<p>Stocksdale111 - Your smarter than most. Hopefully, others aren't offended by the sour comments of a few disgruntled students. I guess my point is that no other college threads have postings that personally attack the students. I am trying to put an end to it and change the flavor of AU's postings.</p>
<p>Connie--</p>
<p>I run a business for a living, and I learn as much from my disgruntled customers and employees as I do from my happy ones. My business would never improve if both the happy ones and the disgruntled ones didn't have a voice. Yes, some of the criticism I hear is baseless, and can be crass, but some of the praise I hear is also baseless, and done to kiss-up. The point is I know enough to weed through both and find the value.
It is great that you love American; I've been there twice now, including last week for orientation with my child, and there are things about it I love too. One of the greatest vibes I get from the place is the passion people feel for it; most seem to be like you, in that they love it so much they are, like you, moved to defend it against any negativity. That's fantastic. Others who are negative are at least motivated to speak out; that's great too, because it means they are passionate and care enough about the place to act in the hope it gains improvement. In both cases that's great; passion trumps apathy in all areas of life, and says great things about the people who attend AU.</p>
<p>Murph.....Agreed, however I still find it tasteless to state all girls are ugly, all guys are gay, the professors are horrific, etc. These are generalizations that have no place on these threads. I do not have a problem with someone posting negative things about AU and there is no school that is without, but I want to alleviate the generalizations that cannot be substantiated. As stated previously, one such student posted extremely negative comments about the professors; then went on to use them to benefit their transfer to GT. That just doesn't sit well with me. I am sure you would find it offensive if someone on your staff behaved in this manner.
Enough said. Hopefully, AU posters can start fresh and leave the generalizations out that are distasteful.</p>
<p>I looked back at previous posts and I noted two posts where Md said there were good professors at AU. I never saw where Ryan posted that all the kids at AU were gay. I still don't understand why we're talking about this. just talk about what you think of AU, not other posters.</p>
<p>Surely negative generalizations are absurd and offensive, but positive generalizations are just as misleading and inaccurate.</p>
<p>Let's just keep in mind that AU is a solid institution, but not without some serious issues to be taken care of. So don't make it sound like it is worse than community colleges or better than Ivy League schools. Critical and caring attitudes towards AU should not be mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>Oregonianmom - Sorry i didn't answer sooner. Although I'm not in the School of Communications, I hear good things about it. I know a girl who got an internship in NYC this summer, as a freshman, with a major tv studio...CBS,NBC...! AU seems to be holding up their promise of excellent resources at their career counseling center, and their guidance in top notch jobs and internships.We are all so different, but I much preferred AU to UMd. And since there's nothing like DC, AU's campus is exceptional, considering it's a city school. It's also open for public visits, I think, because of its gardens. UMd is too huge, huge classes, unsavory town, and not at all that connected to DC. ( a way-out metro stop, unsafe at night.) When I was still in high school, my guidance counselor said UMd had the weakest academics of the schools I was applying to, but was not that easy to get into because of a huge applicant pool due to cheap cost.They also didn't have my major. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Oregonian,</p>
<p>While I can't say much about UMD (I did not apply, too large a school for me), I can give you a little insight into AU's journalism and CLEG programs. The journalism program here is pretty solid. I imagine journalism students in DC have a leg up than those at other schools due to the location. I have one friend working for NPR this summer, and another at BBC. </p>
<p>Now, the CLEG major. I personally feel that a student should be able to narrow down their interests enough to find a more focused study path. CLEG is a major that was created by an AU student several years ago, it includes Communications, Law, Economics, and Government. I don't know ANY students who have CLEG as their sole course of study....Many people choose to pair it with a Justice major. I for one believe that to future employers that it might look too broad...it seems to say "I couldn't make up my mind", or "I have a little knowledge in a lot of areas".</p>