My daughter has been accepted to American this week. She has not taken any APs or Honors in High School and also has a learning disability which she has learned to overcome by putting in 150% effort into her studies. My concern with American is that the workload will be too challenging for her. Also, she is by no means passionate about politics. She got accepted into many other colleges with American being by far the most competitive. So is this the right school for her?
I can’t say if AU is right for your daughter, but I do know that there are a number of students who aren’t extremely passionate about politics (although my kid is one of the latter). AU provides a range of academic and disability support services for students. There’s a lot of info on the AU web.
See this info for new undergrads: http://www.american.edu/newstudents/
Under the heading of Life@AU, there’s info about services for students with disabilities:
Well, first off, congratulations to your daughter!
The University has a very accommodating Academic Support & Access Center. With the proper documentation, your daughter will be able to receive accommodations such as increased test times, more accommodating professors, and general tips on how to be successful in the college atmosphere. Examples of accommodations that I know some friends receive is increased time to complete finals and I even have a math professor who alters his grade policies for those with test taking problems (Professor Hakim is amazing)! With the right effort and communication with her professors, I do not think the workload will be too challenging for her.
Politics is another thing, however. AU is very political, there is no way to spin that. It is not necessary to be interested in politics but she must be able to stand the discussion of politics; she does not have to participate but she will not be able to avoid it. Luckily for her, it is likely that the political atmosphere will not be as nearly toxic as it was this last year due to the primaries and then the election.
If you have the chance, I would visit the campus during one of the welcome days that is offered this month. Even have your daughter stay overnight with a current student if she is comfortable with that! While here, you should definitely go to the Academic Support & Access Center to speak with them, they are an important resource.
If you have any more questions, let me know! I’ll be glad to help.
Depends on what major. I have found it very difficult here for all the wrong reasons (academically speaking).
They challenge you in the wrong ways and don’t really teach you well. The education I’ve received here in CAS has been a joke-- but it depends what major really.
It is pretty political here. It was way worse dealing with it staying in the dorms, now that I’m in an APT off campus its better except right after the election