I went to American SPA for undergrad (which is obviously not the grad program), but I have been reading many of GradSchoolGrad's comments about AU vs Georgetown with bewilderment. Yes, Georgetown's undergraduate program is SIGNIFICANTLY more prestigious than AU's (I have no reservations in saying that as an undergrad alum). But I have a few friends who tacked an MPP or MPA on to their bachelors as we were finishing and they're doing great in DC right now. No one has had any issues getting jobs that they want or are interested in, in politics or policy (even as we graduated into a global recession; zero of them are waiters, or have ever needed to take food service jobs along their career paths). Of course, it always depends on what you're planning on doing with the degree -- each school has its strengths and weaknesses. But the GU program appears reasonably new to me and I think this idea that it is SO much better than AU is not really fleshing out. My friends in public policy/political science academia have been confirming this (I initially was considering GU myself, it is now very likely off of my own list).
Inside the Beltway, AU is very well known and my understanding is that GU's grad programs are not considered wildly better than the other DC schools (this fleshes out in the rankings, right?). Now, if you want leave DC, AU's brand is not as well known, admittedly. That is definitely something to keep in mind. Before I went to law school, people I encountered had not heard of the school (lawyers and law students tend to be aware of AU-WCL)-- I think that has changed a bit since I attended way back in the day (when I mention it to people now, they look far less bewildered, but who knows), but the name recognition is definitely different compared to GU.
AU threw a lot of money at us as undergrads; I went on a very sizable scholarship. They asked us to look away from their USNWR ranking at the time and promised that they would be making strategic improvements to the school's academic program. They made good on that promise and it is now a harder undergraduate program to be admitted to than GW across town. I was there when they were building like crazy (it was a huge mud pit, ha)-- that money was specifically donated to AU with building in mind. It was not as if they got a pot of money and spent it on buildings rather than academics. But they literally ran out of undergraduate housing and needed more space.
As for Maxwell, I am considering them myself right now and am really, truly, sadly totally underwhelmed. Everything is so disorganized. They can't even send us an email without having a typo in their school name in subject line. I'm personally not convinced that their new data analytics program/certificate has stood the test of time. They threw me lots of money, but can barely answer an email with questions within a week's time. They can't figure out an organized Zoom meeting after a year in this pandemic climate (were you on last night's call; what did you think?)? What are they going to be like when we get there? Plus, compare their hiring data with AU's -- which program sends students to more interesting jobs? I had to email Syracuse for their data (because their website is so abysmally terrible that they've allegedly been updating it for 2 years and the site is locked to improvements, which is a real thing they said to me) -- I personally don't think that 20% of the class going on for more schooling in 2019 makes any sense (they can't all be PhD placements, right?). I want them to be a strong program but I think they might just be getting by on being a long established program with lots of faculty, because so many departments are under the Maxwell umbrella. I otherwise can't figure out why they're #1.
I'm not here to tell you what program to go with, I do think GU has a decent emphasis on quant if that's what you're going for (it's what I'm focused on), but some of this discussion seems pretty made up (for example, there was a comment in one post about never meeting an AU student in internships or employment in DC -- an interesting one because I met lots of GW, CUA, HU, GMU students/graduates when I was in DC, but literally not 1 non-GULC GU student/graduate. Does that mean the school is shit other than the law school? Or maybe that was just my anecdotal experience). There is a culture of DC schools looking down on each other, and I think this is really only an example of that. Fair enough; everyone wants their school to be the best.
