<p>Why AU: For me I came there for a specific program. I knew upon applying that I would be between an International Studies major (SIS) and Government (SPA) major. For those two schools – there are none better. It has the largest SIS program in the country, with more course offerings than Georgetown. The faculty is knowledgeable and well-reknown without being gone every single class period for faculty panels and interviews. Furthermore, when the faculty ARE gone – 0% of classes at AU are taught by TAs (Georgetown has 8%, GWU has 3%) and it’s something that I appreciate. GWU students are heavy into the hard sciences (biology, chemistry and in particular engineering) and the liberal arts – I also was not fond of how much the school is integrated into the city. Georgetown was aesthetically beautiful, but everyone there seemed OVER-driven, constantly stressed, and cut-throat. It was also a decent hike from the nearest metro which makes seeing the city (ie. the BEST part) very difficult. The AU campus is an oasis, with a nice green quad, an outdoor amphitheater, and is a nationally recognized arboretum which makes it a nice retreat from the city. </p>
<p>My Studies: I’m a Government major in the School of Public Administration. I’m caught between my love of running campaigns (thank you, the West Wing) and doing political and advertising consulting. I’ve been loading up on my marketing classes and such to get internships that are in/will lead to work in a political consulting firm that also handles corporate clients. The AU alumni base is extensive in the city, and tend to take care of their own. The last internship I received were because the head of the company was an AU grad – the one before that, now ONLY hires AU students because of “how good the students AU keeps sending are.”</p>
<p>Student Body: All of the DC schools have pretty bad racial diversity – which is shocking considering how racially diverse DC is. They each have about 5% of the student body from each minority (Georgetown doing the best because of its high amount of international applicants). Geographically – AU makes a point to represent every one of the 50 states (with a large percentage hailing from New Jersey) and over 100 countries. Because of it’s proximity to Embassy row, AU ends up getting a lot of the sons and daughters of diplomats. AU, like all the DC schools, has a reputation for having a lot of middle and upper class students. I have not found this to be the case. I’d say it’s predominantly kids from middle class families (which, in itself has a varied definition), with groups of outliers on either end. Politically, the campus certainly leans left, but those on the right are not outcasts or nonexistent. (My roommate right now, fits in that category). The real outcasts are people who are not knowledgeable of world events. You don’t have to be politically active, but glancing at a newspaper is helpful. Also I would say the average student is tolerant of the GLBT population, which has a decent presence at AU.</p>