Undergraduate Academic Accelerator Pathway (2-Term) - Bachelor of Arts in Economics

at Shorelight Group - American University USA

Asian Studies (BA) aims to understand Asia in a dynamic global context. It enhances students' understanding of historical and contemporary global culture and politics by enabling students to engage with an extensive and intensive study of Asia in the past and present. Students explore the societies of East and South Asia and their global ramifications. The program offers a lively academic study of Asia through interdisciplinary curriculum, internships, international exchange programs, and study abroad.

Immerse yourself in the world of performance with the theatre track of our performing arts degree. Develop your intellectual and creative potential through a mix of professional theatre training, performance skills, and classic liberal arts knowledge. Benefit from the seasoned scholars, performers, writers, and directors who make up the faculty, and the diverse performing arts scene of Washington, DC.

If you want to combine your studies in journalism, film and media arts, or public relations and strategic communication with a concentration in French, German, Russian, or Spanish, the bachelor of arts in Foreign Language and Communication Media may be just what you're seeking.

This interdisciplinary degree, offered jointly by the School of Communication and the Department of World Languages and Cultures in the College of Arts and Sciences, allows you to learn from world-class faculty members whose cutting-edge research activities and professional engagements play key roles in global policy development. Foreign Language and Communication Media students come from across the country and around the world, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience that further enrich your learning experience.

Global pandemics, environmental degradation—public health professionals have never been more essential to addressing the challenges the world faces. Focused on health equity, our BA prepares students for a career in the social and community aspects of public health. It provides opportunities to participate in original research, work with expert faculty, and take part in internships and service activities.

Economics is the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth. Students in our bachelor’s program gain the analytic and quantitative skills necessary for research positions and prepare them for masters or doctoral level study in the discipline. We support a pluralistic approach to economics that embraces mainstream and heterodox perspectives and emphasizes policy applications.

Our master’s degree centers around the real-world application of economics. Whether you’re gaining practical experience in leading organizations in the nation’s capital, or learning current applications by esteemed economist faculty, your curriculum will give you a head start on your career. From applied economics to gender analysis in economics, our program prepares for you a career that fits your interests.

The Peace, Global Security, and Conflict Resolution Thematic Area explores the causes and consequences of war as they relate to competing understandings of peace and security. Courses in this area help students assess the choices as well as challenges involved in preventing, resolving, and managing conflict. Students engage theories and historical cases from international security, strategic studies, human security, peace studies, and conflict resolution to conceptualize war and insecurity. The gateway course begins this journey by establishing the broader philosophical traditions associated with competing schools of thought. Students examine the different definitions of peace, security, and conflict as well as general patterns of violence and insecurity in the world. The course builds on this foundation by introducing students to the dynamics of political violence and different peacebuilding and conflict resolution mechanisms.

There is no better place to learn how to report the news than in the nation's capital, where news is made every minute of every day. At American University School of Communication, students regularly report on Capitol Hill, the DC government, federal agencies, and the policies forged here that have impact around the world. You'll gain valuable experience and earn bylines and credits through internships at major national and international news outlets including The Washington Post, USA TODAY, Politico, NBC4, and National Public Radio.

Our journalism program helps you hone your skills with courses in various forms of writing, advanced reporting, digital media, journalism ethics, and communication law as you learn from the School of Communication's richly experienced faculty. Our students take advantage of the most advanced video, audio, and film equipment in our Media Innovation Lab as they gain confidence being behind and in front of the camera. You'll graduate with strong writing and reporting abilities, an impressive multimedia portfolio, and connections throughout the industry that will help you build a successful career in journalism.

Philosophy is the passionate study of ideas, concepts, arguments, and ideologies. It is also a practice of critically attending to forms of experience, perspectives, and discourses that shape and express our lives. In this way, pursuing a degree in philosophy offers an opportunity to think differently and to think otherwise. The undergraduate program in philosophy at American University does this by exposing students to a wide variety of philosophical traditions and methods, while helping them to cultivate an attunement to issues of ethics and social justice. As such, our philosophy students grapple with the longstanding mysteries of knowledge and existence in the face of urgent political issues and the state of our world today, while also honing their thinking, writing and communication. Ultimately, the philosophy BA program helps students acquire useful skills for many trades and professions (former students have gone on to careers in academia, business, government, journalism, law, non-profit, public administration, etc.); but above all, it nurtures powers of the mind and heart for future changemakers. 

Interdisciplinary course work includes courses in chemistry, physics, and statistics and readies students for the diversity of upper-level biology courses taught by our faculty experts. Biology majors acquire a thorough, competitive background in biological science and are encouraged to obtain valuable research experience working one-on-one with faculty mentors in research labs on campus, to participate in study abroad and off-campus internships, and to gain teaching experience as student instructors.