<p>Concern about the cost of Family Weekend is certainly no joke for some of us. Sorry, not all of us can afford to take 6 kids from the dorm to Maggiano’s in Friendship Heights for dinner or let them ignore the meal plans. As I recall you said on this thread, that your son’s room was social central, with video gaming, loudness, where kids blow off steam, (after studying mind you?) every night until as late as 1 a.m. I forgot video gaming was an essential skill for serious students in college. You also recommended the Georgetown Holiday Inn to poor MommaJ without even realizing how close Good Guys was in relation to it. Please don’t criticize my judgement in relation to the safety and well-being of my child. My daughter also told us how kids go to Adams Morgan at 2 a.m. some nights. This is a very dangerous gang -oriented part of D.C., much more risky than Georgetown and Glover park. I think parents need to realize D.C. is not one big safe playground, and study should always be a priority.</p>
<p>Different families do different things…I think MommaJ is adult enough to handle a Holiday Inn even if a strip club is nearby. The HI is fine. Who cares if kids go to Adams Morgan at 2 AM? Its none of our business. Up till 1 AM? Not unusual. Teens/young adults have different sleep/wake cycles, different brain chemistry, and that is not late to them. Can we not just enjoy our S/D being at AU without the nastiness?</p>
<p>Hey, cadmium red, who said you could take my name in vain! If the Georgetown Holiday Inn had been in my price range, I would have been happy to stay there even if Good Guys was inside the hotel. I’m always up for new experiences.</p>
<p>You know, it wasn’t that long ago that cadmiumred was complaining that parents paying full tuition are subsidizing the students who are getting a free ride or big
financial aid packages. Yet now, with her demand for no attendance fee and free food, she wants the tuition payments of those parents not attending Parents Weekend to subsidize the costs of those who are! We demand consistency from our adorably wacky posters! (Since brisket does not appear to be offered during Parents Weekend–what was Pres. Kerwin thinking?–perhaps cadmiumred can cook us up a batch for a nice CC parents picnic on Saturday.)</p>
<p>When we stayed at the Georgetown Holiday Inn, we got a rate of $119. They offer discounts for AAA members and also for AU families, but I bet they charge higher rates for family weekend. The fact that there is a stripper bar in or near the Georgetown campus certainly shouldn’t put the whole neighborhood under a quarantine. I figure I’m mature enough to ignore the people who go there, just as I am sure they ignore me. Actually, I wasn’t even aware this place existed…but then they exist in every city in the US.</p>
<p>We don’t generally go to family weekends, partly because we prefer to do our own activities instead of the dog-and-pony shows that most schools put on, partly because we hate crowds, and mostly because we really enjoy getting to know our sons’ friends and on family weekends the kids find themselves being pulled in all directions.</p>
<p>Cadmiumred, I’m sure your daughter is very safe because she will never venture from her room except to go to class. I’m curious, though…what does she do for fun?</p>
<p>As far as grades are going , S was happy to report an 88 on a test in Calc 221…taken when he had a temp of 101 ! Idiot child decided he would go to the health center after the test. He was positive for strep. Even better, 2/3 of the class got the same problem wrong, all of them misinterpreting one of the questions, and the professor may throw the question out…</p>
<p>“Do you think they could have been talking about cadmiumred’s daughter?”</p>
<p>Doubt it. 'red’s daughter - thank heavens! - doesn’t exist. 'red is not going to Parents Weekend 'cause there is no daughter to see. (If there was, AU would be charging her double because of the added expense of meeting with housing and dining. Why should we have to pay for HER meetings?)</p>
<p>Mini:
Interesting, you say my daughter doesn’t exist, when you hide behind the persona of your wife, “Ellen.” No one ever knows to whom they are responding. Ellen, the nurse, claims that her husband also posts through her “mini” threads, but also says she never knows when? On a number of posts, parents are confused and think you are a mom. Once, on a past thread, you corrected a poster, and actually said you were a father. You post negative responses, and your wife takes the blame. She then tries to distance herself by signing some of her posts as “Ellen.” Everyone check out all " mini " threads and you’ll see what he or she does. Thank goodness I am honest and actually care about
my family and others.</p>
<p>Cadimumred- I’m just curious what dorm your D lives in. I live off campus but have been the dorms quite frequently lately taking self defense classes, working on group projects, for study groups and just to hang out with friends in different dorms and they are always really comfortable if not warm. Most of my friends have been leaving their ACs off and their rooms are not cold at all! It hasn’t really been cold outside yet either, I doubt they’ll turn the heat on when it still is almost 70 outside everyday.</p>
<p>Cadmiumred–you are hysterical, as in very funny but also completely insane.</p>
<p>For anyone new to this thread, be aware that Cadmiumred has a history of outrageous comments that have no basis in reality. Most students love AU and are having a great experience there! My daughter, a freshman, is a pretty serious student, and so far is very impressed with her classes and loves her professors. She also has made lots of friends and has enjoyed exploring DC with them. Yes, the dorms are frequently noisy (what freshman dorms aren’t?), but the library is always open and she goes there when she needs a quiet place to study. So all in all, she is having a great freshman year and would highly recommend AU to anyone who asked!!</p>
<p>A recent grad, I spent 3 years in the dorms, frequented Adams-Morgan occasionally on the weekends, maintained a pretty healthy social life, was well known by students and faculty alike, and yet still did very well at American. I’m in law school now and feel very prepared for the challenges of 1L because of my time spent at AU, both in and outside of the classroom. </p>
<p>I just wanted to say that I really hope that Cadmium doesn’t sway shyer students away from AU because of her (?) opinion that it is a party school. I was very shy and not at all a party-goer in high school. When I was applying to college, I was terrified of a big party school where everyone was dumb drunk all the time and there was nothing else to do. I found AU to be a perfect transition for me from shy girl to outgoing woman, without the pressure of doing the buck-wild college party thing. Ultimately, being social in college has it’s benefits just as studying all day does; I was better at interviewing for internships, better at making conversation while networking, and better at interacting with professors who will ultimately be writing you recommendation letters, either for jobs or continuing your education. </p>
<p>And for the record, I had never heard of Good Guys, the crazy strip club, until after I turned 21 and was going out in Glover Park. It’s honestly too far away from campus for disoriented, campus-bound freshman to want to wander over to. Very rarely did I go to a neighborhood that didn’t have a Metro stop because you just don’t know the city very well the first year. And even if a freshman did find Glover Park, there’s nothing about the place from the outside that is at all indecent looking. </p>
<p>I just hope that parents and prospective student alike looking on this page do not get too concerned. It’s really a wonderful, healthy community to learn and grow in.</p>
<p>AUGrad09,
Thank you for your honest and informative post. You’re a wonderful spokeswoman for the university. You convey the spirit of AU better than any of us parents can. After reading your post, I’m happier than ever that S (who is also having a great experience) is attending.</p>
<p>Thank you so much, AUGrad. Your experience is the one I am hoping my son will have. I want him to acheive academically, of course, but I also want him to have a well-rounded college experience as well. And you are right–it’s important to hone social skills as well.</p>
<p>I just want to assure cadmiumred that heat will not be a problem. In accordance with a century-old AU tradition, after all the lofts and upper bunks have been removed from detripled rooms, they will be piled in front of the library and students will be issued axes with which to reduce them to small pieces of wood. Then students will carry as much as they can in one trip back to the room, where they will find matches awaiting them and can start a camp fire immediately. (Honors students of course get to make two trips). One roommate will need to take the night shift to make sure the fire doesn’t go out, but with the hours these crazy kids keep, it isn’t usually a problem.</p>
<p>Can you give me some information on FA and merit aid offered at AU? I’ve heard the school is not generous when it comes to FA. I’d like some of your opinions/advice as I’m leaning towards applying ED…</p>
<p>If financial aid is an issue, you absolutely should NOT apply ED. If you have the stats to command merit aid, you will certainly be admitted in the regular pool and can then compare packages from multiple schools.</p>
<p>My son received the Presidential Scholarship (27k) and the AU sponsored NMS (2k) for a total of 29k in merit money from the school. He receives an outside scholarship that also helps. Although the Presidential Scholarship is the larges pure “merit” award (I believe), some students do receive additional “grant” money from the school that can be combined with the merit award. There are also several narrower eligibility awards (like for the children of Methodist ministers).<br>
Here is a link to the scholarship page at AU:
<a href=“http://american.edu/financialaid/freshmanscholarships.cfm[/url]”>http://american.edu/financialaid/freshmanscholarships.cfm</a></p>
<p>How much is anyone aware in regards to the major resurfacing job that is taking place on Mass. ave. ,in front of AU? D.C. contractors are grinding the dusty concrete, and daughter said that they are currently getting ready to pour hot asphalt over Mass. ave., between Ward Circle and Westmoreland Circle. Would anyone might know how carcenogenic this might be? From what I understand, hot asphalt emits airborne petroleum products such as tolulene. The kids walking from Northside dorms to the Katzen Center, and the kids walking to the law school could be affected by this.</p>
<p>Isn’t it a sad commentary that that the most active forum on the AU site is this one, where parents take advantage of the opportunity to cast aspersions towards each other? Whatever feelings you all have towards each other is completely irrelevant to the spirit and purpose of CC. Perhaps you all need to take a deep breath, and stop trying to live vicariously through your child’s choice of schools. Go out and get real lives.</p>