Leah

In my experience, AU has been a wonderful place to attend university. The location of the school is amazing, with shuttles to the metro from which any part of the city is readily accessible. The size of the student population is ideal, there are enough students to still discover new friends in different classes but not so many that finding familiar faces proves difficult. There is always something to be doing in DC and the (free!) venues available to students (like the Smithsonians) are a wonderful resource.

Classes and faculty have been wonderful; professors are easily approachable and it’s rare to find a class with over 30 people, meaning students receive a lot of individual attention. Most professors learn your name within the first couple weeks and work hard to remain approachable. Often times, meeting with your professor outside of class is easy enough to arrange, especially with the “University Club” program in the main dining center, where professors may eat and invite students to dine with them. Course difficulty varies from class to class, naturally, but the overall workload is fairly manageable. Finding room in the packed library to study before finals time requires some effort though!

AU students tend to be very tolerant individuals overall. With a large gay and Jewish community (hence the nickname “AU: Gay-Jew” students are hardly ever discriminatory. All persons at AU are welcomed despite their differences. Most AU students seem to hail from the New York and New Jersey area and are very, very politically aware. In 2006, AU was ranked the #1 most politically active campus in the US.

American University has a very wide range of activities for students to engage in. During the beginning of the year, the school puts on an activities fair to promote involvement which generally takes up the entire quad (no small feat). The administration will work with students to create and start up new clubs as well, if someone were to find their options lacking. Although Fraternities and Sororities aren’t given official school housing, their presence is most certainly felt on campus. Dorms are usually decorated with posters declaring the student’s Greek affiliation in lieu of actual housing and most parties around campus are hosted by these groups. If you’re not into drinking or partying though, there is still plenty to do in the city itself.

American University students are most commonly stereotyped as humanities-oriented and internship-driven. Due to the lack of a well-developed math and science program, in combination with the nature of life in D.C. (fast past and professional) it’s not surprising that AU students have this reputation. The bottom line perception is that the school is less academically oriented and more internship-experience based.

I think it?s fair to say that this stereotype is accurate. AU has a wonderful career center (ranked #3 in the nation) and D.C. is a city that really provides students in the area with a great opportunity for work and internship experience, which obviously contributes to an internship-driven student body. While this may translate into a less well-rounded education (less focus on math and science), having a foot in the door professionally while still getting a world-class grounding in IR or Poli-Sci is definitely an attractive feature that really appeals to a lot of students.