Please Read- Posting

Colleges and Universities A-Z American University
1

<p>I used collegeconfidential.com throughout my college admissions process, and have been back periodically since I was accepted to American University. This site helped me tremendously with my decision to go to AU; unbiased advice, STUDENTS who ATTEND the university posting their opinions on classes, housing, professors, the DC area, etc.</p>

<p>This site has transformed from being informative and honest, to a blog of trashy and immature arguments. With hundreds of students looking towards college confidential for direction, I think it is safe to say that the image the postings on this site reflect are nothing short of childish. </p>

<p>To think that I was accepted to the same institution as several of the posters on this site is embarrassing. To think that students from other institutions can see the way ADULTS in the AU forum interact with one another is even more embarrassing. I understand that there are students here who love AU and students here who hate it. I also believe that people should be able to explain why. However, I think it would be wise for everyone answering questions to tread lightly when giving such strong opinions about the school. </p>

<p>There are awful generalizations being made as supposed “answers” to several postings… “DC sucks go somewhere else…”. These posting **** people off. They frustrate people needlessly and then for the next two weeks people post offensive responses. Did you get mugged? Are you from Kentucky and the city just freaked you out? Are you from London and not impressed with what DC has to offer? Give a little substance to the answer, and (and I don’t know why this is confusing to people) answer questions in which you have solid expertise. No one wants to hear what your relative thought about AU’s campus, or what you heard from your neighbor about American University being loud on the weekends. I encourage current students from AU to do their best to give an accurate picture of life on campus. Answer questions about your own dorm, or classes you took, or the school you are in. And, if you love the school, be prepared that it just might not be what someone else is looking for, and if you didn’t like it, know that the things that bothered you might not matter as much to an incoming student. Be honest and be thoughtful.</p>

<p>I certainly do not support sugar coating answers, but I also know telling someone “The AU library sucks” is not at all helpful. What would be better is telling them that it isn’t large enough, and the hours aren’t very convenient, and I can never find an outlet during finals week. But, if you have a laptop and plan ahead, you are going to survive”. </p>

<p>I’d like to see people have a thought process before posting needlessly all over the site. Put some actual THOUGHT into answering a post, and stop commenting on ABSOLUTELY everything. Very few people have the time or patience to read countless pages of two people “arguing” over a comment about how long it takes to walk to Tenleytown…It blows my mind even more that people actually have the time to argue about it.</p>

<p>Instead, answer the questions that matter to you and do so with the intent of giving the reader a solid, truthful answer. There are plenty of people who come to the site on a daily basis and post crappy and unhelpful answers, or are simply responding to the crude remarks of several others. Ignore these people…</p>

<p>I hope to see a change, because I would hate for college bound high school students or students from other institutions to get the wrong impression of the people who attend/attended the university. </p>

<p>Happy Posting…</p>

2

<p>Great post Britty. Like any school there are happy campers and unhappy campers. At AU a few unhappy campers became prolific CCers, often, as you said without posting a lot of specifics or rationale.</p>

<p>AU, in my opinion, has a lot to offer, and I appreciate Ryan's new positive post. I've come in contact with many happy, successful AU alum, so Ryan mentioning the successful doc is not a surprise (actually, we do well in med school admissions). </p>

<p>Have a great time at AU!</p>

3

<p>If this is directed at me -- I do not see how I do not use specifics in my posting. I thought that ive been clear when making each one of my points, using multiple warrants to back up my answers. The only way my posts ever become negative or aggressive is when someone like HappyCollegeMom posts WITHOUT giving any raionale whatsoever and often attempts to bash me in a personal manner. I find it funny when I express a positive opinion about the school, nobody questions it and actually embraces it, but then conversely writes my other comments off as nonsense. Outside of my characterization of the students at AU, I would like you to find posts in which I make vast generalizations to characterize the school. We all use personal anecdotes in our posts because it is hard to quantify arguments when AU doesn't even release statistics like a common data set.</p>

4

<p>Ryan, have you transferred out yet? Where did you decide to go?</p>

5

<p>Hey Britty - FINALLY another positive AU student! It's been lonely on these AU threads, and I've often worndered why others like us have allowed the threads to grow in the directions they have. Why have the students of AU not controlled the one or two negative student posters as I see students do from other colleges? I'll never understand that.</p>

<p>Regarding this, I for one look forward to and appreciate the parental support we get here (sarananc, hcn, advisormom, etc.).</p>

<p>I don't know how far back you go, but the one or two AU bashers have been in control for a very long time and if it weren't for the parents' involvement, more newcomers would have been lost.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, students like us just don't post here. I think they get discouraged and leave like others who began in good faith.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you.</p>

6

<p>Ryan says: "We all use personal anecdotes in our posts because it is hard to quantify arguments when AU doesn't even release statistics like a common data set."</p>

<p><a href="http://www.american.edu/academic.depts/provost/oir/common%20data%20set%2005-06.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.american.edu/academic.depts/provost/oir/common%20data%20set%2005-06.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>AU's Common Data Set for 2005-2006. Found via Google in about 3 seconds.</p>

7

<p>I have followed the postings of this and other boards for the past several months. My child has just completed the college application process and is attending American in the fall.
I have used this board in an effort to obtain information about the school. The board is full of opinions. Many of those opinions are supported by empirical data; many others are general observations which can't be objectively verified.
In either case the material is valuable. Readers are free to accept or disregard, but that's their choice.
What is mind-blowing about this forum is this aversion to criticism possessed by many here. I find the contributions of connie, swmass, and pswillia, among others, to be very helpful; as students they provide valuable insight. I also find the contributions of ryan to be very helpful, as I did md, who apparently has been driven away by the intense criticism leveled toward her. These opinions are much more valuable than the snipings of a couple of overbearing, meddlesome parents, one of whom has gone so far as to discuss her self-imposed duty to "monitor" this board and comment if she feels the opinion is lacking in some way.
I ask all of you AU students to continue to contribute, whether your statements can be interpreted as positive, negative, or neutral. If you can back up your statements with data, do it. If you can't, no problem; we'll take it with a grain of salt. But give us the good, the bad, and the ugly. Taking time to post your thoughts, opinions, and feelings is providing an invaluable service to people like me, who are sending their first child off to college. I have many concerns about sending my child to college in general and American in particular. One of my biggest concerns is that students at the school who feel they have something valuable to say that could be interpreted as negative would be hesitant to do so because of the way others have been attacked on this board. I wouldn't expect that from a campus which is known, (not reputed to be), the most politically active in the country.
Voice your opinion - to be silenced would be un-American!!</p>

8

<p>I am transferring to AU from GW this fall and i found these posts very helpful. Everyone needs to chill out.</p>

9

<p>Stocksdale - what is the reason that you are transferring from GW to AU? We visited both schools last week, and they have a very different feel from one another, to be sure.</p>

10

<p>Actually, thanks for the link. I don't know how I missed it when looked for it last. If you can find 2006-2007 that would be even better. I'm not noticing a transfer acceptance rate on here, which was why I originally posted my piece about wanting a common data set.</p>

11

<p>Ryan - </p>

<p>Here's the link to the AU Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, where the CDS is located. It doesn't appear that 2006-2007 is available; however, follow the link for the Academic Data Reference Book, which does have 2006-2007 data. I didn't look to see if transfer acceptance rates are there. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.american.edu/academic.depts/provost/oir/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.american.edu/academic.depts/provost/oir/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

12

<p>Murph468 - </p>

<p>Thank you so much for such a level-headed post. And welcome to the AU community. My son just graduated from the School of Communication, and had an overall great experience. Please don't worry about anyone's opinion being suppressed at AU - challenged, maybe (particularly if coming from the right!), but certainly not suppressed. Best of luck to your child - and to you, too. You do get used to them not being at home full time!</p>

13

<p>These posts have no place here. This helps no one. This is not based on facts or statistics. Murph468 - since you have cited my name in your one and only post, I am going to respond to it. I feel I need to clarify a few things. As a new user to CC,, I am not sure if you have followed the postings accurately. Pswillia is not a current student, but a supportive ALUM. The other students you have listed are not in support of AU. I AM IN SUPPORT OF AU completely. Your response is off base. Your positing is filled with inaccuracies and appears to be designed to be inflammatory. It appears as if your intention was to incite and further denigrate the school. This is not the purpose of CC and you are certainly taking the purpose of this tread in an opposite direction. As an AU student, I found the below postings to be extremely insulting and find no basis for posting such harsh generalizations. The reason that we have come to this place is because of the below negative posts. If the students are not going to speak out, let the parents speak for them. I appreciate their support. Without it, many newcomers would be turned off to AU by all the negativity of one or two posters. Also, who said anyone sent MD4668 packing. He made a choice. He was leaving the school anyway and had a strong dislike for the school -- who really needs to read anymore of his negativity. He made a mockery of the school and posted negative comments on the GT threads about AU. Let him ride off into the sunset! The students who "hate" AU have the strongest voices on CC and I really do not believe that CC was established as a dumping ground for college bashers! </p>

<p>Quotes from Ryan:</p>

<p>Problems:
- Expect to take joke classes. I know a kid who didn't turn in one assignment and never went to class but still ended up passing a required pass/fail course.</p>

<p>"Actually one of the worst things about AU is it's **** poor alumni network. Sure, this school has had a substantial number of graduates, but most of them wind up with low paying government jobs"..." Usually in college you expect the less gifted students to at least be socially suave. It's not the case at all here. People are awkward; not very intelligent; and sometimes just incredibly shady." "...I'm not saying that everyone is like this, but the intelligent are few and far between." </p>

<p>"...the guys are probably of much more quality than the girls at AU(that is if you can find a straight guy). The girls here are pretty horrible. Don't let the statistics fool you - most girls are not very social and for the ones that are its like talking to a brick. In addition, this school has to have some of the ugliest people(both guys and girls) in the United States."</p>

<p>"This school is hardly selective. As long as you have the money and over a 1200 SAT you should be fine. Basically AU will accept you if you are willing to foot the bill." </p>

<p>"In comparison with other schools, the campus is pretty dull and ugly. AU has a bunch of 60's style concrete buildings that are not very aesthetically pleasing. In addition the only quad we have has a building facing the other direction(how weird is that!). Our facilities are also incredibly terrible. The workout facility is too small, we have no outdoor stadium, and my high school had a larger basketball facility than this college." </p>

<p>"if you are a socialist or a homosexual I would consider this school a dream come true."</p>

<p>md6488:</p>

<p>There are too many lazy, inefficient adminstrators who don't seem to care about students</p>

<p>There are some pretty mindless liberals here. The number of conservatives here are few. But they are usually the biggest asses, too. I have a feeling they're overly pompous because there are so few of them. If you hate liberals, don't go here.</p>

<p>If you're looking for amazing professors and a strong program...look elsewhere. Far, far away from here.</p>

<p>These are only a few of many postings that each have contributed to CC. When I research other college postings, comments such as the above are no where to be found. These are OPINIONS of one or two and again this is not the place for such degoratory comments. In conclusion, left, right or indifferent, let's try to regroup and expend our energies on actual facts that can be supportive by the majority, not the minority who have the loudest voices.</p>

14

<p>Connies, what can you tell me about journalism at AU, and also the CLEG program? We visited last week. I have to admit that I wasn't all that impressed with the campus, but my son felt a good vibe there and is definitely planning to apply. He likes the proximity to DC plus a real campus. He also likes University of Maryland (perhaps even better), so any info you have would be helpful.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

15

<p>Oregon,</p>

<p>Sorry for the delay but i've had alot of work. I transfered from GW because of the costs. I liked GW alot but a situation at home made it hard for me to afford it. I probably can't afford AU, but I love DC too much to leave.</p>

16

<p>Connie--</p>

<p>I'm going to imagine that you either do or don't support the war in Iraq. You are probably aware that those who feel differently than you have opinions; some of those may be expressed in such a way that you may interpret them to denigrate the position you hold. Lighten up, and welcome the expression of opinion. I'm sure you're intelligent enough to decide what's meaningful to you and what's not. You wouldn't want someone else to filter that information for you, would you? And you wouldn't just want to hear the chorus of voices favorable to your position, would you?</p>

17

<p>Murph, </p>

<p>-- It is no use in arguing with people like HCM and Connie. They like to criticize others for their radical opinions but share equally radical opinions on the other side. AU is considered "the most politically active" but I would rephrase that it's a competition to see who can be the most liberal.</p>

18

<p>Stocksdale, I wish you much success at AU!</p>

19

<p>Obviously murph, md (I guess your back from your "community service") or whoever you once again have missed the point. We are not talking about Iraq here, we are talking about posts that insult students (ugly, gay, etc.). MD insults AU professors than gloats on GT about how an AU professor helped him out. I guess it is okay to bash the administration, professors, etc. but use them when you need them. This isn't about me but about other students who are looking at AU for their education. These type of comments are not constructive and do not belong on CC. So let's end the bs and move forward.</p>

20

<p>I dont know why you all are still having this conversation, just write what you want. I know i didn't make my decision based on one person, or even from this website.</p>