American University vs Tulane for public policy: which is better for policy internships and career prep?

For public policy career prep, American usually has the clearer edge because its Washington, DC location is built into the way students get experience. AU students have unusually direct access to Capitol Hill, federal agencies, think tanks, advocacy groups, and policy nonprofits during the school year, which makes part-time internships and networking much easier to do consistently. If you want your college routine to include policy work alongside classes, American is the more natural setup.

American is especially appealing for a student who wants to test several corners of policy before committing. Its School of Public Affairs is one of the school’s most visible academic centers, and the DC ecosystem means students can move between campaigns, research shops, local government, and national organizations without needing a summer-only plan. That matters because repeated semester internships often build stronger resumes and references than one-off experiences.

Tulane makes more sense for a student drawn to policy through community engagement, urban issues, public service, or the civic life of New Orleans. Tulane’s strength is not that it sits next to the federal government, but that it has a deep service-oriented culture and strong opportunities tied to local government, nonprofits, education, public health, environmental resilience, and Gulf South policy issues. If your idea of policy work is hands-on, place-based, and closely connected to communities, Tulane offers a compelling version of that.

For networking specifically, American benefits from sheer proximity and volume. Being in DC means alumni events, guest speakers, employer visits, and coffee-chat opportunities can happen during a normal week, not only on special trips or over breaks. That kind of access is hard to replicate elsewhere.

Tulane can still prepare students very well, especially if they want policy connected to service, law, public health, disaster recovery, or city-level reform. But for the most direct pipeline into internships and early policy resume-building, American tends to provide the more immediate advantage.