<p>We've finished our first round of college trips, and S2 is very interested in American. He's a HS jr and his interests are all over the place -- IR, communications, the FBI, education, etc. Setting aside for now the two big issues (getting in, and being able to afford it), would love to hear some parent input on AU. </p>
<p>We're pretty intrigued with the supposed ease of obtaining internships after the first year. Have your kids found this to be true? And if so, did they find them rewarding, and/or helpful in choosing (or ruling out) a career path, or are they geared more towards students who are focused and know exactly what they want? </p>
<p>Also, have heard that most students at AU are very driven and politically active. S2 is not, really. Would he feel out of place?</p>
<p>GW is on his mental list too, but he definitely 'clicked' with American. Also, as a runner and recreationally sporty kid, the added green space (as little as there is), is a definite quality-of-life plus for him. Thanks</p>
<p>S is just finishing up his 3rd year at AU and loves it. He is in the honors program and has been an honors mentor for freshman. He’s very close with his professors and knows them fairly well. He has had interations with advisors probably more than most because he will get 2 different bachelors in 4 years. </p>
<p>He has had internships since Freshman year but in our hometown. Paid internships. He has worked every summer as well as his Christmas break. This year the place that he had interned in the past is not bringing in interns but he has had some interest by other corporations so hopefully something will come up.</p>
<p>S is not really politically active. He does like politics but not motivated to get involved with the various organizations on campus. Doesn’t seem to bother him. He has quite a few.</p>
<p>S is not athletic although works out daily.</p>
<p>Thanks, R-Mom.
Am also impressed that your son has found paid internships! The woman who gave the information session said that Washington DC runs on free labor (college students) and the internships sounds like great opportunities. They’re definitely a big part of what made American stand out to us.</p>
<p>Mine is finishing up her first year at American and LOVING it! (She hated Georgetown at first sight, and while she would have okay at GW, American was the clear first choice.) She is currently a finalist for a very big (and high-paying) internship (summer and during the year) in the Treasury Department - we are keeping our fingers crossed. The career center is fantastic! She went to Oaxaca during spring break with a program, mostly graduate students, to study development issues. She is a business (accounting) major, international studies (economic development) minor, and will also be taking four years of Arabic. She is also a concert pianist, and her instructor is a former winner of the Queen Elisabeth competition in Belgium, and a working concert artist. </p>
<p>We had pretty high expectations for AU, but things have turned out even much better than we expected. Feel free to PM.</p>
<p>mini, What made American more attractive to her than GW? S is considering both schools and a visit is not going to be possible unless he gets accepted and goes for that visit.</p>
<p>S looked at GW and American. He didn’t like the “middle of the city” feeling at GW. Didn’t like that you were basically on the city streets to go from building to building. American had more of a campus feel in his mind but still was accessible to the city via the American bus and the metro. We have even ridden the American bus to the metro when we have visited. Also GW 3 years ago didn’t have wireless through out the campus but American did. S liked the idea of citing on the quad and working between classes. Not sure if he does this but it did interest him. He also preferred the food at American. Food was a big factor in all the schools we looked at. Not really a great reason but something that he looked at.</p>
<p>“mini, What made American more attractive to her than GW? S is considering both schools and a visit is not going to be possible unless he gets accepted and goes for that visit.”</p>
<p>There were a bunch of things:
The business school is far more highly rated at AU (28th v. 65th, in the latest Business Week), and a third of the faculty are international. As she wants to do international economic development, she (and we) thought the contacts from faculty on down would be invaluable, as well as the context within which they teach. They pride themselves on their “integrative, international emphasis”. No one at the business school at GW even mentioned it.
She also wanted to minor in international studies/economic development, and it was far more clear how to do that at American. Also, their own study abroad options are far more closely aligned with their own curriculum.
The career center and advising is reputed to be much better; don’t know if that is true, but from day one, she has found them to be stellar.
We thought the food options at GW were really terrible. (others may disagree)
The first-year housing at GW (i.e. Thurston), 1,600 first-years only, without residential advisors…
During the two visits we paid to GW, not a single student or tour guide talked about the academics. (Well, the last one told us how he was doing a semester abroad in Denmark. He wasn’t studying Danish, or Scandinavia, or even European history (he had already switched majors three times) but said the best thing was that GW was also going to pay him to go visit St. Petersburg. ???)
Fraternities at GW are growing, I think because there is no real sense of a vibrant campus life (though the city and location of GW are terrific!)
Finally, and this will be different for everyone, at GW both she and we picked up on a vibe of relatively ostentatious wealth - I can’t tell you exactly how we picked up on it, though at one point we were sitting in the Starbucks next to the library, and admiring (?) the students’ shoes.
She also liked the fact that American has a real campus, though I’m not sure whether that would have made a substantial difference, except for the food and camaderie of a central meeting place.
More than 50% of American students are in the undergraduate professionally oriented schools - Business, International Service, Communications, Public Affairs. I think on the whole this means the students are a bit more focused on where they think they are going. It might be different for a liberal arts major - there are pre-meds at American, but I imagine (don’t know, 'cause we never kicked the tires) the sciences might be stronger at GW. </p>
<p>Anyhow, it is working for her. Others might come to different conclusions.</p>
<p>mini- you give excellent feedback on schools. You and your family also do a great job making informed decisions on what schools fit your child’s goals.</p>
<p>Students would be better off if they developed a plan like your family. They should heed your advise on loans also.</p>
<p>Wow - what great info. AU admissions staff take note!</p>
<p>In fairness, am guessing that mini’s D and R-mom’s S are probably go-getters who would excel just about anywhere. This is just the kind of feedback I was looking for, though, as the info session at American sounded almost too good to be true. Maybe not! S2 is completely undecided about future plans, but mature enough to look ahead and consider what would benefit him the most. After continued searches and visits nothing has budged American out of his top spot.</p>
<p>We were in a similar position with his older brother, but even more so. He knew exactly where AND what he wanted to study (Tufts- IR and Arabic). In fact, we noticed that the two schools have a lot of similarities that appeal to us-- diverse student body, proximity to city but still a campus feel, social life not dominated by Greek scene, strong IR program, small classes, great study-abroad opportunities, etc. The internship program at American really stands out, though, and the location is perfect.</p>
<p>That said, it’s scary when your child has a clear first choice. S1’s academic stats put him somewhere above the middle for AU admissions, so it’s by no means a sure thing. And then the part about paying… wondering if parents here have found AU pretty fair and/or comparable to other colleges when it comes to FA(?) </p>
<p>I’m familiar with both schools. I took summer courses at American when I was in college, and I applied to both for grad school, and ended up attending GWU. I also know people who teach and have taught at both institutions.</p>
<p>Either will give one a good education. While GWU is more highly ranked than is American, in reality, there is little academic difference between the schools. If one wants a traditional campus, pick American. </p>
<p>Whatever one’s major, as is the case with all schools in D.C., American provides a big plus of being in the nation’s capitol, which means that one gets professors who typically have very good contacts in their field – particularly true of fields like international relations, politics and journalism. In addition, since D.C. is a popular site for conferences of all kinds, students can easily attend conferences in their field, and may even be able to do this for free as volunteers.</p>
<p>There also are many internships available in D.C. in virtually all disciplines. D.C.-based students applying for D.C.-based internships have the advantage of having their programs and professors be well known to the people on internship selection committees. The same is true when it comes to obtaining jobs after graduation.</p>
<p>I’m a student, not a parent, but I was surprised that after my visit AU came over GW for me. They both have their merits, but I prefer AU’s programs. For example, they have an excellent study abroad program whereas GW has only four school-sanctioned programs. At GW, in order to have an official minor in Arabic, you also have to take Hebrew, which is a waste of time if you really want to concentrate on learning Arabic but also want to have a degree in it. I liked that GW was in the city, but having a respite from the city will probably be nice. You have to check out the individual programs for academics because I found that they were VERY different at each school.</p>
<p>Thanks, Northstarmom and Applicannot-- Of course I am happy to have student input! I just didn’t want to be the only parent or old fogey posting on the AU threads–
While we know of several students who’ve gone/are attending GW, we don’t know any at American. Don’t know why, really, since the two schools obviously share a good deal of applicants. We’d also never considered just how big a plus being in or near DC could be.</p>
<p>I don’t know about FA. We didn’t qualify but S got a great scholarship even though he did ED. Guaranteed for 4 years as long as he kept his grades up.</p>
<p>Just wanted to remind the OP that GW does have it’s own “green” campus at Mt. Vernon, with Tennis courts, running space, etc. My D was a student at GW, but not in a political major. I think it’s true that GW has larger pockets of students in non-political/international relations majors than AU does. There is a large group of pre-meds and there is a strong math/operation management group, as well as many in education, exercise science, engineering and psychology. My D knew people at all GT, GW and AU and spent time at all the campuses. Really, you can’t go wrong with any of these schools. My D received one of GW’s large merit scholarships and wanted that real city feel so she chose GW. She went overseas twice through GW’s study abroad, once through a GW sponsored program and another time through another school’s program that GW approved. She liked that flexibility. She studied overseas specifically to reach fluency in the two languages related to grad work in her major. She didn’t choose to live in Thurston, but instead had a beautiful apartment style freshman dorm in Potomac House. The career center at GW was fantastic for my D especially their “Career Bootcamp.” They also help with grad school applications. Perhaps because GW is larger that AU, some students have trouble understanding the logisitics of getting things done. My D never seemed to have that problem. Many students apply to both AU and GW and compare merit/financial aid awards in April.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to and was accepted at AU (HS class of '06); AU was the only school that gapped us on FA. We weren’t particularly surprised by those results, since AU was very upfront (at that time…not sure about now) about their use of enrollment management. My daughter’s stats were not at the tippy-top of the applicant pool, although she would have readily attended AU if they had come through for her. </p>
<p>My daughter always liked AU more than I did, but my negatives were largely related to the lack of personalized attention from the admissions folks, which was in direct contrast to every other school to which she applied. And they were incredibly late in providing the FA info (well after April 1), so my daughter had to hold off on her final decision waiting for them to provide the info. I have no doubt my daughter would have thrived as a student there, but the minute she saw the lowball FA number, she tossed out all of the materials and mailed her acceptance info elsewhere.</p>
<p>researchmaven - GW admissisons gave us a brochure about the Mt. Vernon campus. Is it a popular freshman option? We didn’t get to head over there, since D2 (11) was getting sicker by the hour with bad cold and sore throat (ended up bronchitis) and we needed to get home.</p>
<p>mezzomom-- S2’s stats do not put him near the top of the admissions pool. Better than average, but not by a lot. He’d obviously love to apply ED (admissions says it makes no difference in aid received–??) but right now we’re just not in a position for him to do so. Aside from admission, finances remain the big question mark.</p>
<p>Ispf, from what I hear, no, Mt Vernon is not a very popular option because the kids feel somewhat removed from the main campus. There are sports fields and a pool there, and my D took an econ course at that campus because it was a smaller class size, but from what she tells me most kids she knows there don’t really like it. She likes Thurston, which has a max occupancy of about 1100, not 1600, and that will go down a bit next year as they are converting the quads into triples. She loves being in the middle of the city and chose GW over American. She has friends at AU who are very happy, just as she is happy with her choice. It really depends on the student.</p>
<p>Really stupid question (especially considering I grew up in the area), but AU might be on the radar for our youngest (still couple of years away). I assume AU would be awesome in ir, poli sci, things of that ilk, but how would it be for someone who doesn’t have a strong interest in those fields? Who has no idea what he’d like to do? (Partially for these reasons oldest is and middle probably will attend a LAC.)</p>