<p>My understanding was that the insurance cards were being sent to the students’ home addresses, which is why I’ve been on the lookout for D’s. But do note, cadmiumred, that I have neither launched a tirade nor called President Kerwin’s office nor filed a complaint with the FDA–I just asked if others had their cards yet or had broken the code on the insurance co. website. </p>
<p>But ya know, folks, along the lines of “don’t feed the ■■■■■” I recommend we don’t fuel the cadmiumred helicopter. Now excuse me, I have to call D and warn her to watch out for bodies tumbling from lofted beds out of windows and onto her head as she walks to class.</p>
<p>I really think that this is getting a little out of hand.
What is it called when you “dis” a person on line? I’m not a fan of Cadium Red by any means, but the sarcastic, “Holier than thou attitude” I’m seeing on this board is really disheartening.
Is this how you want to really present yourselves? Very condescending and mean spirited.</p>
<p>Well hello5 many of these people started out by offering suggestions and help. Rants, ignoring positive suggestions and accusations of bad parenting and permissiveness along with a healthy dose of holier than though coupled with sarcasm was thrown back at the folks who posted. At some point you really do wonder if this person is some kind of plant.</p>
<p>I originally started reading this thread because my daughter is very interested in AU. If I had not read the thread from the beginning and saw the nature of the escalation by CadmiumRed I may have chosen not to make the trip to DC for a visit. </p>
<p>I see the opposit - I see someone who has co-opted the thread for petty grievances who seems to be trying to harm the school. This individual is carrying through with the holier than thou attitude and seems to be extraordinarily mean spirited and self righteous.</p>
<p>Now can someone whose son or daughter chose American University share with me their insight as to why the choose the university and what they are encouraged by or disappointed in. Overcrowded rooms don’t count because I am a boomer who grew up in triples and elementary class sizes of 45.</p>
<p>Well, when I started this thread my hopes were that it would be a place where parents could share COMMON CONCERNS about AU. Believe me, I am all too familiar with the rantings of CadiumRed as my previous posts in this and other threads will show. I too, believe that she only wants to portray AU in a negative light.
However, as an AU parent I’m concerned that prospective parents, such as yourself, read these threads and find inane rantings and demands, to be answered by sarcastic and mean spirited responses.
How does THAT portray Au positively?
As I’ve suggested many times before---- if we ignore her, perhaps she’ll go away.</p>
<p>To answer your question- my s a freshmen is having a wonderful experience so far. No crazy roommates or drunken floormmates. Plenty to do without alcohol, shuttle and metro is great. He’s been to baseball, soccer games and movies all over the city.
Work load is ok, so far and he’s enjoying some profs more than others
Oh and he hasn’t yet fallen out of his lofted bed!</p>
<p>My freshman son is having a wonderful time. He is in a triple and is getting along great with his roomates. They have some great electronic equipment and their room started out as a great place to hang out. I asked him on Monday how late he was staying up and whether he was getting enough sleep. He said that one of his roomates has a lot of 8:30 classes, so he is hanging out in the lounge when he wants to stay up later than his roomie. So it sounds like they are respecting each other boundries very well.</p>
<p>He says his hardest class is Honors English but he was pleased with his paper on the technology fast. So all is well so far.</p>
<p>As far as why he chose American</p>
<ol>
<li> The scholarship</li>
<li> The friendliness of the faculty - he was offered and given a private tour of the new business wing by the dean </li>
<li> Unlike other schools, American is investing in additional faculty - last spring the trustees voted to spend their surplus - other schools we looked at were/are cutting staff</li>
<li> The high ranking of the business school and that it had landed on the list for the first time at #28 - an indicator of good things to come probably</li>
<li> The small class size (that was mine, not my son’s- he said he didn’t care)</li>
<li> He liked the kids he met - when he stayed there on accepted students day, they took the busses to Georgetown and had a blast (originally, he said that he wouldn’t want to be on the honors floor but he changed his mind after staying there.)</li>
</ol>
<p>iadorking,
to address your question,
My S, a junior IR major, has had an incredible experience thus far. Fascinating classes, truly amazing internship opportunities, soaking up the town and the atmosphere, loves the fact that the campus is in a quiet part of town but easily accessible to the city. Lives off campus now - has a great place he is sharing with a bunch of guys & takes the metro to school. Transportation home is very easy (I like that part) as it would be in, I’m sure any fairly major metro area. Downside - hasn’t liked some of his required (gen-ed) courses, and the advisor originally assigned to him was not helpful. He just found someone else, and he told me recently that the original person is now gone. Could go on and on but in summary it’s a wonderful fit for him. Any questions, feel free to ask.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman in Anderson–supposedly the “wild” dorm, and is very, very happy. The dorm is not wild, just very social, which suits him fine. He has found a great group of guys on his floor and they seem to have a lot of fun together. One of their favorite activites is going to a bunch of ethnic eateries in a row and sharing one or two dishes at each, the more exotic the better.</p>
<p>He has really liked his classes and professors and finds the workload reasonable. He is in a UC and is enjoying it–he thinks it is a great concept. His advisor was helpful when he ended up with overlapping lab classes on Wednesdays–everything was straightened out in short order.</p>
<p>He has gone out for a club sport team and an acapella group so he is pursuing a wide range of activities.</p>
<p>I’ve been following for a while and find I really need to add my 2 cents…</p>
<p>My son has been very happy with AU…right from the start. He liked the size of the campus and the location. It offers all the things he’s interested in studying. After our visit last summer, he had some several communications to see if he had any other questions. He was admitted into the Honors College and offered a nice scholarship. Over this summer, his advisor called him twice, once before orientation and again after they met in person. </p>
<p>He is on the Honor’s Floor in Anderson. He is not in a triple, but when we arrived there was “triple” furniture. It took about 10 days, but it was removed. He and his roommate get along well. They have different schedules and are interested in different things, but find they can work around that as far as staying quiet when another is sleeping/studying. He says the dorm can get loud on the weekends but nothing too outrageous. During the week it’s not a problem. He likes to study in the study room.</p>
<p>So far the classes are fine. He has one large gen-ed class with about 60 kids which he doesn’t mind. He has an evening class which he wasn’t too thrilled about, but it has turned out to be his favorite class so far. As for work load, so far mostly reading assignments with very little written work and a few quizzes. There are things coming up which he already knows about. </p>
<p>He has met a ton of nice kids in his dorm, classes, Honors 101, clubs, and club sport. They have taken the metro into Bethesda for movies and down to DC to museums. They play poker in the lounge and frisbee in the quad. He was worried about only 2 meals being served on the weekends, but has had no problem with missing any meals as they find someplace to go. We e-mail frequently and talk on the phone about once a week.</p>
<p>He was admitted into 9 schools, including his dad’s Ivy League Alma Mater, but picked American and hasn’t thought twice about his choice. </p>
<p>My heart was breaking on the 7 hour ride home without him, but hearing about all the wonderful days he is having makes things OK. We will be up for Parent’s Weekend in October.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=3boyz]
He is on the Honor’s Floor in Anderson…They play poker in the lounge
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>That’s my son’s poker table top… he’s the instigator of the poker on the Honor’s floor in Anderson. My son likes the kids he has met also. Perhaps we will see each other in Oct.</p>
<p>I forgot to include why my son selected AU.</p>
<p>He wanted a medium size school…he hated all of the large campuses he visited, but worried that over the years he might feel too constricted at some of the LACs he liked.</p>
<p>He decided he really wanted to be in a city. He also wanted a real campus and a real campus life, all of the stereotypical things like frisbee on the quad and an active intramural sports scene.</p>
<p>He wanted small classes, top-knotch faculty, and a wide range of opportunities. He fell in love with AU on a visit day. The deal was sealed when he walked through the student center building early in the morning and saw 3 boys playing cards–one in a shirt and tie, one in jeans, and one in pajama pants–he said he could see himself being any of the three on any day. Every student he spoke to seemed to be involved…with classes, extracurriculars, internships–the kids all seemed active and outgoing, ambitious live wire types.</p>
<p>My son is also a freshman at AU and seems to be thriving so far. He chose it because of location, size and the intership program. And, the scholarship, of course. It was the lowest “ranked” school that he was accepted to but it appealed to him the most.
He has found his advisor to accessible and helpful. After the first few days of classes, he changed several-- found the process to be managable and the professors extremely helpful and flexible.<br>
Socially, he is finding a wide group of people he enjoys spending time with both at AU and the other area schools.<br>
When I helped him move in, I was impressed with the cheerful, competent, help on hand to handle all the little issues that come up.</p>
<p>D chose American over 6 others - and is very happy. She is in McDowell. She has a triple and actually they are liking it although might detriple should the chance arise. She was originally premed/bio but changed to undeclared over the summer. She is enjoying classes and tried out for and made the Pentagon area synchronized skating team which keeps her involved in skating which she loves. She found a babysitting job that will be lucrative. She has been literally ALL over the city plus Silver Springs and Bethesda on bus and metro. She loves the G’town area. But not the school, says not pretty and too big. She chose AU over some excellent schools both coed and all womens’ for the location, variety and quality of academics, the beautiful campus and is very happy so far.</p>
<p>The official word is that ID cards will go out this week (that’s what they said 2 weeks ago, though), and they will be sent to the student’s home address, so will need to be remailed. If anyone would like the details on how to download a temporary one, PM me. (D tried it, and it worked.) I think it’s a good idea for students to have something in their wallets for the time being.</p>
<p>ladorking, I’ll add my freshman D’s experience. She chose AU for a number of reasons: the close-to-urban location (she is much more a city mouse than a country mouse), the particular program she planned to major in, the fact that she was put in Honors and was awarded a Dean’s Scholarship, the positive vibe she got from an informal overnight visit with a sophomore majoring in her field (someone she “met” via CC), and the strength of the school’s disabilities services (she has ADHD and a learning disability). In addition, we parents had a strong preference for schools with non-airline public transportation to and from home, so she could come back easily and at her whim, and AU filled the bill (we live in an Amtrak town less than 6 hours away).</p>
<p>She is having a positive experience so far, loves her classes and her dorm’s location (Hughes), is dealing fine with the forced triple situation, is involved in a couple of extracurricular activities, and has interviewed for a babysitting job. She hasn’t taken advantage of the city very much, but I’m sure that will come with time. She is missing home a bit–pets, friends and even me–but that would have been her style wherever she attended. Most important, she hasn’t given a single thought to the colleges she decided against, which is something I feared a bit, since she has a tendency to second guess herself. </p>
<p>Why do you all need to continue to defend you child’s choice in schools. I have watched this thread and can’t believe the 'helicoptering" that is going on. I haven’t seen similar threads in top universities or ivy league. Give it a rest.</p>
<p>If you read these posts a little more carefully you’ll see we’re not defending anything. Refer to post 183, we’re answering a parent’s question…
“Now can someone whose son or daughter chose American University share with me their insight as to why the choose the university and what they are encouraged by or disappointed in.”</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your insight into American University. Yes I wanted to get the thread on a more positive track because it had become silly but more importantly after reading all of the college publications we wanted real input from students and their familys. Not a defense - rather an honest opinion. When you live in the upper midwest and your daughter wants to look at universities and colleges in the midatlantic/southern states you have to begin to narrow your search before visits are planned. Otherwise you can eat up college savings (and vacation days) visiting colleges that are way off base. A forum like cc helps gather this info prior to visits and I am very grateful to all who post. I fully intend to help others out by posting visits and comments where pertinent.</p>
<p>I would hope that if your sons and daughters are attending a university that you would have lots of comments that would give positive insight.</p>
<p>1 comment particularly helpful was about the 3 students playing cards. D likes to wear a poodle skirt one day, her crown another and barn clothes (hopefully clean!) the next. Sounds as if this is a place she would feel comfortable doing that. And never underestimate the importance of these details along with the academics.
Thanks all.</p>
<p>I do find it amusing after folks on this thread were accused of neglecting and not caring for their kids now someone is accusing them of “helicoptering”. Ah well - can’t please everyone.</p>
<p>My daughter really likes her classes and is very impressed with the professors. Her only problem now remains with dorm life and the forced triple with 2 roommates. Where do you see posted ads for needed babystitters at AU?</p>