Photo: Samschoe (CC BY-SA 4.0)
School data & stats
Outcomes
Cost
Community
Overview
Private university in a residential corner of Northwest Washington, D.C., built around a clear identity: politics, policy, and public affairs. AU's location just miles from Capitol Hill, federal agencies, and a dense concentration of NGOs and embassies shapes both its academics and its student body, which skews toward politically engaged, policy-minded students from across the country. It is smaller and more specialized in focus than the research universities also based in D.C.
Academics
The School of International Service and the School of Public Affairs are AU's defining academic units, drawing students specifically for international relations, political science, and public policy, with coursework designed around D.C.'s proximity rather than treating it as incidental. The Kogod School of Business and the School of Communication also benefit from the same location, feeding students into media and government-adjacent industries. Semester-long internships during the academic year, not just over the summer, are built into the culture and curriculum in a way that is less common at universities further from a capital city.
Campus & student life
The Tenleytown-area campus is residential and green, a quieter, more suburban setting than students might expect from a D.C. university, with much of the political and international energy coming from internships and coursework rather than the immediate surroundings. Student government and political organizations are numerous and active, reflecting the student body's general orientation toward public affairs. Athletics exist at the Division I level but are not central to campus identity the way academics and internships are.
Getting in
AU runs a holistic process, and demonstrated interest in policy, international affairs, or government is a common thread among successful applicants, whether or not they apply to SIS or SPA specifically. Essays that show genuine engagement with current events or public service carry real weight, and AU also draws a substantial early-decision applicant pool of students specifically targeting its D.C. location and political science and IR programs.
After graduation
Graduates move directly into federal agencies, congressional offices, embassies, and NGOs, aided enormously by the density of in-program internships during undergraduate years. The alumni network is unusually concentrated in and around Washington, D.C., and in policy-adjacent fields nationally, and many students secure a first job that grew directly out of an internship completed while still enrolled.
Admissions
Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)
Applying
american.edu ↗High school coursework
Required4 years of English · 3 years of mathematics (including 2 years of algebra and 1 year of geometry) · 2 years of laboratory science · 2 years of social science · 2 years of foreign language
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