The Princeton Review recently ranked AU among the top 77 "Best Value" undergraduate colleges in the nation. The study, conducted from fall 2002 to summer 2003, ranks schools based on quality of academics, tuition costs and scholarship packages. In the past, AU has ranked No. 6 on the Princeton Review's "Best College Towns" list and No. 15 on the "Their Students (Almost) Never Study" list. While we are glad to see AU receive a positive ranking from the Princeton Review, the mostly widely consulted authority on U.S. colleges, we have some deep reservations about the financial value of AU.
On a positive note, AU's academic atmosphere is very engaging and constructive, and we are fortunate to have so many distinguished and superb professors in many fields of study. Our school continues to improve its academic reputation every year, and we have no reason to believe that it will falter. A solid academic reputation will provide future benefits for current students and alumni.
On the other hand, when we heard that AU was a bargain, all we could do was scratch our heads in confusion. Many students can barely afford AU, and they could go to George Washington or Georgetown for nearly the same price and receive a much higher-quality - at least statistically - education. AU is almost entirely dependent on student tuition and fees, and every student with some common sense knows that tuition is never going to decrease or remain stagnant.
When someone mentions "financial aid" on this campus, students' faces turn red, their eyes bulge and they start to get angry. This reaction is completely justified. Financial Aid has an uncanny ability to lose and forget important documents and to accuse students of failing to send in those documents. The office is not known as a black hole or a Bermuda Triangle without good reason.
When students' families have less money than the year previous, Financial Aid should be seeking to help them instead of cutting their financial aid because of computer glitches, which happens far too often for us to ignore.
We'd like to congratulate AU for providing an excellent academic environment, but we claim to the administration that praise for financial excellence is almost entirely unfounded.
