A Parent’s Complete Guide to American University (2026-2027)

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Jump to

• What is the one thing every American University parent needs to know before move-in?
• Quick Facts for American University Families
• A Note on the AU Eagle
• How do parents get to American University? Travel guide from Reagan National Airport
• What do parents need to know about American University move-in day 2026?
• The Residence Halls: Where Your Student Might Live
• How much does American University cost? Tuition, financial aid, and scholarships for 2026-27
• Washington DC: What Parents Need to Know
• When is American University Family Weekend 2026 and how do parents plan for it?
• How can parents support their American University student’s mental health?
• Who do American University parents contact? Essential numbers and websites for families
• American University’s Academic Strengths
• What is American University’s graduation rate?
• Academic Calendar
• What to Pack for American University

What is the one thing every American University parent needs to know before move-in?

When your student chose American University, they did not simply choose a university that happens to be located in Washington DC. They chose a university whose entire educational identity is inseparable from the city surrounding it.

That distinction matters for how you understand the next four years, and it matters for the practical questions you are probably asking yourself right now: What will my student actually do there? How safe is the neighborhood? What does it cost to live in one of the most expensive cities in the country? And what kind of person does a place like this produce? The answers to all of those questions run directly through the city itself, and the sooner parents internalize that, the more useful they can be to their students.

American University sits in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest Washington DC, a quiet, tree-lined, and thoroughly residential part of the city that bears very little resemblance to the Washington most visitors imagine. There is no monument in sight from campus. The neighborhood is affluent and calm, with embassies tucked between brick homes and the commercial strip along Wisconsin Avenue providing the functional core of daily student life. The university’s physical environment feels more like a traditional campus than most urban universities can claim, precisely because Spring Valley operates on its own gentle rhythm. But step onto the Metro at the Tenleytown/AU station, a short walk from campus, and within twenty minutes your student is standing in front of the Capitol, entering a Senate office building for an internship shift, or walking into a think tank for a policy briefing. That proximity is not incidental. It is the entire point.

The schools that define AU academically, including the School of International Service, the School of Public Affairs, the Kogod School of Business, and the Washington College of Law, all operate on the explicit premise that DC is not backdrop but active learning environment. SIS is consistently ranked among the very best international affairs programs in the world, and its graduates populate the State Department, the United Nations, diplomatic missions, and the largest NGOs on the planet. The School of Public Affairs produces political scientists, public administrators, and justice professionals who often hold federal positions before they have their diplomas framed. The internship pipelines into Congress, federal agencies, embassies, advocacy organizations, and media outlets are among the strongest of any university in the country, not because AU has more resources than every competitor, but because the city itself provides resources that no campus could replicate.

Parents also need to understand the pressure that comes packaged with this opportunity. Washington DC is an expensive city, and the cost of living extends well beyond tuition and room and board into the daily texture of student life: Metro fares, meals near internship sites, professional attire for Capitol Hill appearances, and the social expectations of a city where even student-level networking sometimes happens over dinner in a Georgetown restaurant. The political culture of the university and the surrounding environment is intense, often fascinating, and sometimes exhausting. AU’s campus trends significantly liberal in student politics, which reflects the broader demographic reality of the city, and students who arrive with conservative or centrist views should understand this before committing. The university does make deliberate efforts toward viewpoint diversity, particularly through the School of Public Affairs and AU’s Center for Media and Social Impact, but the ambient political temperature of campus is something every family should discuss honestly before move-in.

The deeper pressure is subtler and more universal. Washington DC is a city where everyone seems to be in a hurry to change the world, and AU students absorb that urgency from the first week. A first-year student who is not yet sure what she wants to do with her life will find herself surrounded by classmates who are absolutely certain they are going to the Senate, the foreign service, or the Supreme Court bar. That ambient certainty can be energizing and it can also be quietly devastating for students who are still finding their footing. Parents who understand this dynamic in advance can have productive conversations about identity, purpose, and the difference between a well-lived undergraduate experience and a perfectly optimized resume. Both things can coexist at AU, but the balance requires intentionality that not every eighteen-year-old arrives with naturally.

Quick Facts for American University Families

A Note on the AU Eagle

The American University Eagles are a Patriot League program, and AU’s athletics culture is notably different from the SEC- or ACC-oriented identities of large flagship universities. Basketball at Bender Arena draws real campus enthusiasm, and AU has produced Division I competitors who go on to meaningful careers.

But the Eagle identity at American University runs deeper than a mascot or a sports team. It is rooted in the university’s institutional mission, captured in the phrase “For Good,” a deliberate double meaning that signals both permanence and ethical purpose. AU graduates are supposed to do good things, and to do them for good. That mission is visible in the curriculum, in the internship culture, and in the conversations that happen in residence hall common rooms at midnight.

The campus itself has gathering places that become genuinely beloved over time. The Treaty Oak, a massive white oak tree that has stood for centuries on campus grounds, is the kind of landmark that sounds like a footnote until the day your student sends you a photograph from beneath its canopy and you realize it has become part of how she thinks about her college experience. The Kay Spiritual Life Center is the interfaith spiritual and religious center at the heart of campus, serving students of every tradition and none. In a university that is intensely politically engaged, the Kay Center provides a counterweight: a place designed for reflection, for quiet, and for community that is not organized around argument. Parents of students who find campus political discourse overwhelming should know that the Kay Center exists and that its staff and programming are genuinely welcoming to everyone.

Student government at AU is taken seriously in a way that is unusual even by university standards. The Student Government represents something closer to actual governance than the advisory councils that most universities operate, and many AU students arrive already having run for elected office in high school or interned on campaigns. The institution functions as a training ground for future elected officials, and the culture of civic seriousness that results is one of the distinctive textures of AU campus life. It can be electric, especially during election cycles. It can also mean that campus conversations carry a weight and a permanence that students from less politically saturated environments may find bracing at first.

The political composition of the AU student body is a fact that belongs in any honest parent guide, and this one aims to be honest. The campus trends significantly to the left of the national median, reflecting both the self-selection of students drawn to public affairs and international service and the demographic reality of DC itself. The university’s stated commitment to viewpoint diversity is real, and organizations like the AU College Republicans operate on campus alongside the better-resourced progressive organizations. But parents of students with conservative, libertarian, or traditionally religious perspectives should discuss this openly with their students before enrollment. Not to discourage attendance, but to ensure students arrive prepared for a social environment that may challenge their views in ways they find energizing rather than simply isolating.

How do parents get to American University? Travel guide from Reagan National Airport

Reagan National Airport is the practical choice for most AU families.

At six miles from campus and directly connected to the Metro system via the Yellow and Blue lines, DCA puts travelers on a train that connects through Metro Center to the Red Line, which stops at Tenleytown/AU station a short walk from the main campus entrance. The total trip from baggage claim to campus runs roughly forty-five minutes to an hour depending on connections, costs a few dollars on a SmarTrip card, and requires no parking, no rideshare surge pricing, and no DC traffic. For families who are comfortable with transit, it is genuinely one of the most convenient airport-to-campus connections in American higher education.

Dulles International Airport (IAD) sits twenty-six miles west of campus and serves a much larger portfolio of international routes, making it the relevant choice for families flying in from overseas or connecting through a major European hub. The Silver Line Metro now connects Dulles to the DC Metro system, and from there a transfer to the Red Line will reach Tenleytown/AU. The trip takes longer than from DCA, and families arriving with significant luggage may find a rideshare more practical for this leg. Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) is approximately thirty miles north of campus and connects to downtown DC via the MARC commuter rail and connecting bus service. BWI typically offers lower fares on certain carriers, which can make the additional travel time worthwhile for families on a budget.

Driving into DC requires some advance thinking. Campus parking is limited, street parking in the Spring Valley and Tenleytown neighborhoods requires residential permits that AU students and their families do not hold, and DC traffic during morning and evening commute hours is among the most congested in the country. For move-in day, the university manages vehicle access through scheduled arrival windows, which helps considerably. For regular family visits, the strong advice from families who have done this more than once is to take the Metro from wherever you are staying. The Red Line is reliable, safe, and direct, and it deposits you within a comfortable walk of the main campus entrance without requiring you to find parking in a neighborhood that does not have any to spare.

What do parents need to know about American University move-in day 2026?

Move-in at American University takes place in late August, and DC in late August is genuinely hot.

Parents who have moved students into colleges in New England or the Midwest and imagine a pleasant late-summer afternoon should recalibrate: Washington DC in August routinely reaches the low to mid-90s with high humidity, making it one of the most physically demanding move-in environments of any major university in the country. This is not a reason to panic, but it is a reason to prepare. Pack a change of clothes, bring water bottles, wear the most breathable clothing you own, and accept that you will be drenched by noon regardless of what you do about it. The weather is temporary. The residence hall room will be air-conditioned.

The university organizes move-in through assigned arrival windows, which means families are given a specific time slot rather than arriving all at once and competing for elevator access and parking. Volunteers, including current AU students and staff, are stationed throughout the process to help carry boxes, navigate the halls, and answer questions. Eagle Summit, AU’s orientation program, begins immediately after move-in and is designed to integrate new students into the university community before classes start. The orientation schedule is full and intentional, and parents should expect that their student’s time will be substantially claimed by orientation programming from the first evening onward. This is a feature, not a problem: the faster students build connections with their new community, the better they tend to do in the transition.

Because the Metro reaches campus so effectively, American University move-in has a slightly different character than at car-dependent residential universities. Some families genuinely fly in, use rideshares to transport luggage, and never rent a car at all. This is a viable approach if your student’s room contents fit into manageable checked bags and you have planned the logistics in advance. Families who are driving in from nearby states will find the scheduled arrival window system manages traffic flow reasonably well, though the combination of DC traffic and late August heat means that building buffer time into your arrival plan is worthwhile.

A few practical tips for move-in day:

• Bring a small cooler with cold water and snacks for the afternoon.
• Wear layers you can peel off; the residence halls are air-conditioned but loading zones are not.
• Bring a small toolkit (screwdriver, command strips, extension cord) in a bag you carry with you, not in a box buried in the car.
• Confirm your arrival window with Residence Life in advance and plan to arrive at the start of your window, not the end.
• If you are flying, ship bulky items (bedding, fans, storage bins) directly to campus via a mail or shipping service in advance of move-in day.
• Identify the nearest pharmacy and grocery store on Wisconsin Avenue before you need them.

The Residence Halls: Where Your Student Might Live

American University’s residence halls cover a range of building styles, locations, and community types, and the assignment your student receives will shape a significant portion of her first-year experience. Understanding the difference between them is worth fifteen minutes of reading.

Anderson Hall is a traditional double-occupancy hall located in a central campus position close to the main quad, and it is one of the most common freshman assignments. The rooms are not large, but the location is excellent: everything a first-year student needs academically and socially is within a short walk. Leonard Hall is another traditional hall with a similar central campus orientation and a predominantly freshman community, offering the kind of close-quarters residential experience that tends to produce lasting friendships and occasional frustration in roughly equal measure.

Centennial Hall is the newest and largest residence hall on campus, featuring modern suite-style rooms, significantly better amenities than the older traditional halls, and a design that reflects contemporary thinking about residential life. It is consistently one of the most requested assignments, and first-year students placed there often feel they have won a small lottery. McDowell Hall occupies a convenient position near dining options and benefits from active community programming that keeps its residents connected to campus life beyond their immediate floor.

Nebraska Hall and Roper Hall are traditional halls positioned in quieter residential zones of campus, offering a slightly lower ambient noise level than the most central options, which some students find preferable and others find too removed from the social center of gravity. Clark Hall is another traditional freshman option with a solid community reputation. All of the freshman halls participate in Residence Life programming designed to build community and connect students to academic and social resources.

For upperclassmen, Tenley Campus is worth understanding. Located approximately one mile from the main campus and connected by a regular shuttle service, Tenley operates more like apartment-style living and is popular with upperclassmen and graduate students who want more independence and space. The trade-off is the shuttle commute for classes and activities on the main campus, which most Tenley residents manage without significant inconvenience but which is a real logistical consideration.

One of American University’s most significant housing advantages is its four-year housing guarantee, which is noteworthy for an urban university where the off-campus alternatives are genuinely expensive. Single rooms in shared apartments in the Tenleytown, Friendship Heights, and Cleveland Park neighborhoods run from $1,800 to $2,500 or more per month, which makes the on-campus cost competitive for most students even by junior and senior year. Many AU students remain in campus housing for all four years not out of inertia but because it is the economically rational choice in one of the country’s most expensive rental markets.

How much does American University cost? Tuition, financial aid, and scholarships for 2026-27

American University is a private university with a sticker price that reflects the full cost of a DC-based residential education, and families approaching the financial aid process without a clear strategy can find the numbers intimidating.

American University is a private university with a sticker price that reflects the full cost of a DC-based residential education, and families approaching the financial aid process without a clear strategy can find the numbers intimidating. The university meets significant demonstrated need for eligible families, and the financial aid office works with a range of family financial situations. The most important first step is completing both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile, as AU requires both to process institutional aid awards. Missing the CSS Profile deadline is one of the most common and costly mistakes families make in the AU financial aid process, so calendar this as a separate priority from the FAFSA.

Merit scholarships at AU can substantially change the total cost calculation for strong applicants. The Presidential Scholarship and the Dean’s Scholarship are the flagship awards for high-achieving students, and they are competitive and valuable. The Wildfire Scholarship program and a range of departmental awards through SIS, the School of Public Affairs, and Kogod provide additional merit pathways for students whose academic and extracurricular profiles align with specific programs. Families of high-achieving students should investigate these awards carefully rather than assuming the sticker price reflects the realistic net cost.

One financial dimension of the AU experience that is genuinely unusual is the internship compensation context. Washington DC has one of the most strong paid internship markets in the country, particularly in federal contracting, advocacy, media, and the nonprofit sector. Many AU students begin earning meaningful income from internships as early as sophomore year, and by junior year a significant portion of the student body is working paid positions that offset personal expenses and Metro costs in ways that are difficult to account for in a standard college cost calculator. This does not change the tuition bill, but it does mean that the total net cost of an AU education over four years may look different in practice than the sticker price suggests. The four-year housing guarantee is a related advantage: families can plan housing costs with unusual certainty for all four years rather than facing the DC rental market at the end of freshman year.

FAFSA guide for American University families

Full college cost planning guide

Washington DC: What Parents Need to Know

For a college student interested in government, policy, law, international affairs, nonprofit work, or journalism, Washington DC is one of the most extraordinary cities in the world to spend four years.

The concentration of institutions engaged with the central questions of how societies organize themselves and how power is distributed is simply without parallel in American life. Your student will have access to the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Supreme Court public gallery, and the hearing rooms of the Senate and House within a Metro ride. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is ten minutes from campus and offers world-class performances across every genre, often with student discounts. The National Zoo is free, run by the Smithsonian, and fifteen minutes from campus by Metro. The Smithsonian’s constellation of museums along the National Mall, every single one of them free, constitutes one of the greatest public cultural institutions on earth, and students who take the time to actually use them rather than walk past them come out of four years with an education that no classroom could provide alone.

The Spring Valley neighborhood that surrounds AU campus is very different from the Washington DC of the news. It is quiet, affluent, residential, and safe, with mature trees, large houses, and embassy compounds tucked along its streets. Parents who imagine that their student is living in a gritty urban environment should instead picture something closer to a prosperous suburban residential neighborhood that happens to have a university at its center. The immediate commercial corridor along Wisconsin Avenue heading toward the Tenleytown Metro station provides the practical infrastructure of student life: grocery stores, pharmacies, coffee shops, and casual dining within easy walking distance.

Georgetown is approximately fifteen minutes from campus by bus or Metro, and it provides the social and culinary upgrade that DC students seek when they want something more than Tenleytown has to offer. The Georgetown waterfront along the C&O Canal towpath and the Potomac River is beautiful in every season, and the neighborhood’s concentration of restaurants and shops is among the best in the city. Dupont Circle, roughly twenty minutes by Metro, functions as the hub of DC social life for young professionals and college students, with excellent restaurants, the Phillips Collection art museum, and a neighborhood energy that feels more like a traditional urban social district than anywhere else in the city.

For parent visits, the restaurant situation in DC is excellent, and choosing where to take your student to dinner is a pleasurable problem to have. Fiola Mare in Georgetown is exceptional for upscale seafood on a special occasion. Martin’s Tavern in Georgetown is an institution with decades of history and the kind of warm, wood-paneled atmosphere that makes any dinner feel significant. Le Diplomate on 14th Street is one of the finest French brasseries in the country and worth the reservation effort for a celebratory meal. Founding Farmers near Foggy Bottom has become the default recommendation for DC parents because it genuinely earns it: the food is very good, the atmosphere is welcoming, the portions are generous, and it handles the full range of student dietary preferences without drama. If you are visiting during cherry blossom season (typically late March to early April, though the peak week shifts year to year), every logistical inconvenience of a DC visit becomes immediately worth it.

When is American University Family Weekend 2026 and how do parents plan for it?

AU Family Weekend takes place in the fall, typically in October, and is coordinated by Parent and Family Programs.

The weekend is programmed with campus tours, student performances, athletics events, and opportunities to meet faculty and staff, and it represents the clearest single opportunity for families to see the rhythm of campus life from the inside rather than the outside. AU Eagles basketball at Bender Arena draws real student energy during the season, and a game during Family Weekend is one of the more enjoyable shared experiences the visit can offer.

The internship culture that defines AU’s academic rhythm is unlike anything at a traditional residential university, and it affects the texture of family conversations in ways that take some getting used to. By sophomore year, many AU students are balancing coursework with fifteen to twenty hours per week at an internship, managing their schedules the way a working professional does rather than the way a full-time student traditionally does. This means that when your student talks about her week, she may be describing a committee hearing she attended, a policy memo she drafted for a congressional office, or a meeting she sat in on at a federal agency, alongside the coursework and social life you might expect to hear about from a college student at a conventional university. The internship pipeline is one of the great strengths of an AU education, and it also means students are being asked to manage complexity and responsibility at a level that can be genuinely stressful. Listening to that complexity without immediately trying to solve it is one of the most useful things a parent can do.

The political events culture on campus is constant and frequently extraordinary. Speakers, policy debates, ambassador receptions, think tank programming, and partisan campaign events create a calendar that is genuinely impossible to exhaust. The Washington Semester program, which connects academic coursework directly to DC institutions through a semester-long immersive experience, is available to AU students and to qualified students from universities across the country, and it represents one of the clearest demonstrations of what AU does that cannot be replicated anywhere else. For families visiting campus during an active political moment, the energy can feel electric in a way that is hard to describe to someone who has not experienced it: the sense that the decisions being made a few miles away genuinely matter, and that your student is in some small way already connected to the people making them.

Hotel strategy for DC parent visits is considerably simpler than for a traditional college town, because DC has abundant hotel inventory year-round. Hotels in Chevy Chase, just over the Maryland border and ten minutes from campus, offer excellent proximity and often more reasonable rates than downtown options. Friendship Heights, directly adjacent to the Tenleytown neighborhood, puts you within walking distance of campus and has solid hotel and restaurant options. Downtown DC hotels, particularly in Dupont Circle, Georgetown, and the Penn Quarter, are plentiful and excellent, though they can carry significant price premiums during peak seasons and major events. For Family Weekend specifically, book early, because the combination of AU families and whatever else is happening in DC that October weekend can compress available inventory quickly. For other visits, same-month booking is generally feasible and often advantageous.

How can parents support their American University student’s mental health?

American University’s campus culture is intense in ways that are genuinely exciting and genuinely demanding, and the mental health infrastructure the university has built reflects an awareness of both realities. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) provides individual therapy, group therapy, crisis counseling, and psychiatric services to enrolled students.

Let’s Talk drop-in consultations offer a lower-barrier entry point for students who want to talk to a counselor informally before committing to a formal therapy relationship, and this option is particularly useful for students who are uncertain whether what they are experiencing rises to the level of something requiring professional support. The AU Wellness Center complements CAPS with programming focused on physical health, stress management, and preventive care, and its staff are trained to connect students to deeper resources when needed.

The political pressure context at AU is real and deserves specific attention in any honest mental health conversation with your student before move-in. The ambient comparison culture on campus, in which everyone seems to have an extraordinary internship, a pre-law GPA that would embarrass most law students, or a connection to someone in a cabinet position, creates social pressure that operates on students regardless of their own genuine accomplishments. Students who arrive knowing this is coming are better equipped to recognize it for what it is, a structural feature of an environment where aspiration is concentrated, rather than a signal that they are falling short. Students who feel their political or religious views put them in a minority on campus can experience a specific kind of social stress that is distinct from the general comparison anxiety, and which can benefit from community resources like the Kay Spiritual Life Center as well as CAPS.

The deeper conversation parents can have before move-in is about identity and belonging: who your student is apart from her performance, what she values when she is not in a high-stakes environment, and how she will take care of herself when the semester gets difficult. That conversation is more useful than any specific piece of advice about classes or internships, and it tends to stay with students in a way that logistical guidance does not.

Mental health resources at AU:

• CAPS: contact via american.edu/ocl/caps
• Wellness Center: contact via american.edu/wellness
• Crisis Line: call or text 988
• AU Public Safety (non-emergency): contact via american.edu/publicsafety

Who do American University parents contact? Essential numbers and websites for families

Verify all phone numbers and URLs at american.edu before using, as contact information is subject to change.

• Parent and Family Programs: contact via american.edu/parents
• Dean of Students: contact via american.edu/ocl
• Residence Life: contact via american.edu/housing
• Financial Aid: contact via american.edu/financialaid
• CAPS (Counseling): contact via american.edu/ocl/caps
• University Police (non-emergency): contact via american.edu/publicsafety
• Registrar: contact via american.edu/registrar
• Emergency: 911 or AU emergency line via american.edu/publicsafety

American University’s Academic Strengths

The School of International Service is the academic crown jewel of American University and one of the finest international affairs programs in the world by any reasonable measure. Its graduates hold positions in the State Department, the United Nations system, the World Bank, major embassies, and the largest NGOs on every continent.

SIS’s faculty includes former ambassadors, senior foreign service officers, and leading scholars of international relations, development economics, and security studies, and the DC location means that the guest speakers, policy seminars, and internship opportunities that supplement the curriculum are of a caliber that no landlocked campus could match. Students who know they want careers in diplomacy, international development, foreign policy, or global journalism will find themselves in an extraordinarily well-resourced environment from the first semester.

The School of Public Affairs produces political scientists, public administrators, criminal justice professionals, and policy analysts who move directly into government and advocacy roles at a rate that is unusual even among strong policy programs. The justice, law, and criminology concentrations benefit from direct access to the federal courts, the Department of Justice, advocacy organizations, and research institutions that operate in DC’s orbit. Kogod School of Business brings strong finance, real estate, and management programs to a city that has a significant and often-overlooked private sector, including federal contracting, healthcare, and the expanding technology sector that has taken root in Northern Virginia. The Washington College of Law is one of the most respected law schools in the mid-Atlantic region, with particular strength in public interest law, international law, and women’s legal studies, and its location provides clinical opportunities that most regional law schools cannot offer.

The College of Arts and Sciences deserves more attention than it sometimes receives in the shadow of AU’s policy-focused reputation. The communication programs are excellent and benefit from proximity to the major networks, federal agencies, and advocacy organizations that constitute the DC media ecosystem. Literature, performing arts, and visual arts programs serve students who come to AU for a different reason than SIS or SPA but who find the university’s mission and energy a productive context for creative work. The Katzen Arts Center is one of the finest university arts facilities in the country, a serious exhibition and performance space that brings professional-caliber art into daily campus life in a way that elevates the entire community.

The DC internship pipeline ultimately shapes every academic program at AU in ways that are difficult to fully appreciate from the outside. Nearly every AU student completes one or more meaningful internships before graduation, and the alumni network in government, policy, nonprofit work, and journalism is among the densest and most active of any comparable university. When your student needs a referral, an informational interview, or a genuine connection to someone working in her intended field, the AU alumni community in DC is ready in a way that transforms the abstract promise of networking into something immediate and real.

You Are an Eagle Family Now

The Treaty Oak has been standing on the AU campus longer than the university itself has existed. Students walk past it on their way to class, sit beneath it when the weather allows, and photograph it at graduation. It is the kind of landmark that earns its place in institutional memory not through administration but through accumulated presence, through the thousands of small moments that happen near it over decades. Your student will probably mention it to you eventually, in passing, as if you already know what she means. By that point, you will.

Washington DC will shape your student in ways that four years of coursework alone could not. The city is demanding and generous in roughly equal measure: demanding of ambition, of stamina, of intellectual seriousness, and generous with access, with opportunity, with the sheer density of interesting people and consequential institutions that make it one of the most stimulating places in the world to be young and curious. The mission of public service that runs through AU’s institutional DNA is not a marketing phrase. It shows up in who AU graduates become and what they spend their careers doing, in the proportion who enter government, law, the nonprofit sector, and international work compared to their peers at other universities.

You chose this alongside your student, even if the final choice was hers. The anxiety of the first semester, the pride of watching her handle something genuinely difficult, the gradual realization that she is becoming someone you could not have fully predicted from who she was at eighteen: all of that is ahead of you. The AU community, the Parent and Family Programs office, and the Eagle family network are real sources of support when you need them. Go Eagles.

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Last updated: May 2026. Tuition, dates, and policies subject to change. Verify all time-sensitive information at american.edu and american.edu/parents.