<p>Executive Summary: Student and family arrive undecided about American; pay enrollment deposit by 3 p.m.</p>
<p>The morning began with welcomes from the Dean of Admissions and President of the University. The President stressed that the University is in great shape financially–that they have not had to make any cutbacks because of the recession and that they are really on solid footing.</p>
<p>The Director of Residence Life then did a presentation that was really impressive. He is an AU alum and seemed to have spent time considering what the various annoyances of residence life are and how they could be addressed. Case in point: the e-Suds program that placed laundry rooms on every dorm floor, and keeps track of the availability of washing machines and notifies students by text, email, or AIM when their laundry is done. Trivial, but a real boon to quality of life. The kind of minor annoyance that technology could solve, but how many schools have bothered to put the effort into solving it? Example #2: online management of Eagle Bucks–he said if your kid is in the bookstore and needs a textbook and doesn’t have enough Eagle Bucks, he can call you and you can go online, transfer money, and it will be in his account before he gets to the cash register. </p>
<p>He also boasted that the Executive Chef of the dining program claims “there is no student I cannot feed.” Regardless of dietary restrictions, allergies, etc., they are committed to working with students to make sure they can meet their needs. They have a dietician who can work with students, too. The various options in the meal plans reflect that he really knows how students eat and what options might be cost-effective for different eating styles. The incorporation of local off-campus restaurants into the declining balance portion of the meal plan account reflects a desire to give students a way to pay for just what they are eating. We met a junior who lives in one of the dorms and doesn’t even have a meal plan at all. (It’s not required after freshman year.)</p>
<p>After his presentation, I turned to my husband and said, “Can I go here?”</p>
<p>Now, maybe all of this was just lip service, but I was really impressed.</p>
<p>Then we heard about advising programs in the Honors program and in the SIS that made it sound like they kind of recognize that the raw material coming into AU is maybe not as tippy-top as the students at, say, Yale, but that with help and support, those kids can be groomed and packaged into winning Trumans, Fulbrights, etc. They start working with them sophomore year to identify those types of fellowships and help them apply for them. </p>
<p>The advising staff is full-time advising-only, not faculty members also asked to serve as advisors. Some of them have moved from being career counselors into being academic advisors, so they can really “begin with the end in mind.”</p>
<p>The SIS breakout session had a professor–a former ambassador, which we didn’t realize when he was eating lunch with us–lead a discussion that approximated the type of class he teaches. My kid turned to me halfway through and said, “I definitely want to go here.”</p>
<p>It didn’t hurt that the weather was lovely and there were kids all over the quad. For some reason, there were moonbounces set up out there. It had a beautiful, college campus look and feel. The kids were casually-dressed but not scruffy. I didn’t see a surfeit of expensive bags or shoes or a lot of girls in heavy make up, and only a few kids in Greek letter wear. Towards the end of the day we saw boys in khakis and ties evidently making their way back to campus from their internships.</p>
<p>I’m sure we’ll find plenty to complain about in the next few years, but we were all very impressed and pulled out the credit card to secure the kid’s place in the class.</p>