<p>Has anybody dealt with the Washington Center Program? Its places students in internship programs in the D.C area. I haven't found many student reviews online and was looking for some feedback on the program. Thanks!!</p>
<p>bumped…</p>
<p>what kind of internship are you looking for? Is it worth paying TWC thousands of dollars for something that you could’ve got yourself?</p>
<p>Hey Paul - </p>
<p>I went through The Washington Center’s program as an undergrad during the summer of 2010. The program is really comprehensive and a great overall experience. Part of the reason that you pay for TWC is that they do a lot more than just find you an internship. The academic course and speaker series that come along with the internship are really, really beneficial enhancements to the program. I think I grew exponentially as a professional and individual because of the experiences that came along in supplement to the internship.</p>
<p>There is also a lot about the program that makes it worth your money. Once you’re accepted, they don’t hang out out to dry - each step of the way there is someone there to support you in your experience. I had an awesome “Program Advisor” who made sure my internship met my expectations and was a nice support system while living in a totally different place, if I needed it. Plus, the academic credit you receive (every student does - it just depends how much) means that you aren’t wasting any money… it’s an investment just like being on campus, except you get credit for being in DC. </p>
<p>You also have the option of living in TWC housing (which is gorgeous) during your stay. This is part of the cost as well. I can tell you that friends who found housing on their own paid a lot more for a lot less - and also lost out on the camaraderie that is living with other interns. </p>
<p>I’m a pretty big proponent of the program - it did a whole lot for me - and I know that the staff would be happy to answer questions and advise you on participation (without being overly pushy). If you’re interested, call them up. I’d also recommend their website (which is vastly improved since my internship). </p>
<p>Here’s a good link to read about the DC program: [All</a> Programs | The Washington Center](<a href=“http://www.twc.edu/internships/all-programs]All”>http://www.twc.edu/internships/all-programs).</p>
<p>The post above from “Reidmay” sounds like it is a TWC employee, notice that they joined in the same month that they posted and also have only done 1 post. Not entirely sure, but just saying. TWC is a business, it is out to make money, however, that is not to say that there aren’t substantial benefits from the program: placement, seminars, speakers, housing etc. That being said it is somewhat expensive and you may be not necessarily need the help. I have never done the program, but it is worth weighing whether you think your gains from the program will justify the cost - you may be able to get the same internship without the program, or cheaper housing, but minus the seminars, and speakers etc that you pay the program for.</p>
<p>I went to school for Criminal Justice between the years of 2006-2010. Before my junior year I interned for the State Police where I gained some incredible experience and got to work alongside with professionals from local, state, and federal authorities.
I’ve always had an interest to work in the federal world and during my junior year of college I decided to apply for the Washington Center to hopefully get a great insight of how agencies work in Washington D.C. I was happy to get the “early-admission” for the Washington Center as I thought I would have a greater chance to apply to DEA, ATF, etc as an intern. Months passed and I never heard from my advisor or from any recruiters. As I grew concerned about the $10,000 I was going to invest for an unknown intership, I e-mailed my advisor multiple times. Each response from her told me to hold-on because the agencies that I was interested in were recruiting. About a week before I was going to move to D.C. my advisor called me saying she had a position available with a “Public Defender”. I told her that I did not know what the internship required or what the agency does, so I would like to call her back to let her know where my decision stands. My advisor then told me that I would need to call back within the next 90 minutes because it was a Friday and that she would be going home for the weekend.
After checking out the “Public Defender’s” office, I was disgusted as I would be helping convicted criminals get lighter sentences than the punishments they deserved. I then called up my supervisor from the State Police and they told me that they would love to have me back.
I called my advisor back and told her that I would like to withdraw from the program. My advisor pleaded for me to remain in the program, but I wanted no part of what she had to offer. After withdrawing from the program I rejoined my State Police internship and it was the the best summer of my life (to date).
The Washington Center is a huge scam. I’ve had a lot of my friends do their summer program and a few of them didn’t start an internship until the fourth week (The summer experience is 10 weeks!).
After my experience, I have come to a conclusion.
- The Washington Center is a SCAM! (Nice website though!)
- Save yourself the $10,000.
- If you are truly passionate on what you want to do with your life, find an internship by yourself! A lot of agencies love kids being proactive doing things on your own and it shows motivation and determination.
- I have no idea who Reidmay, but their post is the biggest pile of B/S I’ve ever seen.</p>
<p>Good luck with your future and avoid the The Washington Center if you value your money and your time.</p>
<p>So, are you saying this program is 10 weeks and costs 10K and you get housing with that? And you do get an internship, even though it may be halfway through the program?
And it’s located in DC?</p>
<p>Sounds like a good deal to me, as a parent.</p>
<p>It’s a lot better than sitting on the couch playing video games all day.</p>
<p>I’m sorry. I love posters who say, Go get an internship on your own, rather than pay somebody for the experience. Easier said than done. While there are some superstars out there who have their pick of summer offerings, there’s also the average middle class white male with no connections who is lucky if he can get a job bagging groceries for ten hours a week.</p>
<p>Interesting – my mom, way back in the day, did a Washington Center Internship via her university, and we still get mail from them. This was a LOT of years ago but at the time it was the most comprehensive/established program. If it is now a scam, that’s news to her (since, like I said, they still send her mail and ask for support and donations and offer speaker series and stuff like that).</p>
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<p>I am a current intern at USDOT-Federal Highways and I am getting paid by the TWC and haven’t given them a penny. So from my experience I don’t see them as a scam at all and I would also highly recommend not paying ANYONE for internship experience because you are providing your job a service which means they should be paying you.</p>
<p>The Washington Center is not a good program at all. I spent thousands of dollars on it and feel like it was nowhere near worth the money. The speakers they have are pointless and not beneficial to you at all. A couple of the speakers they have for programming are just there to promote their books for you to buy. The programming days are a complete waste of time. They load you up with portfolio work and a class on top of your internship that you work anywhere from 32 to 40 hours a week. They say they put on fun activities on weekends such as playing sports with other interns. We only ended up doing one of those and the rest were cancelled. The only good part of this internship program was the people I met. I made some great friends and enjoyed every part of DC aside from the Washington Center program and my actual internship. My advice is if you can find an internship on your own then do it and don’t bother wasting your money on hyped up uselessness. </p>
<p>The Washington Center is a HUGE SCAM.
Let me tell you the whole story, I go to the University of Florida however I live in DC. UF requires you to do summer classes, so my plan was to do the Washington Center, get academic credit for it and get to stay at home for the summer. UF also gives you a $7500 scholarship meaning I could pay the $6000 fee and pocket the $1500. I applied early and did all the steps they required. My application was only sent out to a handful of places and it was sent months later than after I applied. After not hearing anything for months I finally asked what was going on. They kept telling me to hold on because “places were just now hiring”. Late May I finally got ONE interview, but was not offered the position. I was told to keep holding on because internship placement was guaranteed. 2 weeks before move-in I decided enough was enough and finally pulled out of the program. It didn’t make sense to move-in without an internship. The Washington Center actually hindered my ability to find a summer internship because I didn’t look that hard for a job because I figured that it was their job and they were going to find me one. SCAM SCAM SCAM. </p>
<p>You would do better to see if your university offers a Washington Semester on coordination with American University.</p>
DO NOT GO! They should re-name this seminar, The Basement Center: Inside the Basement. For approximately 6 hours a day you are sitting in chairs getting lectures. They have no connections to people in D.C. so forget getting any “Inside” treatment to anything around Washington. The program is horrifically unorganized. I will not recommend for any of my friends or fellow classmates to come.
Reading these comments makes me worried because I was just recently accepted to the program. The Washington center has been emailing me every day since I have been accepted and even prior to I heard from them weekly. They came to my school and I spoke to my school about it but people did not complain about it. They loved it. I guess I just had to wait and see
Please keep me updated on this cause i have one semester left at my university and I was curious about the program but I dunno if it is going to be beneficial so if you could post updates that would be very helpful! thanks !
I go to a PASSHE (PA state school) school so I get TWC paid for by my school. I get 12 credits for free and all I have to pay for is housing, which comes to 3050. I’m from a small town and was looking for internships in cities anyway, so I am actually saving money by not having to pay for the credits plus housing.
I’m not sure why some people had trouble getting internships. Its possible they had a bad advisor or a poor resume. I could log on to the TWC portal and see what companies my advisor sent my application to every day. There’s a chance that person’s advisor was not doing his or her job. If you’re going to do the program, make sure you pay attention to those things.
Anyway, I had 12 people contact me in about a week to interview. I didnt even submit my application until the last day and my advisor didn’t start sending it out until less than 2 weeks ago because I was procrastinating my advising session with her and had to edit my resume before she sent it.
Also, don’t apply and do it if you have a completely blank resume. It’s really competitive just to be accepted into the program. You have to be approved by the campus liason at school, have a 3.0, recommendation letters, and they look at your transcript and essay. You’re competing for internships amongst some very smart people PLUS all the other geniuses flocking to the area for internships.
However, my resume is relatively strong because I’m in a few campus clubs relevant to my major, gotten awards from my school for being the top student in certain areas, part of one of the National Honor societies here, have really good grades, etc.
If you’re from a small area and/or get financial assistance for the program, I would recommend it as long as you are offered an internship position at a well established company. Just don’t give your housing deposit until you have a good internship so you don’t lose the money! Their housing won’t fill up from TWC students because once all of them have assignments they start giving the extra spots to people outside the program.
I go to the University of West Florida and although it has only been 4 weeks into the summer internship program, I would highly recommend taking an alternative route towards finding an internship. To begin, they will take their sweet time in finding an internship for you which is ridiculous. So ridiculous in fact that I got so nervous that I went ahead and found one on my own as a back up plan. Come to find out once I get to DC and talk with other interns, many of them shared similar experiences.
From how it looks and from the information we’ve (all the interns) talked about amongst ourselves, TWC has a supply of “back-up” internship sites where most of the interns end up getting placed. Some are lucky enough to get a substantial internship but most of the ones they “get” for you are very menial and require almost no effort. I would recommend reaching out to the federal agencies or wherever you are interested in interning at and just contacting them directly.
I did this and was able to get an offer from the US International Trade Comission althougth my advisor (aka the most useless resource TWC has to offer) said since I already had accepted an offer from another site because I was afraid I wouldn’t get one before the program started, I couldn’t rescind my offer. He really did threaten me by saying if I didn’t accept this program, I would be liable for the costs, and all these other things which definitely forced me to resort to the TWC internship site.
I could probably write a few pages about the issues with the TWC but I will stop here for now.
The one recommendation that I have is unless you are getting a scholarship that will cover all the costs or the majority of them, finding and going through the internship process on your own will be money well saved and be more beneficial to yourself. Don’t let yourself think that getting an internship is a hard thing. Just reach out to where you are interested in and you will be suprised at how many offers you can get!