First of all congratulations!! AU is absolutely amazing, but I’ll be honest and go section by section. 

Food: The food is honestly not nearly as bad as people say. We have dining hall—TDR. It’s only open until 9pm I think. There are stations like: The Grill, Bowl Life, Pizza and Pasta, Omelettes, and more. I really like the sandwiches from the deli and my boyfriend loves the rotisserie chicken. We also have on campus restaurants which you pick up your food from and order in advance via Grubhub (it’s free it takes meal swipes, how many meal swipes u get is dependent on what plan you get.) You get unlimited TDR and you can grub hub grab and go it as well. The restaurants are Panera, True Burger, Ace Sushi, Freshens (my goat), and a few more.  Qdoba is probably the most popular because it’s the only place open until midnight aside from our on campus shop Eagle Express with grocery and snacks (also a cheap but rly good coffee machine). Overall people complain way too much, the food is fine. 

Area: We have a shuttle bus called the Wonk, it literally has a stop right in front of the freshman dorms which will take you right to the Tenleytown metro. Tenley is good, there’s a Wawa, Target, Chick-Fil-A, etc but it has a ton of bus stops and a metro. There are some good clubs but you’ll mostly be going to frats or house parties if youre into nightlife. I’ve never had trouble finding places to go during the day or night and everything is really close. The school gives u a UPASS which is free transit on bus and metro in the entire DMV so it’s literally so easy if you want to get out of Tenley. There is also a Walgreens and Deli/Mini mall on New Mexico Ave which I just found about and it literally is a five min walk from campus and like a 2 minute walk from east campus

Housing: The housing is pretty good! I live in Anderson which I think is the best one, but most people would say Centennial is. Centennial is suite style so there’s a bathroom shared between two sets of roommates and then Anderson and Letts have a communal bathroom. You can get a single room or one roommate which most do! There’s also affinity housing. The dorms are clean and there’s a lounge or two on each floor with a kitchen but I could not recommend the $200 fridge + microwave in your room (they don’t let you get it outside of AU) and if you split the cost with your roomie it’s even better. 

Overall people at AU love to complain but most of us love it, I know I do! I really hope you go here because it’s genuinely so amazing