For psychology, you can examine to what extent potential schools of interest offer courses in the major branches of contemporary psychology: clinical, cognitive, developmental, educational, personality, physiological, sensory and social. A good program will have both range and depth. If you are interested in becoming a clinician, you should look for colleges that offer the opportunity for a field placement at a local mental health care facility as part of their undergraduate program.
For political science, schools located in Washington can of course be good. Nonetheless, colleges offering semester-long programs in Washington can conceivably offer a competitive – and possibly more concentrated – experience in the Nation’s capital.