Is USC or Georgetown better for getting DC internships as an undergraduate?

The biggest practical tradeoff is proximity and integration: Georgetown places you inside Washington, with classes, alumni, and recruiting tied directly to the city’s policy ecosystem, while USC can still lead to DC internships but usually with more planning, summer-only timing, and extra networking from across the country. For politics, policy, and government work specifically, Georgetown has a real day-to-day advantage because students can intern during the semester on Capitol Hill, at think tanks, federal agencies, embassies, and advocacy groups. That matters because semester internships often turn into stronger relationships, better recommendations, and more continuous experience than trying to stack everything into summers.

Its School of Foreign Service and strong government and public policy pathways give students access to faculty with policy backgrounds, classmates aiming at the same sectors, and a large alumni network concentrated in DC. It is also common for students to balance coursework with part-time internships during the academic year, which is much harder to do from Los Angeles.

USC absolutely has strengths, but they are less centered on Washington. It has strong alumni connections, solid support for internships, and reach into media, business, communications, and some public-facing policy work. If your interests lean toward political communication, entertainment policy, public relations, or a California-to-DC path, USC can work very well. But for federal government, congressional, diplomatic, and think tank internships as an undergraduate, you would likely need to rely more on summers, a DC semester program, or independent outreach.

For the specific goal of getting DC internships in politics, policy, or government while you are still an undergrad, Georgetown is the more advantageous option. The location, the density of nearby opportunities, and the school’s longstanding ties to Washington make the path noticeably easier and more immediate.