<p>ND Irish-- </p>
<p>Parties exist of various "qualities." Usually off campus b/c AU is a "dry" campus. Often sponsored by fraternities/ sororities/ sports teams. Students usually leave for parties from South Side. It's also fairly easy to go clubbing in DC.</p>
<p>@ Expat. I would say that the domestic population is more homogeneous-- mostly white. There are also more than a few who have immigrated to the US or have lived in other countires. Nationality wise, there are AU students from all over the world. They really bring another dimension to class discussion.</p>
<p>Aeria, We're getting a new website soon. Maybe it will be more useful. </p>
<p>1) Not long. Five minutes or so. Leonard is the least centrically located of all freshmen dorms, because residents have to walk through the amphitheater to get to the quad. I wouldn't worry about the distance to the SIS building because until the new SIS building is built most SIS classes won't be in the SIS building. </p>
<p>2) All different sorts. There are some who like to party, but definitely fewer than south side. One RA told me that Hughes is the easiest Hall to RA for. </p>
<p>3) The noise level of Leonard or Hughes really depends on the floor.</p>
<p>4) Leonard is not centrally located. It is the (temporary) home of the on campus preschool. Domestic students either love living Leonard, the international dorm, or find it cliquish. Some might find Hughes boring because of the lack of action. </p>
<p>5) Anderson has the biggest dorms, and I am pretty sure it was renovated the most recently. South side has study rooms but north side doesn't. South side dorms are closest to the library. McDowell and Letts have fitness centers.</p>
<p>Obviously, if you are in UC, you won't have a choice where you live for first semester.</p>
<p>Hi! I know AU students are exposed to good internship opportunities in DC. These are usually for those taking politics, business etc. What about for those majoring in science?</p>
<p>Coolmango, thanks for the response, it helped clear some things up for me. </p>
<p>You mention not having a choice on dorms if in the UC program:</p>
<p>Do only some halls participate in UC? I'm wondering, then - if a dorm is picked on the Housing Agreement and the student is admitted into a UC seminar in a different dorm, does an override of the Housing Agreement choice occur? Can students be considered for seminars in dorms which they didn't indicate amongst the first 3 Housing Agreement choices? (In other words, are these choices flexible/adjustable?)</p>
<p>As far as I know, there are UC floors in every dorm. </p>
<p>An admittance to an UC program is independent of housing preference and will override any housing choice you have made.</p>
<p>@CD.</p>
<p>The NIH is nearby as well as the Smithsonian. I'm sure there are other places. You probably haven't heard of a lot of science majors having internships during the school year because science labs take up a ton of time.</p>
<p>How accepting of diversity is the school population?
Coming from Hawaii, we are considered a melting pot and virtually everyone gets along. There is no room for prejudice and racism here, can you say the same for the school and Washington D.C. in general?</p>
<p>Ebaniaga, AU and DC are overall diverse, multi cultural, and accepting places. The exception at AU might be politically, where a few might give conservatives grief (especially during election year).</p>
<p>I know Greek life is minimal and the campus is “dry”, but really, is the campus actually dry?
Also, how accessible are the professors? Are they pretty easy to talk to and such, or do they tend to be just your average teacher? Also (sorry lots of questions), how challenging are the academics compared to other schools??</p>
<p>@silly, There are certainly students who drink on campus, but the majority of drinking happens off campus because students get in big trouble for drinking on campus. I’m pretty sure dry campuses don’t exist in the US except for the military academies and colleges with a very strong religious affiliation. </p>
<p>Most of my professors have been great, and I have gotten quite close to several of them. One of my friends baby sits the children of a professor. Many professors have “real jobs” in the field they are teaching. </p>
<p>The difficulty of one’s schedule depends mostly on what classes you take, and who the professor is at any school. AU is often in GW’s shadow, but AU is a strong, challenging school in its own right.</p>
<p>My DS got a great scholarship offer from American (and honors), making this the lowest cost school on his list, so he is heavily considering it. Other schools he was accepted in are UMD-CP, Northeastern and SUNY-Binghamton. (Also Rutgers- the state school but eh won’t consider going there.) His potential majors are Math, Econ or Business (Finance or Management). I know Math is not strong at AU, how about Econ? I read good stuff about the Business School, so that might be a possiblity. But how does that work? I know in other schools (like UMich and UMD-CP) you need to apply to the business school with your freshman app (which he did not) or then you can transfer later but it is more difficult. How does admission to the Business School at at AU work?</p>
<p>You can transfer easily (just a few papers to sign) after first-term grades.</p>
<p>American is seriously becoming my #1 choice more and more everyday but I’m kind of worried…I’ve been hearing alot about the large gay male population and the pretty unbalanced male/female ratio @ AU so…</p>
<p>How friendly is the dating scene @ AU to a straight (pretty! 
) female???</p>
<p>A pretty girl? In Washington DC (0r for that matter, anywhere)? Are you kidding? I don’t see this as a problem</p>
<p>Well that ratio certainly helps us straight average looking males out</p>
<p>“Well that ratio certainly helps us straight average looking males out”</p>
<p>music to my ears … haha</p>
<p>Do, or do you know, students who transfer out from AU to better schools like Ivy’s and the top 20 for instance . Stanford, Duke etc…? Does it happen often, hows the possibility?</p>
<p>I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: if you’re entertaining thoughts of transferring before you even show up for your first class, then don’t go to AU. Period.</p>
<p>That would be a silly form of thinking. For the first year or so, you’ll spend a lot of time fulfilling your gen. ed. requirements. In following years, you may be taken up with internships around DC, you will have greater selection in courses (and professors), you may decide to live off campus to experience more of DC, etc. I would expect those are precisely the times you’d want to be at AU.</p>