, since they all live together and are in the same “OMG we are in college, how exciting/scary” boat. So you will likely spend a lot of your first two or three weeks with your floor (likely some of your best friends will be from your floor). Once people start classes and join clubs etc. everyone branches out of course. I have found the clubs to be very open and accepting of new members as well. Other than the possible floor clique (which honestly isn’t very exclusive since everyone begins bringing in their other friends) I dont find cliques to be too common at all. Almost everyone I’ve met around campus has been friendly and sociable. </p>
<p>If you are doing Disover DC or FSE these are also great ways to quickly met people who arent on your floor. (I didn’t do either and still made lots of friends, but I know lots of people who made some of their best friends this way). If you are worried about cliques or anything though, my advice would be to let loose a bit on welcome week - try new things, get to know new people. </p>
<p>Hope this helps. 
Congrats on AU!</p>
<p>thanks that was very informative!
I have one more question though: how does having a dry campus influence fun at home. Do a lot of students get in trouble?</p>
<p>How hard would it be to double major in Political Science and Business? I kmow double majorimg isn’t “easy” but how hard would it be in comparison to other majors? And what made you pick AU?</p>
<p>kingsquirrel:</p>
<p>Honestly “dry campus” essentially translates to “be smart about your on-campus drinking.” While AU is a dry campus, lots of kids drink in the dorms on a regular basis and get away with it. How? They are smart about it. They don’t get hammered and run wildly screaming down the hall. As long as you are in a room (not the lounge or kitchen of course but someone’s room) and are not obscenely loud, you would probably easily get away with it. When it comes down to it, the only one really there to enforce the dry campus rule is your RA. Even then most RAs will look the other way as long as you aren’t running out of the dorm drunk off your ass. </p>
<p>Kids have gotten in trouble before but it’s usually because they were sloshed and running all over the place babbling loudly (or something similar). As a general rule the RAs don’t want to bust you (unless you are so drunk that you are a danger to yourself) so plausible deniability gets many kids off the hook.</p>
<p>It should be noted though that my freshman year consisted of all integrated floors (my floor was basically half freshman, half sophomores). But due to revised school policy, next year the freshman will all be living together on South Campus. So they might be cracking down a bit harder - to stop the incessant welcome week drinking by freshman. Likely there won’t be much if any crackdown, but the living dynamic has changed since last year so I just wanted to get that out there.</p>
<p>So overall, dry campus doesn’t really influence the fun at home, though I know many students just prefer to drink off campus where they don’t have to worry at all. Basically both options are open. It should be noted that you can’t technically get in trouble with AU if you drink off campus and return still drunk. Given that, many students just prefer drinking off campus (especially on fri/saturday nights).</p>
<p>EliKresses:</p>
<p>Political Science is a 58 credit major while Business when you add it all up is 75 credits. Don’t panick though it’s actually not as bad as it seems. It’s all about managing credits.</p>
<p>I would say this is not an easy option compared to other double majors, but it’s also not the hardest. </p>
<p>Firstly there is some overlap between the two. STAT-202 Basic Statistics counts for both. For your Poltitical Science major, you need to pick a 12 credit social science focus - if you pick Economics you can double count macro and micro economics with you business major - so now we are up to 10 credits of overlap. (macro and micro also fulfill your Gen Ed area 4 requirements as well).</p>
<p>The other thing is that 12 credits of the business major is a business focus (finance, marketing, IT, accounting, international business, management, etc.). With a double major, Kogod will waive your 12 credit focus - so potentially thats 12 fewer credits you’d have to take. I personally would suggest doing the 12 credit concentration anyway as it really gives your degree some focus (I just wanted you to know the option is there to waive it if you want).</p>
<p>For Business, you also need to take Caluculus I or Applied Calculus I. If you could place into one of these from the start that would help a lot too.</p>
<p>So with 10 credits of overlap, you’d have 123 credits to complete plus your Gen Ed classes.(Unless you choose not to do a focus for you business major, this raises to 22 credits of overlap.) If you didnt come in with AP credit, this double major could be a bit tricky. As long as you are willing to take more than 15 credits a semester (some semesters you’ll likely have to take 18) then you should be fine. From what I have heard (as well as my experience), most Kogod classes aren’t killer in terms of giving a lot of work, so it should be managable. Generally Kogod classes don’t entail great amounts of reading compared to other departments and don’t have a lot of tedious homework assignments (except the IT courses which are full of homeworks. They are easy homeworks but still.)</p>
<p>So if you start college and find you can’t handle more than 15 credits a semester, this could prove difficult. But if you can handle more than 15, you should be more than fine to finish this double major. Any of the business majors are a little more work to double major with since there usually isnt much overlap with other schools, since the business classes are so specialized. </p>
<p>You can definitely do it though. It’s a marketable double major to be sure. The best thing to do is talk to your advisor about it as soon as possible so he/she can map everything out. I don’t personally know much about the SPA advisors, but I have met with some of the Kogod ones and they are excellent. They will work with you and probably find ways to double count credits that I don’t even know about (I was unaware of the possibility to not do the 12 credit concentration until they told me - and theres lots of little things like this that aren’t written anywhere officially, so the advisors know best). Sometimes they allow double majors to skip certain classes (like SIS is letting me skip a senior seminar because of my Kogod major). Basically the rule at AU is if you plan it early enough, you can pretty much double major in anything. </p>
<p>Hope this helps :)</p>
<p>Ooops sorry I didnt answer your last question did I?</p>
<p>I chose AU for a few reasons:</p>
<p>1) The great International Relations program. It allowed greatere flexibility than other IR programs I saw (such as Georgetown’s which didnt allow for a minor or second major - not for lack of credits mind you, just on principle). I added my other majors later so they really weren’t a factor in my decision.</p>
<p>2) Washington DC. In addition to the great nightlife of clubs, restaurants, hookah bars, cultural events, concerts (Gaga at the Verizon Center!); there is also the unmatchable internship opportunities (especially for SIS and SPA). </p>
<p>3) I liked the small campus vibe. The population was small enough that you always see people you know, but large enough that you don’t know everyone. For me that struck the right balance of intimacy and “big college” feel.</p>
<p>4) The intellectual vibe. People at AU are intelligent folks who can hold a good conversation. For me there was a good balance of acaemic drive and the fun-loving college atnmosphere. Basically lots of driven people who know how to work hard/play hard.</p>
<p>5) AU just seemed like an accepting place - and it is. Whatever you cultural background, religion, political views, sexual orientation etc. I knew it would give me the opportunity to meet diverse people.</p>
<p>Thank you so much! I’d had AU on my college list for a good while, but after hearing this it’s just jumped up a good bit(:</p>
<p>how promiscuous are students? are frat parties the place where one would go to to experience this good ol fashioned college fun?</p>
<p>Hey! Thanks for doing this… Is the male:female ratio as bad as everyone says it is? Because I love AU but I’m afraid that there will be a ridiculous amount of girls.</p>
<p>What are the dorms like?</p>
<p>^^ I too would like to know what are the nicest dorms, also how is the social life, did everyone leave their door open the first week wanting to meet new people? Is it easy to make friends? How often do you go out and explore DC?</p>
<p>how good are the finance-related internships? are they difficult to get?</p>
<p>Yes, I have a question that I hope you don’t mind answering. This regards room & board. I am a prospective student. Does AU require a student to live on campus during freshman year? (I believe this is the case, but I was wondering if you could confirm this for me.) Regarding sophomore year, may a student find his/her housing off campus, and if so, does that mean that the student then pays just tuition (and pays for his/her own housing on the side, without paying room & board to AU?) I understand that GW requires a student to pay room & board both freshman and sophomore year, but after that the student is free to find housing on his/her own. Thanks for any clarification that you can offer!</p>