Policy - Outside Resources

Federal regulations and University policy governing the coordination of aid require that you report to the Office of Student Financial Assistance all non-GW awards and/or aid not provided by our office.  Outside resources consist of scholarships, grants, fellowships, assistantships, stipends, tuition awards, co-op payments, sponsorships, employee or dependent’s tuition benefits, ROTC, VA benefits, vocational rehabilitation, prizes, and any other form of aid that is not awarded directly by GW’s Office of Student Financial Assistance.  To report an outside resource, please complete the Verification of Outside Awards form.

Outside resources are considered to be part of the need based award package. The only exception to this is for new students who are awarded an outside scholarship after May 1st in which case it will be applied towards any unmet need. We will assume scholarships are renewable from year to year unless you tell us otherwise.

If you receive need-based aid, outside awards cannot be used to reduce the family contribution.  Note that tuition-based scholarships and grants cannot exceed full tuition when combined, nor can all aid received exceed the estimated cost of attendance.  If there is an excess, GW awards will be adjusted to these limits.

Additionally please note that students cannot combine GW Employee Benefits or Tuition Exchange with Merit Awards, the GW Family Grant or University and Alumni Award or the GW Guaranteed Grant and Board of Trustees Scholarships (which were only awarded to students admitted prior to the 2015-2016 academic year).  In cases where a student is offered multiple awards which cannot be combined, the student will receive the largest award.

Other external tuition awards or benefits may be combined with these scholarships up to the cost of tuition. If the external tuition award and the award exceed the total cost of tuition, the GW award will be adjusted.