American University Overview

American University is a private not-for-profit institution located in Washington, District of Columbia. The location of The American University is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

What Is American University Known For?

• The student loan default rate at The American University is 3%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 10.1%. That's great news for students who are worrying about paying off their student loans.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the doctor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at The American University.
• In 2017-2018, 56% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from The American University makes roughly $61,000 a year. This is 50% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.
• On average, it takes about 4.1 years for students from The American University to earn a bachelor's degree. This is excellent when compared to the average of 4.4 years.

American University Rankings

According to our 2022 analysis, The American University is ranked #220 out of 2,587 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

The American University has been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#138	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#181	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at The American University.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Communications Technology/Support Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Philosophy Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#6	Best Philosophy & Religious Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Legal Professions Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#10	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#18	Best Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#24	Best Visual & Performing Arts Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#25	Best English Language & Literature Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#67	Best Communication & Journalism Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards The American University has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#7	Best Family, Consumer & Human Sciences Schools	College Factual
#9	Best Communications Technologies & Support Schools	College Factual
#11	Best Philosophy & Religious Studies Schools	College Factual
#26	Best Public Administration & Social Service Schools	College Factual
#51	Best Education Schools	College Factual
#81	Best Teaching Schools	Teaching Degree Search

Where Is American University?

Contact details for The American University are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	4400 Massachusetts Ave Nw, Washington, DC 20016-8001
Phone:	202-885-1000
Facebook:	http://www.facebook.com/AmericanUniversity
Twitter:	http://www.twitter.com/AmericanU

How Do I Get Into The American University?

You can apply to The American University online at: www.american.edu/admissions/apply/index.cfm

Admission Requirements for The American University

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	neither required nor recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into The American University?

The American University has a fairly low acceptance rate of 39%, which makes it more selective than most schools. Take time to make sure you submit all the requested materials and you prepare the application in full. You don't want to get denied right off the bat due to an incomplete application!

Approximately 34% of accepted students are men and 66% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 37%, and the acceptance rate for women is 40%.

Average Test Scores

About 50% of students accepted to The American University submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 630 and 710. Math scores were between 590 and 680.

The American University received ACT scores from 31% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 28 and 34. Math scores were between 24 and 29. Composite scores were between 27 and 32.

Can I Afford American University?

The overall average net price of The American University is $54,851. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At The American University, approximately 42% of students took out student loans averaging $9,489 a year. That adds up to $37,956 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at The American University is 2.5%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

American University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 7,953 undergraduate students at The American University, with 7,453 being full-time and 500 being part-time.

There are also 6,048 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 7,453 full-time undergraduates at The American University, 38% are male and 62% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of American University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	497
Black or African American	578
Hispanic or Latino	888
White	3,788
International Students	1,134
Other Races/Ethnicities	568

Geographic Diversity

District of Columbia students aren't the only ones who study at American University. At this time, 47 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 134 countries are represented at The American University. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, Saudi Arabia, and India.

Online Learning at American University

In 2019-2020, 4,609 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at The American University has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 3rd most popular in District of Columbia for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of The American University

The following table shows how The American University is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Economics	#18	#18
International Relations & National Security	#37	#37
Food, Nutrition & Related Services	#37	#37
Legal Research	#39	#39
Educational Assessment	#53	#53
Legal Professions	#57	#57
Communication & Media Studies	#72	#72
Homeland Security	#75	#75

Online Growth Rankings of The American University

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at American University was 43.9%. This is the #722 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at The American University regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of The American University majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Anthropology	30%
Business Administration & Management	5%
Business, Management & Marketing	11%
Education	33%
Educational Administration	42%
Educational Assessment	80%
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	11%
Food, Nutrition & Related Services	11%
Health & Physical Education	13%
Health Professions	2%
Human Resource Management	93%
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies	13%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at The American University ranks compared to all other partially online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at The American University.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Anthropology	#1
Food, Nutrition & Related Services	#4
Educational Assessment	#10
Legal Research	#28
Health & Physical Education	#61
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies	#67
Legal Professions	#76
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	#84
Human Resource Management	#97
Social Sciences	#116
Educational Administration	#138
Health & Medical Administrative Services	#218
Education	#400
Business Administration & Management	#473

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

American University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Basic Certificate	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
International Relations & National Security	0	434	2	317	9	762
Business Administration & Management	0	205	1	220	0	426
Law	0	0	0	0	382	382
Political Science & Government	36	164	0	14	2	216
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	55	116	0	0	0	171
Public Administration	0	0	0	163	3	166
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	0	13	129	0	142
Public Relations & Advertising	0	105	0	37	0	142
Economics	0	90	1	35	11	137
Communication & Media Studies	0	34	0	73	5	112
Finance & Financial Management	0	64	0	45	0	109
Accounting	0	25	16	65	0	106
Public Health	0	84	0	18	0	102
Criminal Justice & Corrections	0	79	0	18	3	100
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	0	47	0	41	0	88
Journalism	0	45	0	38	0	83
Educational Administration	0	0	0	83	0	83
General Psychology	0	66	0	15	0	81
Legal Research	0	0	0	72	8	80
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	30	0	30	0	60
History	0	38	0	13	5	56
Public Policy	0	0	0	54	0	54
Natural Resources Conservation	0	24	0	28	0	52
Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution	0	0	0	47	0	47
Food, Nutrition & Related Services	0	0	0	45	0	45
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	42	0	3	0	0	45
Fine & Studio Arts	0	22	0	19	0	41
General Biology	0	31	0	7	0	38
Anthropology	0	15	2	18	2	37
Philosophy	0	8	0	26	0	34
Audiovisual Communications	0	15	1	15	0	31
Non-Professional General Legal Studies	0	31	0	0	0	31
Literature	0	27	0	1	0	28
International Education	0	0	0	26	0	26
Area Studies	1	18	2	5	0	26
Drama & Theater Arts	0	25	0	0	0	25
Taxation	0	0	6	18	0	24
Homeland Security	0	0	0	24	0	24
Marketing	0	0	0	22	0	22
Computer Science	0	21	0	0	0	21
Teaching English or French	0	0	1	20	0	21
Other Statistics	0	0	21	0	0	21
Sociology	0	15	0	6	0	21
Ethnic Studies	0	19	0	0	0	19
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	0	11	0	0	6	17
Statistics	0	6	1	10	0	17
Health & Physical Education	0	0	0	16	0	16
Human Resource Management	0	0	0	15	0	15
Arts & Media Management	0	0	3	12	0	15
Design & Applied Arts	0	11	0	4	0	15
Real Estate	0	0	1	12	0	13
Writing Studies	0	0	0	13	0	13
Educational Assessment	0	0	0	10	0	10
Special Education	0	0	0	9	0	9
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	0	0	9	0	9
Music	0	9	0	0	0	9
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	0	8	0	0	0	8
Dance	0	8	0	0	0	8
Mathematics	0	3	0	4	0	7
Religious Studies	0	7	0	0	0	7
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	0	0	7	7
Romance Languages	0	6	0	0	0	6
Chemistry	0	2	0	4	0	6
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	0	0	0	5	0	5
Biotechnology	0	0	0	5	0	5
International Studies	4	0	0	0	0	4
Physics	0	4	0	0	0	4
Information Science	0	0	0	3	0	3
Middle Eastern Semitic Languages	0	3	0	0	0	3
Applied Mathematics	0	3	0	0	0	3
Other Public Administration	0	0	3	0	0	3
International Business	0	0	2	0	0	2
Legal Professions (Other)	0	0	0	2	0	2
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	1	0	0	0	1
Entrepreneurial Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0
Communication & Journalism (Other)	0	0	0	0	0	0
Health/Medical Prep Programs	0	0	0	0	0	0
Computational Science	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other Social Sciences	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	138	1,979	79	1,940	443	4,579

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Samschoe under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.