<p>Hey guys, I’m a rising senior in high school, and I’m really into international relations. I speak 5 languages, I’m learning 2 more, I’ve interned at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, so yeah, the whole international thing really appeals to me :)</p>
<p>My question is, does anyone know how good of a name American actually has among people in the IR field? Is the SIS really as good as AU students say?</p>
<p>I’ve heard some people on here say that AU students are kidding themselves about how good SIS actually is, and that it’s not very well-respected when compared to the programs at Georgetown, JHU, Columbia, Tufts, etc.</p>
<p>Is it worth $50,000? Is the education really that good? Is SIS’ reputation really that good? Or do AU students tend to over-hype it?</p>
<p>Make of this what you will. Many of the programs ranked (which were ranked by faculty and IR professionals) don’t even have IR programs. You’ll see that it ranked with JHU, and that GW-Elliott doesn’t crack the top 20.</p>
<p>The important thing is that the rankings are by IR professionals.</p>
<p>The other thing to be said about AU is that 1) it is in DC, and 2) it is the largest IR program. In the vast majority of other IR programs, even the highly ranked ones, the possibility of in-term internships is close to nil. And because AU is the largest, the pool of internship contacts, and experiences to be drawn upon is also the largest (as well as there being the largest number of course offerings.) The attraction of DC (this is true for all the DC schools) is that there are possibilities for faculty doing real work in the field - my d. made good friends with a senior official at the World Bank, and parlayed that into a great internship which seems to be leading to a career.</p>
<p>Just one word: Internships. AU kids, on average, have at least 3 different internships before graduations (some paid, most unpaid). These sometimes lead to employment but all provide valuable contacts and experience. Living in DC is definitely an advantage. Ask yourself: Do I want to work in the field, or just be an academic? AU kids get real world work experience.</p>
<p>Thanks guys. I was hoping to get into the honors program at AU until I saw the criteria lol. AU’s still my first choice school, and I guess I did forget about the internships.
Another question, how do other schools like Georgetown look at AU in terms of AU applicants wanting to get their masters in IR from Georgetown?</p>
<p>Is going from AU to Georgetown for grad school easy?</p>
<p>I’m not sure going to Georgetown for graduate school is easy, no matter where you go to college. But graduating from AU will not be an impediment if you’ve done well in college.</p>
<p>If you are a candidate for admission to Georgetown SFS, Tufts, Columbia, etc., you should be a competitive candidate for AU’s honors program as well.</p>
<p>I’m not much of a candidate for any of those schools or the honors program at AU.
I have a 3.7 unweighted, 4.2 weighted, 2180. On all the honors program threads on here, people with much more impressive stats are saying they got rejected. The only thing that might give me the boost for the other schools are my EC’s, which apparently aren’t considered for the AU honors program, soooo :/</p>
<p>Well, depending on how your scores break down, you may be a candidate. They look for the top 15% of students based on academic record (which includes the rigor of your course schedule as well as the grades you got) and test scores. If you have >1400 on CR + M (they don’t look at Writing), you may be in the top 15% of applicants.</p>
<p>Also, I kind of don’t understand your original question. If you don’t think you can get accepted to Tufts, Columbia, or Georgetown, what difference does it make how AU stacks up? If it’s the best IR program you can get into, then cataloguing the ways in which it might or might not be as good as programs you can’t get into seems to be of limited value.</p>
<p>My son had a 3.6 in his academic courses, a 97 the way his school calculated weighted GPA and a 93 unweighed. His SAT score was 2140 over all, 1480 though with just CR and M. He got a presidential scholarship offer and admissions to the honors program. He ended up going to Tufts, but he really, really liked American. One of his best friends from high school did go to American and is very happy there.</p>
<p>Desk Potato, good point. I need to try to stop worrying about these things. Also, do you know if AU looks at writing at all for general admission? Do they only ignore it for the honors program? I got an 800 on writing, so that would be a pretty big blow
And guys, I have one more question.
I have a choice between taking AP Human Geography or AP Comparative Gov next year, which should I take? (Human Geo is basically AP sociology)
I know both are important for IR, but Human Geo has a reputation of being a bit of a joke AP.
Comp Gov will be harder, and I have a pretty packed senior year already, but should I take it instead, since it’s basically exactly along the lines of international relations?</p>
<p>Mathmom: Your post was making me happy until I saw his M+CR score. That’s what put him through, 1480 is insane! That’s 100 more than mine. I think I’m just going to try to get into the honors program for sophomore year.</p>
<p>read AU’s AP credit list – I believe Comp Gov will satisfy either/or a SIS major requirement or a Gen Ed requirement. I don’t think Human Geo will do either. </p>
<p>It was the AP credit policy that tipped the scales in AU’s favor over D’s other choices. Whatever schools you are looking at, it’s worth understanding. Some schools only give elective credit for AP scores. At AU, D got 30 credits for AP’s and was able to satisfy several gen ed classes and her college English requirement. </p>
<p>D had stats similar to yours and did not get in to the honors program on admission but at the end of her freshman year she self nominated and got in.</p>
<p>I think self nominating is a great idea. If you love the school, don’t stress about getting into Honors as a freshman. Many people get merit money without honors. For Honors as a freshman it is strictly by the numbers. My daughter scored a 2200 on the SAT but “only” a 1420 on the math and verbal sections; it was her higher ACT score that got her into Honors. Many people who would excel in Honors do not get in as freshman.</p>
<p>And while the Honors program may be great, it is not the be-all-end-all. My d., who just graduated, was named top senior in her department (and received a nice cash award upon graduation) despite there having been quite a few honors students in her department, and she was not.</p>
<p>saman42: If you are serious about getting into to Georgetown, reach deep into your list of relatives to find any legacy connection you can mention–even if it’s a great aunt (though that’s a stretch). Legacy is HUGE at this school.</p>
<p>Don’t be discouraged about the honors program I just came to American this fall as a freshman and I was admitted. I had a 3.6 GPA and a 30 on my ACT but I took mostly AP classes and came in with 16 credits… I think my grades and scores were pretty average but I got into the program. In addition since there’s no separate application for the program there’s definitely no reason to be discouraged and from what I’m seeing with many of my friends in the beginning of the semester they wanted to join honors but sometimes the first semester is hard and difficult to adjust to so they probably won’t be applying to the program after sophomore year but will wait until they are able to bring up their GPA!</p>
<p>AP credits tipped it for me. IMO, no undergrad program is WORTH $50k. I got the Dean’s Scholarship (15k/yr) but I had an unweighted GPA of like a 3.4. I don’t remember if I submitted test scores but I got a 34 on my ACT and a 2100 on my SAT, 2170 superscored, and a 1410 CR/Math. My extracurriculars, work experience were nothing spectacular. Idk about my recommendations, but I don’t expect they were particularly great. Despite my low grades in the classes, I did do well on my APs and got a full 25 credits coming in. The possibility of being able to graduated early or at least get beginning courses out of the way was what made me choose AU. It was that or GWU for me, but the 60k price tag was a bit much!</p>
