<p>I just spoke to my son about this last week, and we were saying that Verizon coverage is great everywhere else besides those particular dorms. (There are another set of dorms on the other end of campus that have just fine coverage.)</p>
<p>Do the kids declare a major now or must they have a set number of credits? The advisors are very unclear for Arts and Sciences. My daughter received an email which assumed the kids may have already declared majors?? How would they know how? Never been told before???</p>
<p>Do you know anything about T-mobile coverage in dorms and other buildings? Thx.</p>
<p>@cadmiumred</p>
<p>The students can declare majors now, or wait to declare, I declared when I arrived since I am a Business student, but as my 2nd year comes to a close I know many people who are only now declaring their major. What that’ll mean is that the student wont take any classes for their major; they’ll work on general requirements and then focus their studies on their major by the end. They can also elect to change major, I know people who have switched from SIS to KSB, SPA to SOC etc, so dont feel as if you’re required to have everything set in stone walking into AU! thats what the advisors are for, to help create your road map in order to get the most of your experience and get the degree you want. </p>
<p>If they do know what they want though, I’d make sure to pass that information over to the advisor, because you can begin major intensive classes even as a freshman and spread out your geneds!</p>
<p>@chanceman6</p>
<p>A good friend of mine has T-Mobile, and she has never complained… I’ll ask her again and let you know if that changes!</p>
<p>Kingston:</p>
<p>Thnak you so much for your insight into this. Do you know whether once you declare a major, can you add another major (double major ) later on? Also, My daughter was told by her advisor that she would probably get closed out of a good number of her chosen Gen Eds. Why do they say try to complete them in the first 2 years, if you can’t even get into them because of the way priority registration is setup??? Any input would be great!!! Anyway around this???</p>
<p>Kingston: Also, why don’t they tell you before you agree to attend AU, that if you don’t come in with numerous AP’s, or if you are not a junior or senior, you can’t get all of your necessary Gen Ed courses or intro courses in your major in your freshman or sophomore years??? Where are all the needed sections of these Gen Ed courses???</p>
<p>@Cadmiumred</p>
<p>You can add another major, a minor, or even both; you can go crazy with these things, and the advisors will work out a way to make it happen. With regards to Gen Eds, all I can say is thank God they are getting reformed. I honestly despise the Gened system and your daughter is extremely lucky to not have to go through the stupidity that it is. I’m ending my sophomore year in a month and I still have 3 more geneds to do! </p>
<p>With regards to registering for them, you register for what is available, if a class is closed you can go on waitlist, but other than that, tough luck… if there is a certain course you REALLY want to take, you could wait to take it when you have the credits to sign up for it, but other than that there’s no real control one has over the system (IT IS GETTING REFORMED IN THE COMING YEAR!!) </p>
<p>Why they don’t tell you things? well, thats just marketing, every university attempts to cover their shortcomings, and this is definitely one of AUs. It is also impossible to get out of ALL your geneds since there is a cap of 24 (I BELIEVE, not 100% sure) credits one can bring in. So regardless your daughter will have to take some geneds. I would have her check what she gets out of and then make a road map of what she wants to take, this ends up making things easier.</p>
<p>So I assume you all got recently got a call from a polite and earnest AU student asking you to donate to the school. In our case, this is completely impossible, sitting here halfway between paying last semester’s bill and paying next semester’s bill. I’m not sure parents of current students are the appropriate people to solicit, and I wonder how successful these calls are. If I did have a bigger budget for charity this year, I think a lot of causes would rank before AU on my priority list. Did anyone respond positively to the solicitation?</p>
<p>Regarding Gen Eds, I don’t understand why it’s so awful to have to take a few Gen Ed classes after sophomore year. The object is to provide the student with a well-rounded education. Why should that necessarily stop after two years? My two most treasured academic experiences from my college years were both courses outside my major which I took to satisfy distribution requirements. Two incredible professors opened up new worlds to me. Gen Eds should be seen as opportunities to broaden one’s horizons, rather than dreary obligations.</p>
<p>@MommaJ</p>
<p>It isnt seen like that, especially when you’re a Business major being forced to take a class on Biology you dont care for and it ends up bringing down your GPA because its not your priority. The GenEd system is definitely flawed because most people see it the same way that I do, as a complete waste of time and money. </p>
<p>However, that has not ruined my AU experience, and while sometimes getting into geneds has proved somewhat difficult, I have always been able to get the ones I wanted … or better stated least disliked … by good planning and timing everything correctly.</p>
<p>There are definitely ways of getting what you “want” in the gened system, but you sometimes have to work at it to get it. And even then you have some professors who take it too seriously for their own good. I dont care about natural psychology, so why should i place my efforts there when my real interest is business? and they teach us the psychology of marketing in class there?</p>
<p>MommaJ, all colleges solicit parents for donations. Some parents give nothing, some give small gifts, occasionally they make huge gifts. If they never asked, very few of those gifts would ever occur. </p>
<p>Unlike at some private secondary schools, no one outside the development office will know or care whether you gave or not, so if you cannot afford to give or are not inclined to do so, just say no. </p>
<p>My daughter has been accepted and offered a pretty generous merit award. If she attends, I am one of those likely to make a small gift each year. In fact, as impressed as I have been with AU so far, I would be tempted to give even if my daughter went elsewhere.</p>
<p>But parents’ giving (or not) will have no direct impact on their sons’ or daughters’ experiences.</p>
<p>Kingston:</p>
<p>How do you work at getting what you want in the Geneds? Did you take Biology 100 or the science psychology Gened for the science requirement. What my daughter ran into is that she had to take an advanced art course before the intro courses, because the university placed the intro art course in the Geneds where juniors and seniors were allowed to fill them up because of priority credits. They are still making making her take the intros (If she can even get into one), because they are required for the art major. It makes no sense whatsoever! She will be too advanced for the intros especially when you have non -art majors taking these classes, just filling geneds for other majors.</p>
<p>Just as an opposing opinion to ckingston (not saying he’s wrong, just not everyone sees it the way he does), I actually appreciate the gen ed system. There’s some really great classes I have taken that I never would have considered if it were not for the gen ed requirement, much like MommaJ said. </p>
<p>Now, I’m not in the business school, so I’m not sure what the prevailing opinion is there, nor am I saying that the program couldn’t use improvement, just sharing my personal opinion on it. I agree that it helps to provide a well-rounded education, since the real world is much more interdisciplinary than any single major of study.</p>
<p>CR,
You can insinuate all you like about something being “wrong” or “fishy” with my posts.
It’s not that complicated. AU met my son’s needs very well when he was an IR major. He may decide on a career path where another school MIGHT better suit those needs.
AU has been a positive learning experience for my S. Stop trying to turn my posts into something they’re not to serve your own negative AU purposes.</p>
<p>I’m a bit surprised that this subject hasn’t appeared anywhere in the AU forum yet. For those who don’t know, Alex Knepper wrote a highly controversial column on the subject of date rape that’s received national coverage–you can Google it all, from the column to the reaction, and even his appearance of the CBS Early Show today. I come down on the side of free speech and academic freedom–I don’t agree with everything Knepper said (though he has some valid points), but find the PC reaction by The Eagle (apologizing for the column and asking for Knepper’s resignation) deplorable.</p>
<p>MommaJ, thanks for pointing this out. I am on a Spring Break from TV and I’m enjoying it so much I’m thinking of extending it. So I was totally unaware of this.</p>
<p>Anyway, from a parent’s perspective: these are two very impressive young people arguing their points of view as I wish politicians would do it, reasonably and respectfully. Much good will come of this dialog, and the “fallout” will be a learning experience that could never be replicated in the classroom.</p>
<p>Lest anyone think AU alone in controversy, Georgetown has had its own flap on birth control recently (Google “Georgetown Plan A”).</p>
<p>At the end of the day, it may not make sense, but oh well, roll with the punches, its stuck up people like this that feel that everything has to be there way that really is detrimental to the continued success at AU. If your daughter has to take them later because they’re gen eds, tell her to suck it up and take them later. We all do it, so stop whining about it.</p>
<p>I did take some sciences classes which I find absolutely useless, however there have been some bright parts of the gen ed program such as the economics section and a couple classes such as Visual literacy and Competition in an Interdependent world. Many people enjoy all the gen eds, I don’t but thats my personal opinion. </p>
<p>The priority system. thats the way it works, I’m sorry if you dont get your class, but you should create a couple different schedules just in case you dont and have a back up. You can get on waitlist and more often than not you’ll get into the class. </p>
<p>Cadmiumred, I’m sorry your daughter has to take intro classes when she has the credits to sign up for them, in junior year, but I’ve got to do it too. So stop whining and just do it already. </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>In response to the GPA issue. You can take gen eds that are not related to your major as pass fail classes so they do not affect you GPA. Our D has has done that with some of her gen eds.
Ellen</p>
<p>@Hello5 - While The Eagle did apologize, I don’t believe they asked for his resignation. He decided not to re-apply for the columnist position for next year of his own accord.</p>