<p>According to Foreign Policy magazine, American University is ranked 17th in Undergraduate Programs (SIS). </p>
<p>According to Bus Week, American University is ranked 28th in Undergraduate Programs for Bussiness. </p>
<p>In addition to this, it is part of the DC trifecta (great location), has an excellent Honors College, and has strong connections. So this leads me to my question: Why is American University not ranked hgher according to USNWR? It isn’t incredibly important to me, but I wanted to know if there was something I was overlooking before I commit to a school.</p>
<p>I think it is because:
-AU has a relatively high admit rate (but it's getting more competitive each year)
-AU could do better with retention
-AU has a small endowment and does not fare well with alumni donations
-There is (obviously) a large gap between the "average" honors student and the "average" non honors student
-There are a lot of adjuncts (who aren't paid very much)
-The rankings are arbitrary</p>
<p>I think the reason is that, even putting aside the arbitrary reasons for these things, American is a top 30 school in Int'l Relations, Business, Public Affairs, and Communication. But maths and sciences? Liberal arts generally speaking? Pre-med? The best parts of American are in its specialties, not in the general things that USNWR ranks.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, is admission into AU's strong areas (Poly Sci, Intl Rel, etc.) more selective than say hard sciences, some liberal arts, etc.?</p>