Spring Semester Program
This immersive experience offers a full semester of courses in the nation’s capital, including a 7-credit internship in your area of interest that unfolds over 10 weeks. The Inside Washington Semester Program meets significant requirements for Political Science, Journalism, Media & Culture and Strategic Communication majors. Other majors should consult with their advisors to see how the courses might apply to their plan of study.
The program begins in mid-January and ends in early May.
You pay tuition just as if you were in Oxford, plus a program fee that covers your housing in a secure, all-intern apartment building in D.C. convenient to the Metro, eateries and parks.
Students have their own kitchens and laundry facilities, and live with college interns from across the country. Learn more about WISH.
You are responsible for your meals, professional attire for internships, and transportation around town, plus travel getting to and from Washington.
The program is comprised of 16 Miami credit hours divided among four courses that are taken by all Inside Washington students.
Academic Credit Hours
POL/JRN/MAC 427 Inside Washington Semester Experience (4 credit hours)
In this course, the city of Washington, D.C., is our campus - field trips! - and guest speakers’ offices are our classrooms.
It is an intensive study of the contemporary Washington community and government institutions that unfolds through student-led conversations with prominent guest speakers three days a week, for the first five weeks of the program.
Those speakers range from public officials, journalists, consultants and ambassadors, to academics, congressional staff, interest group representatives and historians.
Students research and brief their classmates on the speakers in advance, then lead discussion on site.
POL/JRN/MAC 454 The Washington Community (3 credit hours)
In this individualized, guided project, you conduct ethnographic research into a “community” in D.C. that offers an alternate view of people, groups and action than you’ll see on the Hill. You spend two days a week, over the first five weeks, on this project, which results in a multi-media project report replete with interviews, images, literature reviews and graphic representations. “Communities” students recently have chosen include homeless shelter networks, tattoo parlors, political book clubs and initiatives that support young women getting into politics.
Internship (7 credit hours)
Inside Washington staff and faculty help you arrange a full-time internship in your interest area. It begins in the sixth week of the program and ends in early May. Frequent internship locations are congressional offices, nonprofits, special interest or political consulting firms, and government agencies. An Inside Washington staff member meets with the group regularly over the internship to discuss students’ work, current issues and politics. (See “internships” tab for more info.)
Independent Study (2 credit hours)
This independent study takes place during your full-time internship, and is overseen by your Inside Washington professor. You arrange in advance the research and analysis area you will work on, and the planned outcome. You’ll have regular correspondence with your professor about your project.