How's the social scene at AU?

Fidd21
Sun, 22 Mar 2015 05:57:01 +0000

I’m not going to lie to you, politics takes precedence over any form of social scene at AU. Sports are not really a thing here (few people show up for games) and everything seems to revolve around students in either the SPA (School of Public Affairs) or SIS (School of International Service). If politics is not really your thing you might feel somewhat lost here. Pros are definitely the academics. You’ll learn a lot about public affairs/policy and have close access to DC for jobs/internships, but the cons are that the school has a very bland social atmosphere unless you join something like Greek life. Sometimes the politics will feel like incessant preachiness/rambling by left wing groups who are always up in your face. But then again it depends on what you are interested in. The biggest value of AU is having DC in your backyard. Personally I’m more of a creative type of person (writer, novelist) so I tended to feel stifled in this environment. People are REALLY committed to politics which can make you feel a bit lost if that isn’t your calling. But if you’re passionate about certain issues you’ll find a place in the primary political social scene.