Which is better for internships, American University or University of Illinois Chicago?

The biggest practical tradeoff is Washington, DC access versus Chicago value and scale. American University puts you in one of the best internship cities in the country, especially for government, policy, international affairs, communications, and nonprofits, and its academic calendar and campus culture are very built around students interning during the semester. UIC gives you a major-city employer market too, with strong access to hospitals, business, engineering, public service, and corporate roles across Chicago, but the internship culture is usually less centered on one dominant sector than at AU.

For school-year internships, American has a real edge if your interests connect to DC. AU’s reputation is especially tied to these fields, so employers there are used to hiring its students during the semester.

UIC is also well positioned for term-time internships because it is in Chicago and connected to a huge commuter-friendly job market. That matters a lot for healthcare, finance, business operations, tech-adjacent roles, urban planning, and local government. The difference is that AU has a more obvious built-in pipeline for internships as part of the student experience, while UIC’s opportunities can feel broader but a bit more self-directed.

For summer internships, both can work well, but location matters slightly less since many students leave campus anyway. In that case, your major starts to matter more than the school name alone. UIC can be especially attractive if you want practical ties to Chicago employers or industries like nursing, public health, engineering, and business, while AU stands out most for politics, public affairs, justice-related work, and international fields.

Career support at both schools is useful, but American’s network is more concentrated in internship-heavy DC sectors. UIC benefits from being a large public university with lots of employer connections in a major city, though students often need to be more proactive in navigating them.

If internships are your top priority in a DC-facing field, I would lean American University. If your interests are broader or more tied to healthcare, engineering, business, or the Chicago market, UIC can absolutely deliver strong internship options and may be the smarter overall pick depending on cost.