American University Top Questions

What's the most frustrating thing about your school?

Natasha

The tuition. The school may give you a lot of financial aid but you will have problems with AU central regardless. They are not transparent in their budget and the price keeps rising.

Dahlia

Well, I would say the friendliness of most of the students - I found it hard to befriend students there. Also, the high tuition that I'm borrowing from friends and relatives to afford it. Otherwise, I love the American University

Conner

The powers that be in American University seem disconnected from the student body. Things seem to be done behind closed doors and in secret and when students are consulted, our input doesn't seem to matter all that much. It would be nice if we were taken seriously, considering the type of students taht American University attracts.

Heather

This school is rediculously expensive! Also, they expect very high academic performance, along with a well-balanced amount of extra-curricular activities and communithy involvement.

Nicole

The Financial Aid Office is employed by workers who don't want to be there, don't care about students and robotically answer questions. Students seeking financial assistance are sent away in the masses, and individual cases are not examined. When it comes to financial aid, every student is a number - and not a person. No matter how good their grades, how active they are on campus, and how much they contribute, financial aid is refused to many students who need it.

Brittney

the lck of campus cohesion among students

Jason

The Book Store never has what I need.

Nicki

The process for registering for classes can be stressful. It's kind of a "free for all" in that the more credits you have, the earlier you get to register. So a lot of times you can get locked out of classes you want to take.

Brandi

the financial aide office. you have to scream and yell at them to get even the smallest loan out of them. this school is corrupt and wastes money. they jack up tuition without warning and for no reason. there is a lot bureaucracy also. you have to fight to get what you want. the school advisors like to trick students about what classes to take so they end up taking more than they need. there is so much red tape here and im sure the president is stealing money out of the school funds

Jennifer

Probably the meager financial aid packages and the lack of large amounts of minority students, especially african americans and latinos. also, the school focuses a lot on women/gender studies and international studies but doesn't seem to put much emphasis on multicultural studies about ethnic minorities in america.

Taylor

They preach about tolerance yet automatically assume that anyone Republican is either intolerant, ignorant, or selfish

Andrea

It is a dry campus so many people over-drink and dirty the residence halls. It's hard to work against student activities.

Jessica

While the professors and advisors are amazing, the school bureaucracy is infurriating. They froze my friend's account three times in one month because they lost her paperwork twice and then when they found it sent it to the wrong people.

Marisa

The student body at American University is less than 30 percent male, which makes it hard to find men to date. While there is an active social scene once you begin to get to know people and make connections, there are no on-campus greek houses, which make parties hard to get to as a freshman. There is also no school football team and school spirit is slightly lacking.

Laura

the people are not very diverse

Joseph

ff

Hayley

red tape, lack of financial aid, housing crunch

Mina

more girls

Madeline

It is a dry campus so those who wish to drink must find off campus parties and rides to them. There are no on campus fraternity or sorority houses.

Tallant

People tend to be fairly wealthy and spend lots of money. It makes it difficult for non-wealthy students especially in such an expensive area to always particpate. Also students tend to form lots of cliches rather than having many friends

David

The financial aid office is very weak and difficult to work with.

Lindsay

No football team. Very few straight men. Few good looking men. Little sense of true campus/school identity. Basically two different schools between the honors program and the rest of the school. There are some non-honors kids who put in as much effort and time into their coursework and around campus, but it is mostly honors kids who do well and make it a decent university. The non-honors kids seem to drag it down.

Scott

The lack of sorority/fraternity housing. The university could potentially use the weakened US housing market as a opportunity to acquire enough houses, located around American's campus, to provide the thriving Greek Community with housing and places to continue on with being one of the most awarded Greek Communities on the East Coast.

Sarah

Campus stores (convenience store, restaurants, dining hall) all have very inconvenient hours on the weekends. Oh, and Judicial Affairs and Mediation Services is a joke.

Connor

The science kids! Don't come to American to be a biologist, chemist, physiscist, etc... The university doesn't have the facilities for us and we get a bad rap for dragging the ratings of the school down.

Krystina

The fact that the School of International Services gets so much prestige and press, when in reality it is difficult to obtain a job in a related field after college unless students go abroad. That is not made clear to students and other collges at the school suffer even though their programs are supieror in both academic advising and career placement.

Savonia

The lack of school spirit.

Matthew

The most frustrating thing about my school would have to be the job situation. It isn't that my school doesn't prepare us well enough, it's that the government exam that I have to take can only be completed once I am 21 years of age, and that I can only take it my senior year (The Foreign Service Exam). My entire career choice is basically riding on this.