Looking to hear from current students or parents. How do you like AU?
S20 applied RD and this is one of his top contenders. He likes the academic offerings. He is not sure what he wants to major in yet but they offer everything on his potential list. He likes DC. He visited the campus once and liked it enough, though did not meet a lot of students and we will go back if he is accepted. He is not into politics as a major, but is happy to hear about it/discuss it and knows it is a big part of the scene at AU. The one negative in his mind is no football team to cheer for, but he can accept that.
But there is something that seems “off.” There are rumors that a lot of kids transfer out. That the social life is “bad.” That the academics may or may not be good (conflicting reports, though the small class size angle is appealing to him if it is true). There’s some negativity on CC about AU.
Please share your experiences! Thank you.
Well, the retention rate is 90%, so it seems that 9 out of 10 kids are happy.
Look at the website Niche. You can read student perspectives on many different factors about any university.
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@TimeFlies2 : Interesting topic. As noted above, AU loses about 10% or 11% of each freshman class. I have asked why, but have never received a clear response.
FWIW AU has an imbalance of females (62%) over males (38%).
Actually, they lose more than that. Check out Table 3-1 here: https://www.american.edu/provost/oira/upload/preliminary-fall-2019-academic-data-reference-book-5.pdf
Freshman retention for the 2018 entering class was 86.7%. That’s down from 89.8% for the 2015 and 2016 entering classes, and down from 87.9% for the 2017 entering class. It’s going the wrong direction.
That’s only part of the story because that’s just first year retention. Some sophomores don’t show up for their junior year, and some juniors don’t show up for their senior year. For the 2015 and 2016 entering classes, only about 73% were there when senior year rolled around (some graduated early, so the true 4-year retention rate is about 80%).
I read an article that said private colleges have an average retention rate of 80.4%. If that’s true, AU is right on the average.
And, @TimeFlies2 , I sent you a private message.
I don’t think there’s anything “odd” about AU.
Like every college- there are kids who show up knowing what they want to study and kids who show up who don’t have a clue. Like every college, you have kids from suburban or rural areas who think living in a big city will be fabulous-- and some love it, and some don’t. Like every college, you have kids from 2500 miles away who couldn’t wait to get away from their hometown- and some of them thrive, and some of them are homesick and decide to transfer to be closer to family, significant other, the family dog, whatever.
I know kids who are there who love it, kids who graduated who love it. None of them transferred. But I know kids who think that AU is a good safety school if they don’t get into Georgetown and think that’s not a good strategy- it is different from Georgetown in a lot of ways, and going to AU as a “next best thing” to Georgetown is likely to lead to disappointment.
Where else is your son applying- and what are the subjects on his “possible” list?
I don’t know what’s “off” about AU, but my son toured it last year during his spring break. He didn’t get a good vibe from AU. I’m not sure he could explain it fully but it seemed “off” to him. He said the students seemed disconnected and weren’t friendly. He really liked GWU when we toured it the following day. The tour guide wasn’t the best but my son really like the university and the students we encountered. The students seemed happy, down to earth, and reached out to my son, making him feel at home while he was there. He didn’t bother applying to AU but did apply RD to GWU.
@sunwalker So funny, we toured AU and GWU back to back too, during spring break, and S did not get a good vibe at GWU. He didn’t apply there.
Tours make such a difference, I know. Our guide at AU seemed intelligent and funny, though maybe “quirky” ( in a good way,) and S liked the campus feel more than the integrated-into-the-city feel.
We tease S relentlessly about this. It’s similar at some of his other schools too. He’s shy around girls and we tell him they will come and find him in college!