Is "The Washington Center" a scam?

[Anonymous]

My husband's childhood friend's son has been "accepted" to The Washington Center, they paid $$$$, and she's just finding out this place does not do anything to place students with internships, it seems like more of a coaching service. She is super smart, and was led to believe this was an internship experience she was paying for.

Coaching btw is totally unregulated and anyone can put out a shingle for it. (Unlike even a sketchy academic institution that at least requires accreditation, or anything that requires a license).

Does anyone have experience with this place?

Obviously the idea of a for profit internship is sketchy in itself, I'm just reporting what I heard as my husband is looking into this and I'm looking for more info.

[Anonymous]

I had a terrible experience with them in 2012 the summer after my sophomore year in college. I applied to the program, was interviewed, told I'd be a good fit, and they were excited to "place" me into an internship.

When filling out all the paperwork, I indicated to them that I would not be utilizing the room and board offered in DC, as my parents' house was in Rockville very close to the red line station, so I would commute to my internship. It was supposed to be a summer internship so I would be in Rockville during the summer. I attended Salisbury University and put down my Salisbury dorm address in my application, so if they needed to send me any physical mail I'd receive it. So they were under the impression that I lived in Salisbury full-time.

When I told them that I would NOT be utilizing the room and board (which costs extra $$$ on top of the price of the program itself), as well as the reason why, they immediately canceled my application. Their reasoning was because I put down Salisbury as my address, I "lied" on the application.

So, they were very interested in me until they found out that I would not be paying the extra lodging fees. They are 100 percent a scam. Sorry I cannot give you more insight into the program itself, but this should indicate to you that it's about the money first and the students second.

[Anonymous]

We always got terrible interns from there at the last agency I worked at. After a few years we quit accepting them. Occasionally you'd get a good one, but it was few and far between.

[Anonymous]

This link may be helpful to you - it's a message board with lots of people who went through TWC's application process and the internship itself. It's kinda old (about 10 years), but may be worth a read. https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/the-washington-center-internship-program/1196674/16

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We always got terrible interns from there at the last agency I worked at. After a few years we quit accepting them. Occasionally you'd get a good one, but it was few and far between.

Glad it wasn’t just me. I had THE WORST intern ever through them. Couldn’t come to work most days because he was too hungover…and actually was honest to tell us when we called for no shows…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We always got terrible interns from there at the last agency I worked at. After a few years we quit accepting them. Occasionally you'd get a good one, but it was few and far between.

Glad it wasn’t just me. I had THE WORST intern ever through them. Couldn’t come to work most days because he was too hungover…and actually was honest to tell us when we called for no shows…

This doesn’t surprise me. I worked in student affairs at a mid-sized liberal arts university in Virginia. We used Washington Center for many years before switching to American University’s DC Internship Program after one incident that really left a sour taste in our mouth.

We switched because there was one year where we had two students with one public drunkenness citation each on their resumes apply to the program. One was a white male who lived in Northern Virginia, the other was a female International student from India. The NoVa student was a great candidate who had better grades, better recommendation letters, and stronger extracurricular than the other student. The other student wasn’t a bad candidate, but her resume was obviously weaker. They were both good kids who made a silly mistake their Freshman years. They both should have been accepted.

However, only the International student was accepted. Weaker candidates getting accepted over stronger ones isn’t necessarily a red flag - it happens all the time. However, the public drunkenness citation I mentioned earlier was only used as justification to turn away the white male’s application. I reached out to TWC for clarification about why it would be the dealbreaker for one and not the other, and they said something along the lines of the admissions director felt that a drunk male is stronger, scarier and could result in more destruction than a drunk female. Our department was absolutely appalled at that explanation, and switched our DC Internship contract the following semester.

Looking at TWC’s social media pages, they always highlight their diversity. This certainly isn’t a bad thing, I’m all for diversity but not at the expense of fairness to those who have also earned their spot. Deep down, I know the real reason he was turned away was because he wasn’t a diverse candidate. It’s a shame. I know he’s doing okay though!

[Anonymous]

This was the worst experience of my life. They do NOT vet ANYONE. They don't offer help and they force you to attend mandatory day-long seminars learning how to "network" when it is very self-explanatory. DO NOT waste your time oh my god.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe they are still around. I remember them shopping around interns in the early 2000s--they wanted us to pay them AND the interns have to pay them too. The quality of the resumes they shared was pretty bad too.

[Anonymous]

I would not recommend it to domestic students. The $10K price tag really only makes sense if you’re treating it as a study abroad program - as the classes that come with the program are very bare bones - like 9th grade social studies basic. Again, this makes sense if you’re studying abroad from a country where you wouldn’t have learned basic American civics growing up. Otherwise, just get an internship the old fashioned way.

[Anonymous]

Yup it's a scam. They scammed you like our schools scam people with empty promises, political money games, and negatively impacting people through fraud. There's a silver lining. Even though you were scammed, it's a learning experience. Obviously you had 10 k to throw away to find a route to give your family an unfair advantage. At least they didn't arrest you or toss you in jail for collusion.

[Anonymous]

Very kind of you to look out for your husband's childhood friend's son! Consider youreself lucky that you're not the one going to be on the hook for the 10 grand pricetag. I don't know of any internship that is worth that much money. As a hiring manager myself, I would probably hire someone who worked the summer at Starbucks rather than someone who forked over that much for an internship at a low-level government agency or nonprofit doing nothing but sorting the mail and watering the plants.