I have gotten into both of these school. I love both of them equally i dont know this is the hardest decision i have ever made i need some help.
Washington DC has a lot to offer. Do you think you would enjoy living in a city?
i just visited dickinson college yesterday for accepted students day. loved it. my son is waitlist at au and really wants to go there. i would rather see him go to this gem of a school at dickinson. i would like to get info on the who actually teaches the students at AU – is it TA’s or actual professors There are not TA’s teaching the students at dickinson. a big plus for Dickinson!
Yes, AU has a lot of TA’s and Adjuncts. You can email and ask for the number of tenured and tenure-track professors, make the student: faculty ratio, and compare to the “official” ratio to get a good idea of how many instructors aren’t permanent instructors.
I posted this on another thread with pretty much the same question recently (their kid was interested in Poli Sci, one of my daughter’s majors):
"My kid visited American, and attended Dickinson. She was not interested in Greek life or much partying. She sat in on a class at American, and thought it was too easy. The reading was something she happened to have read, and she said it was clear most of the students had not done the reading. She was a Poli Sci major, so liked the DC location, but wasn’t satisfied with the academics.
She had a great experience at Dickinson. She spent a semester on their Washington program, which I think is superior to the programs most other colleges go through. It is through the Washington Center, your D should research it. Her semester internship was with the Dept of State. My D also spent a summer interning for a senator in DC, and had an part time internship while on campus one semester with the US Army War College (also in Carlisle, she heard about it through the Dickinson career office). She also did a senior thesis that was nominated as one of the top 60 undergrad Poli Sci theses in the US that year. So there are a lot of great opportunities at Dickinson."
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It isn’t a great idea to force a kid into the school you prefer over the one he does (of course, he is not in at AU – although last year they did take a pretty good number of the students who accepted spots on the WL – 24 of 73 students. They offered a lot more spots, over 1200, but most students did not take them. I wonder if AU is one of the schools that says no or limited FA for WL students? It seems like a really low number of students taking the WL spots). But in any case, especially if the finances are pretty similar, you are setting yourself up for your kid having a bad attitude toward the school, and blaming you for anything that goes wrong there. Your kid is the one who has to attend and live with it for four years, and with the education he gets for the rest of his life. Many of us have kids who don’t pick the schools we would have picked – but forcing a kid often doesn’t end well. This is really their first big “adult” decision in life – you need to let them make it (within your own financial constraints, of course).
thanks everyone