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Study Abroad > USA
American University American University

 

About Us:

 

A global outlook, practical idealism, a passion for public service: They’re part of American University today, and they were in the air in 1893, when AU was chartered by Congress. George Washington had dreamed of a “national university” in the nation’s capital. But it took John Fletcher Hurst to found a university that, in many ways, embodies that dream. Today’s students would find a kindred spirit in Hurst, who studied abroad in the 1850s and later ventured through the Middle East and South Asia, even writing a cultural history of Sri Lanka. By the time ground was broken in 1896, he was the respected Methodist bishop of Washington, D.C., with a vision of a university that would train public servants for the future.

 

The land Bishop Hurst chose for AU was on the rural fringe of the nation’s capital, but it was already rich with Washington history. Abraham Lincoln had visited troops at Fort Gaines, which perched on the high ground now held by Ward Circle and the Katzen Arts Center. Presidential footsteps would continue to echo through AU history. In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of a building, named for Hurst’s friend, President William McKinley. When the Methodist-affiliated university opened in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson gave the dedication. If AU’s Washington ties were evident from the start, so was its groundbreaking spirit. The first 28 students included five women, a notable figure at a time before women could vote, and an African American student won a fellowship in 1915 to pursue a doctorate.

 

Undergraduates were first admitted in 1925, by which time graduate students had shifted to a downtown campus on F Street, near the White House. It was there in the heart of downtown that in 1934, at the start of the New Deal, AU launched a program to help train federal employees in new methods of public administration. President Franklin Roosevelt, who spoke at the event launching the program, promised it would have the “hearty cooperation” of all branches of his administration.

 

Bachelor Programs:

 

Three-year bachelor programs at American University are designed to be intensive academic cohort experiences for motivated and ambitious students. Each three-year program provides a rigorous academic curriculum augmented in the summers and during the regular semesters with cohort courses and with other curricular experiences linked directly to the program of study. These demanding programs enable students to develop strengths in investigation and inquiry related to the disciplines.

 

The three-year experience is distinguished from the four-year experience at AU by its pace of study and by seminars and enhanced mentorships with faculty. Consequently, students earn not just a degree, but a degree plus a level of commitment to the field that will prepare them for graduate study or placement in the workforce.

 

Each cohort is defined by a pivotal foundation course - an enhanced introductory course that includes a living-learning component where students live in a common residence and participate in extracurricular activities that enrich their classroom experiences. This arrangement provides an opportunity to take the discussion out of the classroom and into daily life. Unique programming and activities through the residence hall will further strengthen the connection to the three-year program’s academic discipline. Overall, students will be provided the socialization experiences that allow them to have the typical “college experience” combined with the shorter time-to-degree.

 

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Contact Us:

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Phone: +91-11-22378630; +91-11-22378631