<p>You are exactly correct as to why AU does not rank as highly as one would guess (“part-time” faculty are penalized, even though they provide a huge real-world experience for students at Georgetown, AU, and GW in particular and are not the typical adjunct or part-time faculty at most other schools; also AU suffers from a low endowment and low alumni giving rates, in part because of a tendency for AU grads/alumni to give to other areas than back to AU–also, AU struggles with being #3 in DC behind Georgetown and GW–I believe that it would be ranked higher if GU and GW didn’t exist). AU students are more cosmopolitan, politically active, diverse (in terms of demographics but also culturally and philosophically) than what you will find at Wake Forest. It certainly makes a huge difference educationally to be in DC than in NC–people can do summer internships or a semester in DC, but there is nothing like the opportunities to go to school and intern/work/take advantage of DC during the academic year–summers and “semester in DC” cannot compare. Finally, I’d rather be at the solid #3 school in DC than be at the #3 or #4 school in NC (behind Duke, Davidson, and UNC-Chapel Hill).</p>