What Is It Like to Study Policy or International Relations in D.C.?

Most American universities offer some version of an international relations or public policy major. Most are taught primarily in classrooms, with occasional guest speakers and a study-abroad year. Studying policy or international relations in Washington, D.C. is genuinely different. The federal city is part of the curriculum: federal agencies, embassies, think tanks, advocacy groups, and Hill offices are reachable by Metro or walking, and the city's daily political life is the backdrop to seminar discussions. Students at the four major D.C. programs intern at federal agencies during the academic year, attend free policy briefings between classes, and write final papers based on conversations with the practitioners they cite.

For an international applicant considering a policy or IR major, that is the most important fact about D.C. as a university market. It is also the easiest fact to oversell. The "city as classroom" advantage is real, but it is not a substitute for academic effort, it does not erase the workload of a serious major, and it does not solve the cost problem that comes with living in one of the most expensive American cities. This guide walks the four major D.C. undergraduate programs, the adjacent options, and the honest tradeoffs.

D.C. policy schools cluster

For the broader cluster's geographic context, the Washington, D.C. university city map lays out where the policy schools sit relative to the federal city.

Why D.C. Is Unusual for This Major

The federal city overlay produces several advantages that are mostly unavailable to students at policy and IR programs elsewhere:

Internships during the academic year, not just summer

At most universities, policy and IR internships are summer-only and require relocation. In D.C., undergraduates routinely intern at federal agencies, congressional offices, embassies, think tanks, NGOs, and advocacy groups during the academic year, taking 10–20 hours per week alongside a full course load. The career offices at SFS, Elliott, SIS, and the public policy programs build their advising calendar around this rhythm. The student perspective is not "do an internship somewhere over the summer"; it is "have an internship at all times during the academic year."

This shapes the academic experience in concrete ways. A constitutional law class that includes a student who is currently a part-time intern at a Senate Judiciary Committee office has different texture than the same class without. A development economics course where two students intern at the IMF and three at advocacy nonprofits produces different small-group discussions. Faculty incorporate that texture deliberately.

Embassy access

Embassy Row — the stretch of Massachusetts Avenue NW between Dupont Circle and the upper Northwest residential blocks — contains roughly 175 foreign embassies. Many embassies host policy events, cultural events, and academic-affiliated lectures throughout the academic year. Students at SFS, Elliott, and SIS can attend a meaningful number of these events as part of their normal week. The annual Embassy Open Houses (typically in May) make a substantial number of embassies open to the public for one or two weekends; verify current schedules with Cultural Tourism DC close to the visit. Even outside the open houses, individual embassies regularly host lectures and cultural programming for the public.

Think-tank density

Within walking distance of the four D.C. universities sit the Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Atlantic Council, the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for American Progress, the Wilson Center, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the German Marshall Fund, and many others. Most host free public events on a regular basis, and many are accessible to undergraduate students for research interviews, internship roles, and event attendance. A student at a D.C. policy program can sit in on three to five think-tank events during a typical week and develop a working sense of the policy ecosystem.

Capitol Hill access

The U.S. Capitol, the House and Senate office buildings, and the federal agency complexes are reachable from each of the four major D.C. campuses by Metro within 30 minutes. Internships at Hill offices are competitive but available; office tours through congressional offices are accessible to U.S. citizens (international students should verify current rules with the Capitol Visitor Center before traveling).

For an applicant who genuinely wants to study how American foreign policy and domestic policy work in practice, those four advantages are real and meaningful. They are also, importantly, advantages that compound — a student who uses the city deliberately in their first year builds the network and the confidence that produce better internships and seminar participation in their second and third years.

The Four Major Undergraduate Programs

Georgetown Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS)

The Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown is the oldest international affairs school in the United States, founded in 1919. Its undergraduate curriculum is structured: required language proficiency, a regional or functional concentration, a heavy interdisciplinary core covering political and economic systems, history, international relations theory, and proseminars. The school is housed primarily in the Intercultural Center (ICC) on Georgetown's central campus.

SFS culture is cohort-driven and intense. Students take a substantial common core in their first two years, declare a major from among regional studies, international economics, international politics, international history, science and technology in international affairs, and several others, and graduate with foreign-language proficiency and a senior capstone. The Jesuit framing of foreign service as a vocation — "men and women for others" — is part of the academic identity, not just rhetoric.

For applicants drawn to a structured, prestige-anchored international affairs curriculum with the Jesuit tradition in the background, SFS is one of the strongest fits in the country. Direct admission is required and is among the most selective of any Georgetown school. The Georgetown admissions and campus visit guide walks the application platform, the school-specific essay strategy, and the campus visit pattern in detail.

GW Elliott School of International Affairs

The Elliott School of International Affairs at GW is one of the largest undergraduate international affairs schools in the United States. Its curriculum offers concentrations across international politics, international economics, security policy, international development, conflict resolution, and several regional fields. Elliott's character is shaped by the GW urban-immersion campus: classes in Foggy Bottom, internships within walking distance of class buildings, and a more porous boundary between school and federal-city work life than at many peers.

Elliott's daily rhythm reflects its location. Students take classes in the 1957 E Street building or the surrounding GW academic blocks, walk to the State Department for an event during a long lunch break, and head back to seminar afterward. The school has historically been the most accessible of the four major D.C. policy programs for applicants who want a less structured curriculum than SFS but still want a substantive international affairs identity.

The GW / American / Howard fit guide walks Elliott alongside SIS and the Howard programs in more detail. Verify current admissions policies, supplementary essays, and visit rules on the GW Undergraduate Admissions site.

American School of International Service (SIS)

The School of International Service (SIS) at American University is one of the largest undergraduate international affairs schools in the country and the largest at any D.C. private university. SIS's curriculum is organized around international relations, international development, regional studies, peace and conflict resolution, and global ethics; the school has a notable reputation for applied international development and global communication.

SIS's character reflects AU's broader public-affairs identity. The school is more residential than Elliott and more applied-development-oriented than SFS. Students often combine an SIS major with a complementary minor in Spanish, public communication, or a regional studies concentration. The campus location in upper Northwest is a tradeoff: longer Metro commute to the federal-city core in exchange for a more traditional residential-quad campus experience.

Verify current admissions policies, supplementary essays, and visit rules on the American University Undergraduate Admissions site.

Howard University policy programs

Howard University does not have a single named "international affairs" school in the way Georgetown, GW, and American do. Policy and international affairs interests are served across several Howard schools and departments, with notable strength in the Cathy Hughes School of Communications (for political communication and journalism), the political science department in the College of Arts and Sciences (for public policy and international relations), and the Howard School of Business (for international business and finance).

The distinctive contribution of Howard for prospective policy and IR students is the institution's civic identity and alumni network. Howard has produced a long list of prominent figures across U.S. policy, law, and international affairs, and the alumni network is a meaningful part of the post-graduation career trajectory. For applicants drawn to a Howard policy education, the choice is genuinely about institutional fit, not about whether Howard offers the academic depth — it does, distributed across schools rather than concentrated in a single named international affairs school.

The GW / American / Howard fit guide walks Howard's policy programs alongside Elliott and SIS. Verify current admissions policies on the Howard University Undergraduate Admissions site.

Adjacent Options

Three additional D.C.-metro undergraduate programs deserve attention from applicants serious about policy or IR.

Catholic University Department of Politics and the Institute for Human Ecology

Catholic University of America in Brookland NE has a Department of Politics with concentrations in American politics, international relations, comparative politics, and political theory. The undergraduate program is smaller and more contemplative than the four major D.C. policy schools, and the academic culture is anchored by Catholic intellectual traditions and the broader humanities core. For applicants drawn to a smaller-scale, more philosophically grounded approach to political science and international affairs, Catholic deserves a real visit. Verify current programs and admissions on the Catholic University Undergraduate Admissions site.

George Mason Schar School of Policy and Government (Arlington campus)

The Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University operates from an Arlington, VA campus immediately adjacent to the Virginia Square-GMU Metro station, about 20 minutes by Metro from downtown D.C. The Schar School offers undergraduate programs in government and international politics, public administration, and policy, and graduate programs that are unusually accessible to undergraduates for cross-listed coursework.

Mason's most-distinctive contribution for international applicants is cost: as a Virginia public university, Mason offers in-state tuition for residents and is meaningfully less expensive than the four D.C. private universities. For international students, out-of-state tuition is still the relevant rate, but Mason's overall cost-of-attendance is typically lower than Georgetown, GW, American, or Howard. Verify current programs, admissions policies, and visit rules on the George Mason Schar School and George Mason Office of Admissions sites.

University of Maryland School of Public Policy

The School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland is a flagship public-policy school with strong undergraduate and graduate programs. The undergraduate concentration in public policy at Maryland fits applicants who want a large public-flagship environment, lower cost (especially for in-state students), and the public-flagship academic and career resources. The College Park campus is reachable directly from D.C. by the Green Line.

For an international applicant comparing across the D.C. metro, Maryland produces a meaningfully different undergraduate experience than the four D.C. private schools — bigger, more structured, more applied — and is worth a genuine half-day visit if the program is on the list. Verify current programs and admissions on the University of Maryland Office of Admissions site.

What "City as Curriculum" Actually Looks Like

The phrase "city as classroom" or "D.C. advantage" is used so often in admissions marketing that it is worth being concrete about what it does and does not mean.

What it does mean

• Embassies host events that undergraduates can attend regularly. Most embassies' public events are free with registration; some are restricted to graduate students or invited guests. The German Marshall Fund and the Wilson Center regularly host events that are accessible to undergraduates, as do many of the larger embassies during their cultural seasons.
• Think tanks host free public lectures and panel discussions on a near-daily basis. The Brookings and CSIS public events calendar typically lists three to five events on any given weekday, and many are open to the general public with registration.
• Capitol Hill hearings are open to the public on most days when Congress is in session. Students can sit in on a House or Senate committee hearing during a free morning or afternoon block; the House and Senate committee schedules publish hearing times in advance.
• Federal agency briefings and reports are released continually, and the press conferences and rollout events around them are often accessible to students with credentials from the campus newspaper, public radio station, or political-communication program.
• Internships during the academic year are normal. Federal agencies, congressional offices, advocacy groups, and think tanks routinely take part-time semester interns from the D.C. universities. The schools' career offices build advising and network around this.

What it does not mean

• D.C. proximity is not a substitute for academic effort. A student who skips readings, neglects coursework, and treats the city as the curriculum will not be a strong policy or IR student even with daily think-tank attendance. The classroom remains the center.
• Not every embassy or agency is accessible. Some are heavily restricted; others have specific protocols for student access. Verify current rules with each institution before assuming you can walk in.
• The internship pipeline is competitive. "Substantial undergraduate internship access" does not mean every student gets the most-prestigious internship they want. Career office advising, faculty connections, and applied undergraduate effort all matter.
• The "D.C. advantage" does not eliminate the cost problem. Tuition at Georgetown, GW, American, and Howard is private-university tuition; cost of living in D.C. is among the higher U.S. metros. International students should run the four-year financial picture realistically before committing.
• Not all academic departments at all four schools are equally strong. Each school has standout programs and weaker programs. Read the specific department's faculty list, course catalog, and recent senior thesis topics before assuming any one school is the right fit for a specific subfield.

Honest Tradeoffs

A serious comparison of D.C. policy and IR programs against peer programs elsewhere should account for the tradeoffs.

Workload

Policy and IR majors at the four D.C. schools are real majors. Reading lists are substantial, writing requirements are heavy, and the senior capstone or thesis expectation is typically substantive. International students who plan to also work 10–20 hours per week in an academic-year internship should expect the combined load to be demanding. The classroom-plus-internship combination is what makes the D.C. advantage real, but it is not a free lunch.

Cost

D.C. is among the more expensive American university metros. Tuition and fees at the four private universities are at the high end of U.S. private university tuition. Cost of living in housing, food, and transportation is meaningfully above the national average. International students should budget realistically for a four-year cost picture, account for currency-exchange variability, and explore the financial aid options at each university (which differ meaningfully). For families with cost concerns, GMU's Schar School and the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy are genuine alternatives that should not be treated as inferior; the academic programs are strong, and the cost-of-attendance picture is meaningfully different.

Limits of D.C. advantage outside policy and IR

The "D.C. advantage" is real for policy and international relations and adjacent fields. It is more limited for, say, theoretical physics, structural engineering, or 17th-century English literature. Applicants who are not actually planning to study policy or IR should not weight the D.C. advantage as heavily; the rest of the academic and campus experience matters more for their fit.

Internship competition

The same federal agencies and think tanks that make D.C. attractive are also accessible to students at other top universities through summer-only programs. The advantage to D.C. universities is the ability to do internships during the academic year, but the most-competitive internships are still competitive, and the strongest students at peer non-D.C. universities also access them.

How to Evaluate Fit on a Campus Visit

A focused campus visit can produce real fit information. A few practical patterns:

Sit in on a class

Most of the four major D.C. policy programs allow prospective students to sit in on a class, with advance arrangement through the school's admissions office or the dean's office for undergraduates. A 75-minute class observation produces texture about academic culture, the rapport between faculty and students, the level of class participation, and the kind of questions that get asked. The contrast between an SFS proseminar, an Elliott graduate-led discussion section, and an SIS undergraduate seminar is real and visible.

Attend a public think-tank event

Even outside an admissions visit, attending a free Brookings or CSIS event with the prospective applicant produces a useful window into how the policy ecosystem actually functions. The walk from the event to the closest D.C. university campus is itself a useful piece of information about scale and proximity.

Talk to current students about D.C.-specific things

A 10-minute conversation with a current student in the program — about the academic-year internship pattern, about housing, about how seminars connect to their internships, about the specific faculty members they have studied with — produces the kind of texture that website skims cannot. Useful questions to bring:

• "How does your week balance class, internship, and reading?"
• "What's a class you took that changed how you think about something?"
• "Where do you write your papers? Library? Internship office? Coffee shop?"
• "What's the social rhythm of the program — do students see each other outside class?"
• "What's the part of the city you spend the most time in besides campus?"

The campus tour questions article elsewhere in this series has more on phrasing.

Walk the surrounding ecosystem

For SFS at Georgetown, that means walking down M Street into Foggy Bottom and across to the State Department. For Elliott at GW, that means walking out of the academic core onto Pennsylvania Avenue. For SIS at American, that means taking the Red Line down to Dupont Circle and walking past the embassies and think tanks the program connects to. The walk produces a physical sense of how connected the school is to the rest of the policy ecosystem.

Comparing the Four Major Programs at a Glance

What This Means for the Application

For an international applicant serious about a D.C. policy or IR program, the practical takeaways:

• Pick the school first. SFS, Elliott, SIS, and the Howard programs produce different student experiences. Read each school's faculty list, course catalog, and recent senior thesis topics before assuming any one is the right fit.
• Visit the city, not just the campus. A campus visit that ignores the federal-city, embassy, think-tank, and Hill ecosystem misses the most important fact about studying policy or IR in D.C.
• Be honest about cost. The four private universities are genuinely expensive. Run the four-year picture before committing. GMU Schar and UMD Public Policy are serious alternatives at meaningfully lower cost.
• Treat the academic-year internship as part of the program, not a side activity. The schools' career offices build advising around it; the academic culture incorporates it; the post-graduation outcomes depend on it.
• Ask specific questions on the visit. "How does your week balance class and internship?" produces information. "Is this a good policy school?" does not.

The D.C. advantage is real for the right applicant. It is not the right reason to attend a D.C. university for an applicant who does not actually plan to study policy or international relations. For the applicant who does — and who is willing to engage seriously with the federal city, the workload, and the cost — the four major programs offer some of the best undergraduate preparation in the world for a career in policy, diplomacy, public administration, international development, political journalism, or international business.