<p>My son just returned from an overnight Admitted Students visit April 3-4. He still thinks American is the school for him despite the fact that, during his stay, he encountered three current freshmen who are transferring elsewhere next year. The first two, were the roommates that American placed him with to spend the night. Why would the school place a prospective student with two students who are unhappy and want to transfer? The third was a girl he met on campus. The fact that my son came in contact with three transfers during a twenty-four period concerns me. Is this just a coincidence, or is it prevalent at AU? Any advice would be much appreciated as I’m apprehensive about depositing at AU at this point. Thank you.</p>
<p>This sort of thing, in various versions, has come up on CC before – i.e., a school that manages to present itself pretty poorly on one of their ASD’s or scholarship-interview weekends. As you said, it makes no sense that they’d place your son with two kids planning to transfer. Doesn’t speak well for whoever’s running the show. So, besides the obvious concern, it’s also worrisome that the school’s admissions office doesn’t have its act together. . . As you asked, the question is whether it should be a dealbreaker or not. . . I’d be very concerned. Can you look up transfer rates on the Common Data Set?</p>
<p>First of all, I’m an AU junior and I’m going to be honest. It’s not a coincidence. AU’s [Academic</a> Reference Book](<a href=“http://www.american.edu/provost/oira/upload/ADRB-2013-14-web-version.pdf]Academic”>http://www.american.edu/provost/oira/upload/ADRB-2013-14-web-version.pdf) states on page 57 that from Fall 2009 to Fall 2012 freshmen retention fell from 90.7% to 88.2% (going down each year) and transfer retention fell from 86.3% to 81.0% (going down each year). </p>
<p>As a senior, I can tell you that I’ve had some thoughts of transferring early on as a freshman because of AU’s campus climate. As you’ve likely heard, AU definitely caters to a different student population and it makes students want to feel like they want to transfer. I stuck it out and I feel great. Unfortunately, I don’t know why students still want to transfer out or why retention is so low. As a parent, you must be worried, but I think it’s not a deal breaker in my opinion if your S identifies with the students and campus life at AU. </p>
<p>The issue lies with the AU Ambassadors program. AU didn’t purposely place your S with two students who wanted to transfer… That should not have happened. Unfortunately, this happened because AU administration allows for a student run program, AU Ambassadors, to run on-campus tours and overnight stays. The overnight program allows for one person to host the prospective student and the other one or two roommates aren’t screened. If anything, this allows for your S to see AU up close. To be fair, AU Ambassadors can’t screen everyone anyways. </p>
<p>AU needs to work on retention, but I think the administration is more focused on other key issues. But you’re right – compared to nearby schools like GW and Georgetown who have 93 and 96 percent retention rates, respectively, AU could use some work. </p>
<p>Best of luck with your decision!</p>
<p>I can think of a couple of reasons for the transfer rate - both tied to money. Students come to AU thinking that they will get a large amount of financial aid and then don’t. Often, these students will attend but graduate in three years if they came in with enough AP credits. Or they come to the school and although they may be happy, they realize they can be just as happy at their state school and graduate with less debt. My daughter knows people who fall into both of these categories. She doesn’t know anyone who transferred because they were unhappy with the school or the program, but I am sure some people fall into that category as well. </p>
<p>bk4972b my son seriously considering AU and its the ONE school we did not visit and probably won’t get to. what do you mean by AU definitely caters to a different student population and it makes students want to feel like they want to transfer. PM me if you need to. </p>
<p>I would like to know the answer to that as well (“AU definitely caters to a different student population.”)</p>
<p>AS others noted above, a lot of kids leave schools like AU because it is expensive. AU is expensive and DC is also an expensive city. I also think some students lose their merit aid–there is so much to do that sometimes students forget that academics is Job #1.</p>
<p>AU is a school that offers a different experience than a more traditional school, such as a large state school. Some students come to AU thinking they want that experience and then, upon trial, decide that the experience doesn’t fit as well as expected.</p>
<p>For example, if a student wants the experience of being part of a big group that does everything together all the time–that’s not going to be the experience at AU. My son who just graduated loved AU, and he has a group of great friends, but it’s not like they all had to be together all the time. The student who won’t go to the dining hall alone because he has no one to go with won’t do well at AU. It’s not that students don’t go to the dining hall together–a lot of the time they do!-- but a student who is uncomfortable because his schedule is different than his besties might not be happy.</p>
<p>The students also tend to be confident and ambitious and this can be a bit intimidating–I know that sometimes my son felt like everyone else had it more together than he did! Students are all about their internships and they quickly pick up a polish that can also intimidate. My son came home after first semester wanting a new wardrobe for Chanukah for going after the internships he was interested in as soon as he got back to school. Table time conversation includes the usual college talk about friends and what’s going on around campus–and also what’s going on at work, who you’ve met, and what internship you might go after next, and what’s going on in politics…</p>
<p>The fact that most students do have internships makes them masters of time management. As serious students, they learn that they have to get their work done, and done well, in time limited by everything else they are involved in. One semester my son was working a (paid) internship 20 hours a week, taking 18 hours of classes, playing club soccer, an officer in his fraternity, and heavily involved in a charitable group that he has been involved in for several years. When he had time to breathe–he headed to the library. he had very little down time that semester–and it was fairly typical of most of his semesters, and most of his friends’ schedules as well. He would schedule activities with his friend–dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, runs at 6 a.m. He didn’t have much time for just hanging around the dorm.</p>
<p>A student who needs more down time might not like this kind of pace.</p>
<p>My son also developed different groups of friends, some from his floor, some from his classes or activities like soccer, and also some from his internships, where he became friends with the people he worked with. For example, he still meets monthly for lunch with his boss from an internship he worked his sophomore year. Of course, all of his friends had many groups of friends as well. So you have to learn not to take it personally if your friend is doing something with a different group sometimes, that it’s not that he is rejecting you on a personal basis by going to a party that you are not invited to on a Saturday night.</p>
<p>Some students think that they really want to go to school in DC and “do DC” with all the bells and whistles, and then discover that they would really like to hang around a fraternity house (and AU doesn’t have those) and go to a football game on the weekend (AU doesn’t have any of those either).</p>
<p>It’s not that one experience is better or worse than the other, it’s what a student is seeking.</p>
<p>I can’t comment on the retention rate, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect either Admissions or the Ambassadors to know who’s contemplating transferring, considering that admissions decisions for transferees have probably just issued and the students intending to transfer may not have chosen their transfer school yet, much less notified American that they aren’t returning. As for the two transferring roommates agreeing to house a prospie, well, you have to wonder what they were thinking. Sounds like an attempt at sabotage by some bitter students.</p>
<p>We haven’t done any overnights there, but we were surprised they had freshmen leading the tour groups. That makes it hard to get a good idea what the later years will be like. I would like to see what older students say, so the student comments here are very helpful.</p>