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<p>MMmmm…I have never heard anyone in MD say GW lands you better internships that UMCP.</p>
<p>Many of my friends at MD have internships with the federal government, with nonprofits, with think tanks, working on campaigns, etc. There are even a variety of selective internship programs at Maryland where you take a class 1 semester and intern on the hill the next…</p>
<p>The ONE benefit I can see (academic-wise) to attending GW is that of course it is closer in proximity to DC being, well, in DC. The only thing that means is that transportation to mid-semester internships is easier. My friend who has a Spring semester internship in DC had to schedule her classes fairly carefully to make sure she had time to make it downtown and work a substantial amount of hours. I imagine you could be more flexible if you attended a school that was already downtown ;).</p>
<p>But again that doesn’t affect internship RECRUITING and certainly DC-area internship coordinators reach out to all schools in the area…ESPECIALLY Maryland, since it is much larger than any of the schools in DC proper.</p>
<p>I was a little dismayed by the post about how GW is a “private school and therefore more respected” (that is just flat out not true). I decided to keep my mouth shut for a bit but I really don’t want people reading this thread from other states and thinking GW is seen as a superior school. It really isn’t and I truly believe the academics are equivalent.</p>
<p>Again I would look at the course catalogs…perhaps GW offers more courses in an area of your interest. </p>
<p>But I would not think internship opportunities would be a factor.</p>
<p>I have my own reservations about MD, indeed. It is definitely a large school, there is definitely a lot of bureaucracy, the quality of your actual advisor is hit or miss, usually miss. In terms of career center type services for the gov and politics school SPECIFICALLY, I wonder if they suffer the same problem of being “bloated.” Intro classes can be large. Etc. I actually don’t enjoy the classes in my major (English) due to the large size even up into upper-levels. However, I haven’t found that to be the case at all in gov and politics and have enjoyed every single class I’ve taken in that department. So, I am speaking in as unbiased a way as possible.</p>