How to Estimate Your Total Cost of Attendance at GW

A Guide to Estimating Your Educational Expenses: Undergraduate Students

This section is to help undergraduate students enrolled in bachelor degree programs offered by GW’s Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, School of Business, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Elliott School of International Affairs or Milken Institute School of Public Health, understand and estimate what it may cost them to attend GW during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Full-time/Part-time Status

Undergraduate students registered for less than 12 credit hours in a semester are considered part-time and will be charged a per-credit rate. Financial aid, including scholarships and work-study, may be impacted if a student falls below full-time status at any point during the semester. Students registered for more than 18 credit hours will be charged $2,330 or each credit hour that exceeds 18 credits. Exception: GW Engineering students may take up to 19 credits with no additional per credit charge.

Student Fees

The following mandatory fees will be applied: a U•Pass Transportation fee, a Student Government Association fee, and other related student fees.

The following fees may be applied based on your enrollment status:

• Student Health Insurance Plan: The university mandates that all students must have medical health insurance coverage while enrolled at GW. GW offers a comprehensive Student Health Insurance Plan (GW SHIP) through Aetna Student Health and all students–including undergraduate, graduate, law, medical and doctoral students–are automatically enrolled in GW SHIP unless the student waives out of the GW health plan.
• Matriculation fee: A one-time fee for new, incoming students is charged the first semester a student enrolls. ie: The first semester in their first-year of study at GW after high school or the first semester a student transfers to GW from another college. 

Housing and Food
The established estimated rate for on-campus housing and food is the average cost by class-year and is the base level for allocating financial aid. Students who receive financial aid who choose to select a room or meal plan at a higher rate than the listed estimate will be responsible to cover any additional costs from their own resources or via a PLUS/alternative loan option.

• View GW’s five tiers of housing rates. As a student transitions through GW, more room styles, buildings and options are available such as suite style and apartment living at various rates. These options provide greater flexibility based on preference than the traditional two-person room most students live-in during their first-year in college.  
• View GW’s meal plan options available by class year. A meal plan is required for all students who live in the residence halls.

The university, in accordance with D.C. regulations, requires all first- and second-year students to reside on campus unless their permanent address is within commuting distance or are approved for a residency exemption through a process managed by the Campus Living and Residential Education Office.

Indirect Costs
When determining how much to budget/plan to spend during college, there will be indirect costs such as books, supplies, transportation, personal expenses (clothes, entertainment, etc) to consider. The university uses standard allowances for these indirect costs when estimating how much a student and their family can contribute towards their overall yearly expenses during the academic year when calculating the financial assistance the university can provide. Each student’s indirect cost will vary based on personal circumstances.

View the charts/tables on this page based on your class year to learn more about estimating your expenses for the 2024-2025 academic year

Note: This section is to help graduate and doctoral students estimate educational expenses for the year. Law students and MD and Physician Assistance students should visit the Office of Financial Aid housed within their respective schools for more information about estimating expenses for their degree programs. 

The Cost of Attendance (COA) is a budget constructed to approximate the expenses which a student will incur that are directly related to enrollment. Note that tuition rates and COA figures are subject to change at any time, which means we may need to make adjustments to your loan eligibility as new information about your enrollment is discovered. When a student submits a FAFSA, we create a basic COA based on half-time enrollment and estimated tuition charges. If additional funds are needed outside of what is originally awarded, we can increase the tuition and fees portion of the student’s budget to match actual charges. COA components for students enrolled at least half-time include:

• Tuition and Fees
• Living Expenses
• Personal Expenses which includes an allowance for Health Insurance
• Books and Supplies
• Transportation
• Miscellaneous Expenses

The COA for students enrolled less than half-time who are applying for a private alternative loans, does not include living or personal expenses. This is based on current federal regulations. 

Students who have dependent child care costs, are paying more than the included Health Insurance allowance, are taking a Study Abroad class, or have unreimbursed Medical Expenses, may appeal the Cost of Attendance by submitting a written letter of explanation. Documentation of additional expenses must be included with the letter along with a new Supplemental Graduate Loan Questionnaire requesting the additional loan amount the student is interested in borrowing. In addition, we can include a one-time only purchase of a new computer of up to $1,500. Students interested in this allowance must purchase the computer and submit a copy of the receipt and letter of appeal along with a new Supplemental Graduate Loan Questionnaire for reimbursement.

An allowance for off-campus housing is included in the standard budget. Tuition and fees are based on the University's academic year rates. Transportation, personal expenses, and books and supplies are estimated figures based on area trends, and in some cases, derived from data provided by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Students who obtain campus based housing will have the same allowances as students living off-campus.

A GW graduate student's Cost of Attendance will be further contingent upon four specific factors:

• The student's program of study
• The GW cost per credit hour for the student's program of study
• The number of credit hours for which the student is registered
• The number of months the student is enrolled in during their loan period

There is no standard tuition rate for GW graduate students. The amount of tuition you will be billed is dependent upon the campus(es) of enrollment, the number of credits enrolled in each semester, as well as the current tuition rate for the semester in question. Please be aware that most programs increase tuition costs as approved by the Board of Trustees starting with each summer semester. As a result, students may be charged slightly more tuition in the summer than was paid during the fall and spring. However, there are some programs that have a fixed tuition rate and students enrolled in these programs will be charged the same amount each semester regardless of the number of credit hours or the Academic Year in which enrolled. Complete tuition schedules are available online at the Student Accounts Office website.

The following chart delineates examples of Cost of Attendance budgets for full-time enrollment (9 credits per semester) and half-time enrollment (6 academic credits per semester) covering the fall and spring semesters. Tuition in these examples is based on $2,091 per credit hour. Fees are assessed at $3.00 per credit hour.

For planning purposes, you can use the COA worksheet (Excel Spreadsheet) to create an estimated Cost of Attendance based on a specific loan period, tuition rate and campus of attendance.