<p>Accepted</p>
<p>ACT: 33
GPA: 3.8 (uw) 4.5 (w)
ECs: 11 Varsity Letters in 4 years, Piano, Newspaper Editor, etc.</p>
<p>Rejected
SAT Optional<br>
3.56 GPA
Lots of ECs, especially music and historical</p>
<p>Whatever, it wasn’t my top - all the other colleges I was accepted to have been busy getting their offers out way ahead of AU. This just makes my decision quicker!</p>
<p>Accepted
SAT Optional
3.49 GPA
5.89 W</p>
<p>:P</p>
<p>has anyone in the philadelphia area received notice??</p>
<p>Accepted
SAT 1810 (Sent in)
670 CR 510 M 630 W
ACT 27
4.35 GPA
Captain of Varsity Dance Team, Girls’ State Rep, but not many ECs
4 APs in my HS career </p>
<p>Can’t wait to attend this Fall :-)</p>
<p>Waitlisted.
3.4 GPA (bad freshman year, steady upward trend)
2230 SAT
800 CR, 790 W, 640 M
730 Lit SAT II, 650 US History SAT II
APs: World History (5), US History (4), English Language & Composition (5), US Gov. (this year), and taking the Macroeconomics test this year, though not the class.
ECs: Student representative to my school district’s board of directors this year, internship at the state capital with the president of the Firefighter’s Union during legislative session, job at a lawyer’s office, co-founder/co-president of Harry Potter club (which is silly, but it included throwing charity dances and organzing Quidditch matches with other high schools), several years of high school theater, and won a short-play writing contest and it was performed in Seattle and published in an anthology.</p>
<p>Pretty surprised. Pretty bummed.</p>
<p>Waitlisted
SAT 2090
690 CR 720 M 680 W
3.2/3.7 GPA (9 APs/Calc III, Differential Equations, and German Lit at University of Colorado. screwed up freshman year and second semester of junior year because of death in the family, which i explained in a personal statement. i had a 3.9/4.6 last semester.)</p>
<p>VP of german honor society in founding year at my school
soccer
german foreign exchange student
summer art apprenticeship
AP scholar with distinction
tons of other less important ECs and a bunch of not so major awards</p>
<p>honestly, screw AU. they have the single worst admissions process ever. i have $36k waiting for me at syracuse, anyway. at least i didn’t have to think about being in WMP. :)</p>
<p>good luck to anyone else that hasn’t heard yet! :)</p>
<p>Tufts Syndrome much?</p>
<p>Rather than speak badly about the university or invoke Tufts Syndrome, let’s take our decisions and move on. Future applicants can simply note that demonstrated interest is important to American University.</p>
<p>Still NOTHING in Illinois. This is making me really nervous ughh.</p>
<p>honestly, my qualms with american aren’t about the decision they made on my application. they can make whatever decision they want. the reason american’s application process sucks is because they expect you to be so interested in the school, yet they show no interest in their applicants and prospective pool when they let admissions trickle out like this. if the school wants me to spend time showing interest in them, i want some respect in return. otherwise, the whole system they use is hypocritical.</p>
<p>i emailed my admissions officer many times and received particularly cold, one declarative sentence responses to my questions and referrals to links which included none of the specific information i asked for. eventually i gave up on forming a relationship.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt demonstrated interest counts because you basically can’t demonstrate interest on the application. Sure, I logged into a few applicant chats, but that was it. American doesn’t allow room for that with their no-supplement policy. I guess they heavily weight GPA and rigor of curriculum.</p>
<p>According to a news article (NY Times or Washington Post?), AU definitely does track the interest of applicants very carefully. Everything goes into a computer file - visits, chats, etc. </p>
<p>Most importantly, if you live within a reasonable distance, and they don’t have a record of you visiting the college, that is a negative. </p>
<p>In comparison, UVa says they don’t do any tracking of student interest.</p>
<p>lullinatalk - read this [American</a> University and the Dynamics of Demonstrated Interest](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/the-dynamics-of-demonstrated-interest/24288]American”>http://chronicle.com/blogs/headcount/the-dynamics-of-demonstrated-interest/24288)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I absolutely do believe that demonstrated interest counts a lot at AU.</p>
<p>I hesitated to say this earlier, because I do not want to rub salt in open wounds, but since people who want to apply to AU in 2011 or 2012 may read this thread (if they haven’t already been put off by the ham-handed way AU has bungled notifications this year), I will offer a piece of advice that’s too late for this year’s applicants:</p>
<p>In 2010-11 there was no AU supplement to the Common App, and therefore no way to write a “Why AU?” essay via the Common App. But this year at least, AU also had its own proprietary application on its web page, and that application did include a “Why AU?” essay. My kid used the Common App for some other schools, but not for AU because she wanted to answer “Why AU?” It looked like a way to show AU the love. She got a favorable result to her AU application. Not really evidence, of course. Just an anecdote. Take it for what it’s worth.</p>
<p>I do hope I haven’t made people who were disappointed by (and in some cases, treated shabbily by) AU this spring feel worse. It was never my intention.</p>
<hr>
<p>@ gbworms: Interesting article!</p>
<p>One other thing that those going through the application process my consider is the history of your own HS applying to any particular university. The stat for AU have been rising, but some still continue to view it as a “safety”. Even for those whose stats fall within the accepted range, it is always beneficial to demonstrate interest. When my older D was applying, I visited her schools Naviance site and saw her stats were on the high accepted range. She went to a smaller, private HS and I also view the “school stats” tab (not just the scattergram) and saw that although not a large number applied, 50% of those accepted were attending. </p>
<p>Fast forward a year and I am beginning the process with D2 who goes to a larger public HS. She has liked what she has seen of AU through her sister and for now, it remains on her list. I visited the Naviance site for her HS and again she falls within the accepted range, but with larger numbers applying there is more information to sift through. Again, going to the school stats tab I saw something that worried me. AU accepted 40% of applicants from her HS, but only 5% are attending. To me that paints a picture of a guidance dept that is encouraging seniors to apply as a safety. In this case, if AU remains high on her list, I will have her work even harder to express interest. Visiting, overnights, local AU events, meeting admissions reps at her HS, and using the above mentioned AU application with supplement to help the admission dept know she is seriously interested.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh ok that makes sense. I applied via Common App and was accepted without having shown any interest.</p>
<p>My AU-accepted D is annoyed by all the emails and pretty much ignores them all, and she didn’t want to take part in online chats or join Facebook fan groups, at least until she chooses a school. But we did visit last spring, and she spent some real time on the campus: met two professors, sat in on a class, did the tour, etc. I imagine that helped them know she was a serious applicant, which she is-- AU is in her top two.</p>
<p>Waitlisted
SATs: 1980
CR 660 M 680 W 640
GPA: 3.8</p>
<p>Very strong EC and leadership, but then again, who cares about that these days.</p>
<p>Whatever, it’s not the utter end to the world.</p>
<p><edit> I actually don’t understand these decisions at all. What happened in the last year to cause such a surge in application awesomeness that a student that falls within the upper range of their reported scores is not accepted? From the looks of the students on the waitlist in this thread, I don’t even have a realistic chance of gaining admission. I said it wasn’t the end of the world a half hour ago, but I’m not going to lie, I’m bummed. American is/was my second choice school, and to be honest, I was so proud of myself for falling in love with a school that wasn’t out of my scoring range; to be waitlisted is a major blow to my ego and emotional well-being.</edit></p>
<p>Waitlisted</p>
<p>ACT: 32
WGPA: 4.3ish
UWGPA: 3.85ish
ECs: A lot, and some very impressive (if I do say so myself)
Essays: I write fairly well, so I suppose they were decent.</p>
<p>I don’t want to sound like a prick, but I’m honestly very surprised I was waitlisted. American was one of my “safeties” and not at the top of my list, does anyone know if this may have affected the decision? I have been accepted to many other schools that are considered to be much more “prestigious” (ie UCLA, scholarship to USC) and I was fully expecting an acceptance from American. Again, I’m not bitter or angry, just interested.</p>