Does American take the major you declare on your application into consideration for admission? If so, Is the CLEG major really competitive? What about the International Studies major?
My daughter was accepted ED1 into the CLEG major in the School of Public Affairs. My understanding is that the School of International Service (SIS) is one of the most popular programs at AU and gets the most apps. This means there are more students competing for a limited number of slots making it “more competitive” than say CLEG. However, I’m also told that accepted CLEG major students are typically higher stat kids than SIS but have fewer applications into the major than SIS. So the short answer is that if you are a high stats applicant, CLEG “might” be slightly easier to get accepted into than a more popular major like SIS. Good luck to you!
At American once you are accepted, you are accepted to all schools. You are not required to declare your major until your sophomore year. Unless you are applying to a special academic program like the 3 year PPL (you have to start in this program to finish in 3 years), you can change your major once admitted. I’m not sure how much weight is put on your major choice at the time of application. My DS (2022) was accepted ED with a CLEG major and was in the top 25% of the applicant pool.
@GraniteLand is your DD 2022 also or she already attending?
@sahmkc My daughter will be class of 2022. She has also applied for the PPL program but she won’t find out about that until later in the Spring. My wife is also an AU alum who double majored Spanish & International Relations (SIS) so there is a lot of Eagle pride in our home.
Awesome - Our kids will probably get to know each other as CLEG is a small program. My son was initially interested in SIS, but when he heard about the CLEG program during our visit, he knew that it was the perfect fit for him. We were thrilled when he was accepted because he really was not excited about any other school. He applied to the Honors program, but we are realistic about those chances and hope to land in the AU Scholars if he is not accepted.
sahmkc thanks for your reply! We are late to the game at AU because my daughter thought she wanted a big SEC/Big 12 school and now thinks she may need something smaller. We have not visited AU, but she loved the idea of the CLEG major. We are from the “flyover states.” If you have a minute, what makes your son excited about AU and the CLEG program? My daughter is an amazing writer and is targeting political speechwriting. Do you think a student from the flyover states will fit in at AU?