I was pretty surprised to see GW’s average aid package is $41k which brings down COA to 25k/year according to CollegeData. Does anyone mind sharing their personal experience with FA here, and if you received as much as you needed/were expecting. I have pretty high stats compared to the average stats so any comments on their merit scholarships would be nice too. I looked on their website about merit scholarships and there isn’t much on there other than they exist. Thanks!
Also, this is kind of off topic but I want to major in finance, is it possible to double major or minor in something related to law? Something like political science. Even if it is possible, is it practical at all? I want to work in finance but law is a passion of mine so I would love to be able to take some classes in it.
Initially, I received enough aid to bring my COA down to about $25K/year. I intended to take out loans for the rest. However, a month into my freshman year I received notification that my personal loan was denied and I had to come-up with an additional $10k. I approached the FinAid office, telling them I was unable to find any other funding and couldn’t take out additional loans (I had no one to co-sign for me). They were able to find another $10K/year in scholarships for me, but there were very specific to my situation (student veteran for one, and the other was for students returning to school after a long absence). I imagine this isn’t the norm but I wanted to share.
When it comes to double majors, it comes down to how many credits you’re willing and able to take every semester as some programs won’t have a lot of overlap between required courses. Between BA Finance and PoliSci, there doesn’t look to be any overlap ( http://bulletin.gwu.edu/business/undergraduate-programs/business-administration/#requirementstext http://bulletin.gwu.edu/business/undergraduate-programs/business-administration/finance/#requirementstext http://bulletin.gwu.edu/arts-sciences/political-science/ba/ ) On top of the required classes for the PoliSci major, you also have to do required classes for the Columbian College: http://bulletin.gwu.edu/arts-sciences/#degreeregulationstext Once you start writing down the classes (and which semester they’ll need to be taken) you’ll get an idea for how many classes you’d have to take to make it work. I did a very rough estimation for you by adding-up both pre-req’s, required courses for each major, and general requirements for each (trying not to count the overlap in humanities, science, and math)… I counted 169 credits. This comes out to about 21 credits per semester, which is, in my opinion, insane. You could always take some classes over the summer if you wanted to keep the fall/spring semesters down, but you’ll have to find which classes that are on your “list” are available during the summer, as many are not.
With that said, if I’m even 90% accurate in my guestimation, I don’t think those two majors are very compatible. Sure, if you really want it, you could make it work. However, that leaves no room for electives, which are (in my opinion again) some of the most enlightening parts of college as they let you step outside your comfort zone and intended major and take something totally “off the wall.” They’re also helpful because they let you try other areas that you might be interested in but aren’t quite sure if you want to commit to studying that field.
I hope this helps. I’m definitely not an advisor, but I think my math and reasoning is fairly sound. Good luck on whatever you decide.
@NHuffer Would you say your FA package was reasonable given your family’s finances? Also, for a BS in finance the website says you must have a second major in a non business field so that’s why I was wondering how that works. There must be exemptions from taking certain required classes. Also, I’ll have 7 AP courses throughout high school and if I do well on them for credit that could be at least 20 credits.
Well, I applied as an independent student since I was 23 and leaving active duty. With that said, I probably should have been offered a little more initially.
If the finance website says you need a second major then it’s quite possible there will be some leniency. However, as far as AP credits, they’ll count towards your credit requirement (you need 120 to graduate) but you don’t need help with credits- you need help having prerequisites done. Hopefully a few of those classes can be counted toward a requirement.
GW’s financial aid package was the least generous of any of my daughter’s offers last year. She had a 31 ACT, top 3% of class, 12 AP courses and solid but not amazing EC’s. She was offered 20K in merit and 20K in need-based aid. This made her cost of attendance $28k. While this was generous, our institutional EFC was $20k. All of her other offers came in 15k to 8k less per year than GW. I encourage you to apply but be realistic that their financial aid is limited. She was not admitted to the honors program at GW which was a surprise.