<p>Lspf, I suggest you search for AUs strategic plan; the year my daughter applied they were actively trying to reduce enrollment so we knew merit awards would be a long-shot. We were also very aware that many GW and Georgetown applicants used American as their safety, and this skewed the stats for applying students. </p>
<p>My daughter could have done a few things to strengthen her application and FA. She could have applied for a music scholarship, but frankly, she was burnt out on auditions/scholarship apps at that point…and since she wasn’t intending to major in music at AU, she passed on the chance. She knew she wasn’t helping herself, but auditions, her senior recital, participation in multiple choirs, and two plays left her out of gas. I think if she’d followed through with the music angle, it would have helped her overall because her music commitment was the closest thing she had to a hook.</p>
<p>And for anyone whose kid is a member of the United Methodist Church and applying to a United Methodist college (like American), remember that there are United Methodist scholarships available. My daughter has applied for and received scholarships every year from our conference and from the Global Board of Higher Education and Ministry.</p>
<p>My issue with American and GW is that they are not good values. But if money is not an object, then I could see doing well at either place. </p>
<p>I speak from the perspective of a Northern Virginia parent. The in-state choices are so superlative in Virginia (really only California compares) that it is difficult to justify the huge cost differential. </p>
<p>Then again, neither of my kids are in-state.</p>
<p>I agree with you, mam1959, when it comes to Virginia in-state schools. They are so impressive. </p>
<p>Since American and GW do offer merit money, I think they can be a good value. My son is interested in them but they are on the list of “you need to get X dollars in merit money to make this happen.” </p>
<p>We’ve already got a safety that he loves and we can afford (kind of!), but he’s also looking at high ranked schools that offer merit money, so we’ll see how it goes.</p>
<p>"My issue with American and GW is that they are not good values. But if money is not an object, then I could see doing well at either place. "</p>
<p>Value is an interesting proposition, and one we wrestled with. I think I’d agree with you almost always if the student were a liberal arts major or, especially, a science/pre-med one.</p>
<p>For our D., it was a bit different. She has a very clear career direction (accounting/international development, especially in the Middle East). She could have gone to UWashington for slightly less (at least for the first year, as tuition at UW is expected to increase 30% in the next two years, and we received need-based aid at AU). But 1) At UW, the average student now takes almost 5 years to graduate; 2) One doesn’t get into the business school until junior year; 3) Almost no students can take Arabic unless they are Middle East Studies majors (we checked that one very closely); 4) Paid internships related in any way to economic development are virtually non-existent (whereas some of those we’ve actually seen/heard of at American pay up to $12k a year). </p>
<p>In other words, the chances of her getting what she needed at UW were relatively small, in which case the value proposition collapses. Whether it will actually work out over four years the way we hope (it has so far), we’ll have to wait and see.</p>
<p>Actually - I also think American sounds promising for a kid like ours who is NOT sure what he wants yet. The woman who gave the info session said it is not terribly difficult to switch majors (and still graduate on time?), and it sounds as if there’s even some flexibility for students to devise their own, with departmental approval.
In S2’s case, I view the internship possibilities as a chance to test the waters rather than necessarily work towards a specific goal, since he doesn’t really have one yet. The location and programs offered by schools like American and GW could give him a boost he might not easily get at one of our SUNYs, though he will certainly apply to some. Northeastern is also well-known for their internship program, but we get the impression that positions are not as readily available, and am not sure there’s as much support.</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>Rochestermom,That’s really great he found them in his hometown. My son and some of his friends at larger schools said their biggest problem with jobs was not getting them close to home. Many of them, including my son, couldn’t afford to stay at college over the summer to work, or if they got help, it was only enough to have them barely break even, not make money which they needed for next semester. Nothing is perfect, but it’s nice that he was able to do that.</p>
<p>Debruns that is true. I can’t imagine him needing to stay at school, pay rent and still make money on what he makes at his internships (well I suppose it comes down to how many guys you can stuff into an apartment?). He again managed to get a paid internship in a local town. He would have to pay for parking this time so has decided to ride the bus. Seems to be working out okay. I have been really pleased with American and feel that he is getting a good education. He is currently waiting on the results from his LSATs so we’ll see how those are and then off to apply to grad school.</p>
<p>Thank you for starting this thread. I’ve learned so much already!</p>
<p>AU is on D’s list, along with GW, (Catholic was, but seems to have drifted away). She’s also looking at in-state schools (FL). The only way she could go to AU or GW is with a boatload of aid - so we cross our fingers and see what happens - it’s a bit pie in the sky for us, so we’re making plans closer to home too. </p>
<p>We visited the campus this Spring and found it to be lovely. Great quad - complete with a Frat doing some only-in-college-would-you-do-this kind of activity - hysterical. The admis. people were very flexible and helpful. D met with someone from her area of interest (Journalism) and got to have lunch with and go to class with a student. I sat in the student common area near the cafeteria for two hours and saw so many kinds of kids interacting - it was nice. Beautiful area too - that common area must have been redone recently - fashionable, clean, friendly, welcoming. </p>
<p>I will say though that the dorms seemed old and crowded (three people in a double, but she said that they could have “un-doubled” at the winter break, but chose not to). We were not impressed with the dorms - dingy and beat-up looking. That said, two things come to mind - (1) it’s a dorm, how great shoudl it be? and (2) at least they showed us a real room, not a model room with next to nothing in it. Also - one of my D’s favorite college visit moments happened while visiting AU dorms. We were standing in the dorm hallway, listening to our guide, when the elevator doors open and standing in the elevator is a person dressed as a ghost - - white sheet with eye holes, a hat on top, silly smile painted on. He just got out of the elevator and walked on by just like nothing was happening. After he left, D leaned over and whispered, “I can’t wait to go to college!” :)</p>
<p>I don’t know how likely it is that she’d get in (1290/1940; CR=740, M=550, W=650; ACT=29; taking both again, we’ll see if they go up any - Math is her bugaboo)</p>
<p>If anyone has any impressions about the following at AU (or GW for that matter), I’d appreciate it:
journalism/communications in general
journalism/communications internships - this is of particular interest to me - schools that get kids real wold experience give them a leg up in the job market I think.
the student paper - taken seriously by students? ignored by students? quality writing?
for those who attend - how much is it acually costing you, compared to what you thought it would cost? (if you feel comfortable sharing details, that’d be great)
<p>mini - UW is an excellent school, but I could see having extreme difficultly in the field your daughter is into. </p>
<p>Just being physically present here in dc is advantage; but obviously one at a cost. </p>
<p>With all of these schools, huge costs make far less of a difference if the young person is truly focused and dedicated. Any kid not focusing is painful, but it sure as heck is more painful if a parent has invested in a University of Richmond or the like (a fine school, but ridiculously expensive). </p>
<p>American makes sense if the young person truly fulfills their own personal contract. And with with 18-22 year olds, even the best of them can be unpredictable.</p>
<p>Ds really wanted to go to college in DC (poli sci major). Last summer we saw Georgetown, American and Catholic U (ds said he wasn’t interested in GWU). After seeing G’town, the other two paled in comparison, and he didn’t even apply to Catholic. Heck, we all liked G’town. There was an undeniable energy there that we found nowhere else. He got a Presidential Scholarship (I think it was called?) to American U. G’town became his dream school, and he was accepted, but the finaid wasn’t enough to make it feasible (although they meet 100% of demonstrated financial need, we didn’t know how they would look at dh’s business because we’d only had to fill out FAFSA for older son when he went to college). </p>
<p>He won’t be in DC next year, but he will be attending a wonderful LAC on a full ride. I think he’ll get to go to DC for a semester or, who knows, maybe for law school.</p>
<p>Something that tickled my son about AU-he saw some boys sitting at a table playing cards-1 in a suit and tie, 1 in pajama pants and a tshirt, and 2 in jeans. He said he could see himself being any of the three on any given day.</p>
When I was at AU, my tour guide actually told me that communications was a joke. At GW, though, even journalism has a political leaning because of the political communications major offered.</p>
I haven’t really heard of the theatre programs at either school, but GW has an arts scholarship that, I hear, isn’t that hard to get. AU has a super cool natural outdoor amphitheater, though.</p>
<p>
I didn’t go inside GW’s library, but it was large and had multiple branches. AU’s library was standard fare. It wasn’t particularly large and it could have used an upgrade, but no doubt it would get the job done. I don’t think the library had any other branches on campus, but the average student isn’t going to use a law or medical library anyway.</p>
<p>
Facilities for communications. I have no idea what the communications facilities are like at GW. I do know that at AU, the communications “equipment center” looks not unlike a double wide trailer. Most of the communications courses are held temporarily in the student center because the communications building is not actually finished (it’s one of the biggest buildings on campus and it isn’t finished! go figure).</p>
<p>American also has a MUCH better study abroad program than GW, which only has four main programs. American has dozens of awesome opportunities. American also seems to have a stronger foreign language requirement (for example, at GW, you can’t major or minor in Arabic - only semitic languages, meaning you’d have to take Hebrew as well). However, I got the impression that / my tour guide told me that most students feel dwarfed by the IR/Poli-Sci students. Unfortunately, you can see it on campus. The newest building is the new IR department, but the old one wasn’t even that bad. That said, the other classroom buildings (no the ones directly on the quad) were pretty beat up.</p>
<p>American has a very new $80 million dollar arts center. And a brand newly expanded Business School Center (including its own career center). And by next spring, a huge new School of International Service building. And the Communications School is being completely revamped and expanded. </p>
<p>But I think this is where you get to the differences (academically and in feel) between AU and GW, if that interests you. At AU, more than a third of the undergrads are enrolled in the School of International Service (the largest in DC), and it dominates the graduate programs (the law school is a bit away from the main campus.) The business school has another 20% or so, and there are a ton of graduate business programs. Business Week ranks the undergraduate school way ahead of GW (28th v. 65th, and GT is 24th); Foreign Policy Magazine ranks the IR program in the top 20 (GW isn’t). Add in the schools of public policy, and communications, and you quickly discover that the school of arts and sciences (“liberal arts”) is relatively small, and if you take out foreign languages which heavily serve the IR school and the business school, even smaller. At GW, in contrast, I believe more than half the students are in the liberal arts, and there is a much stronger program in the sciences. So you would definitely feel a difference with GW. There is likely a much higher percentage of students with off-campus internships at AU, not because GW students don’t get them (of course they do!), but because a smaller percentage liberal arts students - and especially in the sciences - likely seek them. The feel of the campus will be different as well, since roughly half of AUs juniors and seniors live off campus (so daily non-academic campus life is a bit more dominated by lower class students). And at any one time, a higher percentage of AU students are abroad.</p>
<p>You’ll just get a different feel. (Speaking just for myself, I can’t see the value proposition for AU in the liberal arts, other than it is in DC; others may see differently. (People report theater is pretty good.) But for integrated IR/International Business/Global studies, there aren’t many schools that are better.)</p>
<p>applicannot -
Thanks for mentioning communications facilities. At AU it did seem that everyone had their own “space” (building) except for communications. GW has the SMPA which is in it’s own building, right? I didn’t go inside, but D did when she attended a class - which she LOVED. </p>
<p>GT is not on our radar… I don’t think she’s got the scores for it!</p>