American University Business Programs

Located in Washington, District of Columbia, American University is a private not-for-profit institution. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

American University Rankings

The American University is ranked #157 out of 1,018 schools in the nation for overall quality on our 2021 Best Colleges list.

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
#104	Best Business Master’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
#9	Best Taxation Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#14	Best Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#25	Best Public Relations & Advertising Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#51	Best Accounting Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#114	Best Business Administration & Management Master’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
#3	Best Public Relations & Advertising Colleges for Veterans	College Factual
#5	Best Colleges for Public Relations & Advertising	College Factual
#41	Best Economics Colleges for Veterans	College Factual
#47	Best Colleges for Business Administration & Management	College Factual
#56	Best Business Administration & Management Colleges for Veterans	College Factual
#322	Best Schools	Course Advisor

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
Website:	WWW.AMERICAN.EDU
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?

With an acceptance rate of 29%, The American University is one of the most selective schools in the country. If the admissions department requests additional materials, be sure to submit them promptly. This could be a sign that you're on the border line of being accepted or denied.

Approximately 35% of accepted students are men and 65% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 28%, and the acceptance rate for women is 30%.

Average Test Scores

About 49% 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 610 and 690. Math scores were between 570 and 660.

The American University received ACT scores from 39% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 26 and 33. Math scores were between 24 and 28. Composite scores were between 26 and 30.

Can I Afford American University?

The overall average net price of The American University is $52,778. 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

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At The American University, approximately 56% of students took out student loans averaging $7,801 a year. That adds up to $31,204 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at The American University is 1.8%. 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 8,287 undergraduate students at The American University, with 7,952 being full-time and 335 being part-time.

There are also 6,024 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 7,952 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	523
Black or African American	531
Hispanic or Latino	987
White	4,235
International Students	1,030
Other Races/Ethnicities	646

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 2017-2018, 1,027 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 2017-2018.

Online Growth Rankings of The American University

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at American University was 53.0%. This is the #383 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
Business Administration & Management	14%
Economics	14%
General Business Administration and Management	14%
General Economics	26%
Management Science	46%
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	47%

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
Economics	#1
General Economics	#1
Management Science	#4
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	#5
General Business Administration and Management	#99
Business Administration & Management	#121

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 Business Concentrations

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

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
General Business Administration and Management	190	0	185	0	375
General Economics	93	0	48	16	157
Public Relations	109	0	0	0	109
Management Science	0	11	95	0	106
Accounting	24	15	62	0	101
Finance	50	0	51	0	101
Political Communication	0	0	28	0	28
Interior Design Management	23	0	0	0	23
Marketing/Marketing Management, General	0	0	20	0	20
Taxation	0	0	16	0	16
Project Management	0	1	6	0	7
International & Intercultural Communication	0	0	7	0	7
Real Estate	0	0	6	0	6
Development Economics & International Development	0	0	6	0	6
International Business/Trade/Commerce	0	5	0	0	5
International Economics	0	0	4	0	4
Econometrics & Quantitative Economics	2	0	0	0	2
Other Economics	0	2	0	0	2
Entrepreneurship	0	1	0	0	1
General Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration	0	0	1	0	1
Business Statistics	0	0	1	0	1
Applied & Professional Ethics	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	491	35	536	16	1,078

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.