American University Top Questions

Only to a certain extent. If politics/social justice isn't your thing, you will definitely find like-minded folks. I promise. There are plenty of people at AU who are not studying political science or international relations. I've also heard excellent things about Kogod, our business school. Also, DC is not necessarily all about politics, contrary to what the news would like you to believe. It is a city with a rich, diverse culture in its own right. Get to know it, and you shall reap the rewards.

AU is mostly female, approximately 65 percent. While there is no true way to measure what our political leanings are, I definitely saw more Obama signs in windows than McCain signs during election season.

Tara tells us what the common AU stereotypes are

Kyle on stereotypes about AU

AU students aren't really that stuck up - very down to earth people and very socially responsible

They are, or at least they seem to be. I encounter in my daily life a lot of gay guys, and GLBT issues are taken very seriously here. As for Jewish kids, Hillel has a strong presence on campus, and I've known very many Jewish people, from all different branches of the religion.

Yes, they are are very accurate. There are some members of the minority who don't major in SIS though.

American definitely lacks diversity. While a lot of students are here on scholarship, most have wealthy parents. Students are interested in politics, but most in a Times-CNN kind of way; the average AU student isn't actually that involved on or off campus, though everyone gets an internship at some point. Students tend to fulfill stereotypes nicely, from Northface/Ugg sorority girls to self-righteous IR hopefuls, but people get along remarkably well.

We are a very white school, but we are still really diverse.

no lots of boys are straight, their are some ugly people but lots of good looking ones too, i lot of kids here didnt apply to georgetown, and lots of people are not political at all.

Some students are politically active, probably more than on the majority of college campuses, but there are plently that have no interest in politics. Yes, there are a lot more girls than guys but it's not as noticable as I thought it would be.

All of these are accurate.

No, though greek life isn't as GW's.

With a tuition of $40,000 a year, there are some wealthy kids here, but many people I know are on scholarship, so I don't feel like you need to be a member of the country club to fit in here. We are something like 80{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} white, but there's not much prejudice and we have a large percentage of abroad students here, so I don't feel like it's a problem.

can't say it's entirely false, but it doesn't represent THAT large of a demographic

Some of the stereotypes -- like American students coming here because of financial aid, American students getting involved in politics -- are true. But American isn't everyone's last choice (it certainly wasn't mine), and there are tons of intelligent, hardworking, committed students here.

relatively

No, there are a good mix of students, but there is a large female to male ratio.

A noticeable amount of the guys are gay.

No

Many of us choose not to go to GW or Georgetown because AU gives us more money. I personally came because GW wasn't green enough. We are Awkward University in the best way! It's an awkwardness that everyone can take comfort in.

yes

There are more women on campus than men, but it isn't very noticeable. There isn't a huge gay population on campus, but it is possible that more of them are "out" because the campus is generally friendly towards the GLBT population. Yes, there are quite a few Jews - but American is a relatively diverse school.(In one of the blackest cities in America, I would like to see more African American students here - but it's possible that the reason for this is the fact we compete with Howard for black students. Still, for a "diverse" school, there are hardly any black students). We are politically active and we only seem to have school spirit (due to lack of division I teams) when we have a political speaker on campus. It is nice to be on a bus and here people talking about what was in the Washington Post today or what they learned while they were in Kenya last semester. While we also have people who are completely oblivious people, most students seem to care about their surroundings (locally, nationally, and globally). Students who are not political science/international relations majors don't feel left out of this community. Many of them are just as informed or enjoy the atmosphere.

Yes, we are a very politically active school, but you will also find people who could care less about politics. Our Business school, Kogod, is ranked nationally and our Communications school is also great. We also have a ton of school spirit, especially for our sports. Our women's field hockey, men's basketball and wrestling are all ranked. We also have a huge club called AU Blue Crew, which is simply a group that promotes AU sports.

yes

most are interested in politics but there are a lot of people who are very social and like to party.

*There is a good sampling of conservative viewpoints on campus. *A good percentage of students ARE from the east coast. *Depends on how you define diversity. I have met students of so many backgrounds I can't count, so I would say AU does a good job in its selection process. *AU students are high caliber. We may not receive the same level of prestige and publicity, but we have some of the most gifted students in DC and nationally.

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.