What is the national reputation of American University? (degrees, cost, private school)

[J800]

I'm assisting my younger brother (who is currently a junior in H.S.) with his preliminary college research. He is particularly interested in political science and finance.

AU is ranked in the Top 75 per U.S. News, but how is the school perceived outside of Washington, DC? I've heard that they are strong in poly sci but I am not too sure about Kogod.

All opinions are welcome.

[flyingcat2k]

What is Kogod?!?


For finance, I would not recommend AU. The cost of living in DC has skyrocketed and in the financial world, DC is not a premium location unless you deal in bonds. Even in the bond world, it isn't that great compared to NYC, Chicago (CBOT is there) or Boston/Connecticut. For Poli-sci, it would be tough to beat as there are tons of networking and internship possibilities.


For finance, basically look at your local Big State university. For a BS in finance, any of those universities will be more than sufficient for getting started. If you are concerned with working at the "big firm" from the start, you'll need to be at a university that is in the top 50 for MBAs. Most of the big money in banking is made with advanced math degrees, not necessarily finance degrees. A math degree is much more marketable as finance locks you into banking. Math degrees open the door to tech companies and good paying government positions.

[foodyum]

My impression that au falls below both Georgetown and gw in terms of prestige and academics in the dc area.
It is a fine school, offers good merit and financial aid and is good for internships in government and politics. Not sure how easy it is for internships in finance. I agree with poster above that math or physics is the way to go if you want to work in investment banking or even the treasury dept or federal reserve.

[NYCresident2014]

I'd assume they have more of a regional appeal- up here in the NYC area, I've not heard of American University.

Also don't know what a Kogod is. A quick google search indicates that it may be the name of their business school. I'm in business and have definitely not heard of it, so I would recommend going to something with stronger name recognition.

Unless it's free (due to scholarships)- that changes everything.

[J800]

Thanks for the responses. I work in IB myself and was not a math or physics major. You don't need a "hard" major to get into IB. Anyway, I think my brother's interest in AU was because of political science. He's also looking at GW as well which, in my opinion, is a safer bet in general.

[brocco]

I don't think I would pay for a private school if it wasn't in the top 50. Of course there are a lot of other details that go into the financial aspect. I live in VA where we have plenty of decent state universities.

[solomonkane]

It's a DC area school so primarily focused on public sector/public service professions. That said, I am not sure how well their footing is on this ground compared to the school's neighbors in DC or the broader DMV area: I will have to bring up the article and possibly edit this comment to do so, but I remember a survey to the effect that an alarming amount of their students could not name a U.S. congressman!

[Paige65]

American is a great choice for a student interested in political science. Almost all of their students have major related internships, numerous connections are available, students are very politically active. Just attended a presentation there for prospective students. They are quite proud of their campus activism. I would have your brother take a look at George Washington, University of Maryland and George Mason as well. One of the downsides of American and GW is cost, both in the $60,000+ range. UM and GMU are both at least $10,000 less per year.

I would be curious to see the study which showed that their students couldn't name a U.S. Congressman. This is one of the more politically active schools in the country.