American University

I started attending American University online during the worst of COVID back in 2020. I was struggling to find a job with my Bachelors in English, and a friend of mine told me about AU. I'm very glad she did, as it's helped me find my dream job, even if my educational journey has not necessarily been easy. The best and worst parts of AU are the classes in my opinion. When you have a good professor, everything clicks and it can seriously help you with your job. When you get a bad professor, it is... Read More an endurance race to the end with no real choice of swapping out of the class. I did not choose any of my professors due to the nature of the program, so it was a bit of a gamble whether I was getting a professor I would actually like or not. If you're studying Strategic Communications the way I have been, it's intended to be taken while you work full-time. I quickly found myself excelling at my career, and now find myself in an income bracket that has made things much more comfortable, something I never expected as a writer. That being said, some professors respect the work-life balance aspect of the program better than others. My current class has actually had me doing schoolwork on the clock to try and catch up, which is quite literally the opposite of what this program is supposed to be. That isn't most classes, but is a possibility that you should be aware of. It all depends on the professor, but hopefully you'll only get the good ones. Overall, I would absolutely recommend AU to prospective students. It has tripled my career earnings just during the time I've been earning my degree, and I've genuinely been learning a lot. Like all programs, it definitely has its issues, but if you're looking for an online degree with real-life earning potential that actually can teach you something practical, you'll love American University.

I graduated from American University over 20 years ago and I never got a job related to my degree and I have never had a career of any kind. I applied to thousands of jobs over the last 20 years and not one resulted in an interview as a result of graduating from American University. And the interviews I did get, no one ever said to me that they called me in for an interview because I went to American University. The employers were basically just looking for bodies to fill constant vacancies and were... Read More not looking to hire me because I went to American University. I tried using the Career Center over the years only to discover that a lot of the jobs in the American University Career Center are for entry-level nonprofits in the Washington, DC area that do not pay a salary you can really live off of. I did not see any positions in the Career Center that said the starting salary was $75,000 or more. There are garbagemen who make more than $75,000 a year and the job does not require a college degree. When I looked up the jobs that some of the people I graduated with have, they are just regular jobs that you could get with a degree from pretty much any school and I am not even sure that some of those jobs require a college degree. Some of them even had sales jobs for companies I never even heard of. I did not personally see any of the professors I had at American University do anything for students to help them find a job. In my opinion, I don't think the vast majority of the professors at American University have any contacts in the private or public sector to help any of the students get jobs after graduating or even to help students get paying internships. Anyone can get an unpaid internship in the DC area. Who doesn't want free labor? And honestly, I think that if American University was really looking out for their students they wouldn't allow anyone to use the students as a source for free labor. These are things to consider before spending approximately $50,000 a year / $200,000 for a Bachelor's degree. If you have $200,000 in student loans, you are looking at paying at least $1,000 a month for the next 30 years. How on earth are you going to buy a house or a new car or have money for anything if you are paying at least $1,000 a month for 30 years on your student loans? Especially when the jobs I have seen in the American University Career Center do not even pay $75,000 a year to start. You do not have to listen to anything I just wrote. You can ignore it and enroll in American University and find out what will happen to you.

I graduated from American University over 20 years ago and I never got a job related to my degree. I have applied to thousands of jobs over the last 20 years and not one resulted in an interview because I went to American University. And the interviews I did get, no one ever said to me that they called me in for an interview because I went to American University. The employers were basically just looking for bodies to fill constant vacancies and were not looking to hire me because I went to American... Read More University. I tried using the Career Center over the years only to discover that a lot of the jobs in the American University Career Center are for entry-level nonprofits that really do not provide a salary you can live off of. I did not see any jobs listed in the Career Center that had a starting salary of at least $75,000. There are garbagemen and secretaries who make more than $75,000 a year and those jobs do not even require a college degree. When I looked up the jobs that some of the people I graduated with have, they were just regular jobs that you could pretty much get with a degree from any school and I am not even sure that some of those jobs even required a college degree. Some of them even had sales jobs for companies I never even heard of. I did not personally see any of the professors I had at American University do anything for students to help them find jobs. In my opinion, I do not think the vast majority of professors at American University have any contacts in the public or private sector to help students find jobs after graduating or to even help them find paying internships. Anyone can get an unpaid internship in the DC area. Who doesn't want free labor? And honestly, I think if American University was really looking out for the students, it would not allow the students to be used as a source for free labor. These are things to consider before spending approximately $50,000 a year / $200,000 for a Bachelor's degree. If you have $200,000 in student loans, you are looking at paying at least $1,000 a month for the next 30 years in student loan payments. How on earth are you going to buy a house or a new car or anything for that matter when you are paying $1,000 a month in student loan payments over the next 30 years? Especially when the jobs I've seen in the American University Career Center do not even pay $75,000 to start. You do not have to listen to anything I wrote. You can ignore it and enroll in American University and find out what will happen to you.

Executive MA for International Relations Topics and discussion are excellent, with more than plenty of relevant and current information to use and topics to discuss Discrepancies between Lead Professors who draft the course and the Professors that teach the course - It seems that some of these PhDs figure out some of the particulars of assignments out as they go Noticeable disorganization within some of the weekly assignments and Term assignments; the info is spread between the syllabus and the Reading... Read More Material, and there is a lack of clarity for exactly what is required for some of the Term assignments. the Guidance is not clear Some PhDs do not have that 'IT' that defines teachers and good teachers Web site is unorganized and inefficient, especially when it comes to paying bills. It is difficult for me to describe it in a professional manner - its marginal/C- School creates a GMAIL account, which is good, then floods that account with spam as well as pertinent information - be ready to swim through about 70 emails every seven days, most of which are either trivial or useless I enjoy the the topics and reading material but the infrastructure is substandard for the $5530 I pay for each class. It reminds me of trying to get things done through the Army supply chain American Military University is much more organized, from the manner in which standards for assignments are conveyed to the funding requests via GI BILL and/or grants I can only compare my experience with AU to my experience in AMU/APUS. AMU is hands down more efficient and precise in everything. The Finance Department requires considerable work to bring it from the level I rate it (a C-/D+) compared to AMU/APUS (an A / A+ over the course of 3 years, consistently)

When I applied to American University, it ranked top 10 in its international relations programs. I can easily say that I benefited from every resource provided by the school. Almost all my professors were PhD professionals who worked in their respective fields and brought their expertise to the classroom. I could comfortably approach any of them for assistance for a subject matter, or regarding recommendation for internships, or even connections at their institute. Located in the capitol city, the... Read More university encouraged every student to secure internships that would build their resume for the near future. For this task the career center was a phenomenal resource. They held career fairs every semester in which hundreds of employers were matched with students for internship and jobs. I received my first internship this way and couldnt have done it with the help of these programs. The career center helped so many other students attain this goal. Additionally, majority of the students studied abroad to broaden their horizon. The university provided dozens of country options for students to study in a safe and secure location. I was able to study in England and Jordan for my major of international relations and economics, without increasing any cost to my current tuition to the university. I generously received a scholarship and grants through the help of the financial assistance and scholarship services department. I also received a fellowship to study over the summer at Princeton university with their help. Genuinely, it was one of my best decisions to attend American University for my undergraduate degree. I have been able to excel to my full potential with all the opportunities provided by the school.

While I generally enjoyed my experience at American University (AU), I believe the university is caught in an identity crisis. The school has many departments that together can provide a very good liberal arts education. Historically, this type of education has been what AU has specialized in. However, the university is in the process of trying to remodel itself as a research institution. This change has come at the expense of instruction. Rather than supporting their professors in their pursuit... Read More of teaching good classes, the administration focuses on professors research output. It had reduced the number of tenured faculty in exchange for adjunct professors who get very poorly compensated. Meanwhile, AU has vastly increased enrollment despite not having the teaching or living space to accommodate all the students. I was housed in Letts Hall in a door room built as a single but used as a triple. They charged $900 a month to live in this space. Meanwhile, many apartment developments have been built around campus that prey off student's need for housing. With all this said, I really enjoyed the philosophy program. I had wonderful teachers that dedicated themselves to their classes despite the research constraints put on them. Who knows how great they could have been if they had the administrations support rather than needing to fight them every step of the way.

American University is a prestigious school in Northwest Washington, DC. The main campus is beautiful and the school itself offers a large assortment of degree programs and classes. One of the strengths of the public health program is that it requires every student to participate in an internship in order to graduate. This provided me with an amazing opportunity to take what I learned in class into the real world. Three things I wish the school could improve upon are providing better mental health... Read More services, a greater emphasis on cultural sensitivity, and helping upcoming graduates secure jobs.

Instructors were professional. Many possessed significant expertise in the courses taught. Time management is crucial for anyone considering attending. You have 8 weeks in which to cram a full 16 week semester- you know this going in. Again, I cannot stress enough about time management. As with anything, you reap what you sow. Requirements are posted before you apply. Why pay the fees/tuition and then complain about the course load? Do the work with full understanding that it is going to be time... Read More consuming. In the end I finished my BA and moved into the MA program. I highly recommend the University to those willing to put forth the effort.

This school did absolutely nothing to improve my circumstances in life. I graduated years ago and I have not had one good job since graduating from this school. People I know who only have a high school diploma make more money than me even though I graduated from American University. I now have student loans to pay back and nothing to show for it. I was poor before I went to American University and I am still poor after graduating from American University. The professors and career center do not... Read More know anyone in the private or public sector to help you get a good job. There are better jobs listed on careerbuilder than they have listed in the career center. This school was a complete waste of time and money. I went to this school because I thought it would improve my standard of living. It never did.

I have not been able to get a good permanent job since graduating from American University almost 20 years ago. I was poor before I went to American University and I am still poor after graduating. Graduating from this school did not create any opportunities for me and I have to pay back student loans which keeps me poor. Everyone I know who graduated from this school never got a good job either. This school does not improve your circumstances in life. If anything, it makes you worse off because... Read More you end up with an expensive degree that no one values.