I’d love to hear the thoughts of people regarding AU’s policy of offering some students January admission and especially the “Washington Internship Program”. For the past two years, I have worked with students who were not admitted in the fall but instead were offered membership in the Washington Internship Program, leading to admission in January.
The internship program sounded initially interesting but what deterred the students I worked with is the fact that no financial aid is available. So essentially these students and their families must be well off or willing to borrow a significant sum of money. Coupled with the fact that AU does not meet full need and heavily relies on loans, this makes AU less attractive.
What are your thoughts? I find this approach really unsettling. It smacks of “admit-deny”. If AU thinks the Washington Internship Program is so great and selective, why refuse to offer financial aid to participants?