So… GWU has an interesting policy regarding financial aid that I believe other full-need students should know about.
The school will not allow ‘gift aid’ to exceed 80% of the COA ($60,000). Unfortunately, they arent only referring to the aid from the school. If you bring any scholarships to GWU, rather than helping you cover the remaining 20% ($15,000) of the COA, the school will lower the amount of aid they offer. Meaning, you could earn 10K, 20K, 30K, ect. in scholarships and will still be 20% ($15,000) short.
Seems like a really bad policy for a school trying to break the ‘rich kid’ stereotype. I probably wont be able to attend GWU because of this policy that, to me, punishes low-income students who put in the work to earn scholarships.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
That is a very common policy at many universities. Yes, people get completely screwed over by it. I did as well, which is why I become furious when people use the, “Just get scholarships!” argument when rightfully complaining about the cost of attendance at college.
Also, you are technically supposed to report all outside scholarships, but if you received outside scholarships that are not sent in by a check to the university, do not report it.
Thanks for the heads-up. I’ve never heard of that policy before, but it doesn’t sound very surprising.
It should be pointed-out, though, that this doesn’t mean there’s no way to attend GW without occuring an debt. GW does offer full-rides to some students; joining NROTC covers everything but room & board (at least it used to); veterans attending the university do so for free thanks to the Post 9/11 GI Bill. There might be other examples, as well, but these are the ones I’m most familiar with.
In a similar situation. GW is my first choice by a hefty margin, but I simply cannot pay for it with this policy, even with their ‘maximum’ (80%) grant-aid. I was expecting to be able to cover the 20% gap with a few scholarships I received + financial aid, but with this policy that seems impossible, as it will merely cause a reduction in my grant aid and nullifying the scholarships I received. The OP is right; this does disproportionately hurt low-income students, and I hope this policy is re-looked at for the future.
I love GW. I do not love this policy. Not sure what I am going to do now, as I was considering committing, but now have serious doubts.