yabeyabe2

I am interested in thoughts about AU's business school, such as the quality of the teachers; size of classes; quantity of workload; typical student profile; and how, if at all, the admissions criteria vary from the rest of AU.

Thanks!

boysx3

My son is a first year in Kogod. So far, he likes it a lot. As far as I remember, applications are made to AU as a whole, not to the individual colleges, even though an applicant can indicate a preference on the application. So I think admissions criteria are not any different for any of the programs. My son had a 3.5 or 3.6, (unweighted) 8 APs, and a 28 on the ACT if that is helpful. He had some unusual leadership ECs opportunities that were very interesting to AU--when he interviewed, the interviewer was ready with a lot of questions about them.

Son's classes so far are small. His econ class has 20; calc has 22 or so, Spanish has 16, and his intro to business is the largest at about 45 but it is divided into sections as well--some days are group lecture and some days they meet in the smaller sections. Calc and Spanish and econ all have smaller lab sessions as well. He really likes his business and Spanish professors, has said his calc prof is "nice" and says his econ professor is brilliant but a bit long-winded.

As far as workload is concerned, I have a feeling it is about to get much heavier. So far he has reported keeping up with reading and assignments with no problems whatsoever, but all of a sudden he's feeling the pressure with exams and projects etc all coming at the same time. He didn't have to work in high school and he is having to learn how to work now. It will be a good lesson for him but it will be stressful-and what doesn't kill him will make him stronger!

yabeyabe2

Thanks very much.

Were there other undergraduate business programs he found attractive?

boysx3

He was accepted at University of Denver (EA application) and at Indiana University (rolling admissions) but he applied ED to American University after he visited in November of his senior year...he just fell in love with the programs, opportunities and people that he met on campus. This was also when he decided not to pursue playing soccer in college because he had received offers from a number of good D3 schools--he decided that he wanted to enjoy the fullness of student life instead. So he will be playing on the club team at AU instead.

yabeyabe2

Sounds like he made a great decision

katytibbs

My son is a freshman student at Kogod also. He was all set to go to Northeastern until he visited American the weekend before the decision had to be made. What he liked was:

1. The fact that the school had been recently ranked #28 by Business Week- the first time it broke the top 100, which is a fast trip up. The chairman of the finance department aslo shared an email from a 2008 grad who was working alongside grads from Princeton, Berkleey and Wharton and said that he felt as prepared as any of them (and better prepared than some of them) for the work he was doing.
2. The new trading room that they just built is state of the art and cool and the dean of the school took us on a personal tour - very friendly. He told us of plans to hire a new faculty member who has worked in a trading room to run the course using the room.
3. We spoke at length to the career center in the business school and learned about how they place interns - DC offers a lot of opportunities for business school students
4. The fact that AU is commited to expanding their staff at a time when so many other schools are cutting back. AU has been running a surplus and have decided that now is the time to spend some of it.

My son didn't apply to Kogod at first, but switching into it was easy (unlike schools such as SUNY Binghamton where if you dont apply at first you will almost never get in, there are so few open slots.)

yabeyabe2

thanks
How is the workload?