Congratulations on being offered a Georgetown University Graduate School merit-based financial aid award. The primary purpose of these offers of financial support is to assist graduate students in the pursuit of their academic careers and the timely completion of their Graduate School degrees. Awards are provided on a semester-to-semester or year-to-year basis. These awards may be renewed, subject to departmental recommendation and continued satisfactory progress toward the Graduate School degree, up to the maximum time limits for support set by each department and by the Graduate School. Reviews of all merit-based financial aid awards are conducted annually.
This award carries with it several obligations, which are described below. Please read this entire memorandum carefully. After doing so, if you are willing to assume these obligations, complete the "Formal Acceptance of Financial Assistance and Recipient Obligations" form printed on the back of your award letter and keep it for your records. You must also complete the “Formal Acceptance of Financial Assistance and Recipient Obligations” printed on the back of the blue copy of your letter, and return it to the Graduate School by the deadline date indicated in your award letter. If the acceptance form is not received by the Graduate School on or before the deadline date, the offer of award will be rescinded. If you accept the award, but fail to comply with the obligations described below, the award will be canceled.
Information on any changes in the procedures or requirements associated with merit-based Graduate School financial aid awards will be distributed to all graduate departments and programs and will be posted on the Graduate School’s website, http://grad.georgetown.edu/pages/support.cfm. It is your responsibility to remain aware of any changes in these policies and procedures. If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Joyce Mitchelson in the Graduate School's office, 302 ICC. Her phone number is (202) 687-7753 and her email is jmg68@georgetown.edu.
Graduate School Assistantship Stipends
Graduate School Assistantship stipends are provided in return for service in teaching, in research, or in other matters of an academic nature; awardees will be appointed as a Teaching Assistant, Teaching Associate, Research Assistant, or Academic Administrative Assistant respectively. The duties associated with Teaching Assistant, Teaching Associate, and Research Assistant appointments generally occupy no more than 15 hours per week. International students are restricted by law to no more than a total of 20 hours of combined service or work per week.
The duties associated with an Academic Administrative Assistant appointment are generally less than 15 hours per week. Consequently, Academic Administrative Assistant stipends are generally smaller, calculated on a per hour rate of compensation, paid monthly. The support may also be less than that provided to Teaching Assistants, Teaching Associates, or Research Assistants. The details of Academic Administrative Assistant awards vary from program to program, but are specified in each awardee’s award letter.
Stipend payments are provided on the last business day of each month during the academic year. Unless otherwise noted in your award letter, you will receive a total of eight (8) stipend payments during the year, from September through April. Under current tax law, these payments are considered compensation for services, and are therefore reported each year by the University to both the recipient and to the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as taxable income on Form W-2. All Graduate School Assistantship recipients are paid through the University’s payroll system and must therefore have a valid U.S. Social Security number. Individuals who do not have a U.S. Social Security number must apply for one through any Social Security Administration office; international students must apply after they have entered the United States.
Final approval of a Graduate School Assistantship award is contingent upon completion of all necessary tax forms, including forms I-9 ("Employment Eligibility Verification") and W-4 ("Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate"). Information on completing these forms will be available at the beginning of the semester in which your appointment starts. International students must complete additional forms; please see the section, “Important Tax and Immigration Information,” below.
Most Graduate Assistantship awards will also provide a scholarship component. See the following section on "Graduate School Scholarships" for general policies regarding these awards.
Most recipients of Graduate School Assistantships must be enrolled as full-time students. You must make satisfactory progress toward your Graduate School degree, as determined by your academic department and the Graduate School. Failure to maintain satisfactory degree progress, failure to provide assigned services, or violations of academic integrity will result in termination of the stipend portion of the Graduate School Assistantship award and retroactive revocation of the entire scholarship component of the award for the current semester.
Any unused portion of a stipend or scholarship award for Fall and Spring semesters will revert back to the Graduate School to support other students. The Graduate School reserves the right to correct any errors when they are found. In the event you receive a stipend payment in error (e.g. a double payment, a payment during a semester in which you were not awarded stipend, a payment during which you are on leave, etc.) you must notify the Graduate School and return the funds to Georgetown University.
Graduate School Scholarship Awards
Graduate School Scholarship awards cover only tuition charges for courses to be applied toward your degree program. They do not cover academic fees or other fees (e.g., the Yates Field House fee or the Health Insurance fee), and do not cover tuition for courses that will not be applied toward your degree program. Certain external awards cover the Yates, health insurance, and other fees; please contact your program administrator with questions regarding which fees are covered under special awards. Courses from which you withdraw are not applied toward your degree; therefore any prorated tuition charges assessed for a dropped course will be your responsibility. Should you receive a refund as a result of unused scholarship funds from your student account, you must notify the Graduate School and return the funds to Georgetown University.
Scholarship recipients are not permitted to provide any service as a condition of the scholarship award. If the scholarship portion of your award does carry a service obligation, you must contact your academic department and the Graduate School to arrange for that portion of the award to be disbursed as a stipend, with appropriate tax withholding.
International students who receive Graduate School Scholarship awards may have additional tax obligations; please see the section, “Important Tax and Immigration Information,” below. International students should also be aware of the number of credits they are required to carry per semester in order to keep their status valid for their visa. Please contact the Office of International Programs for more information.
As recipient of a Graduate School Scholarship, you must make satisfactory progress toward a Graduate School degree, as determined by your academic department and the Graduate School. Failure to maintain satisfactory degree progress or violations of academic integrity will result in termination of the Graduate School Scholarship award and retroactive revocation of the entire scholarship for the current semester.
Graduate School Scholarship awards are usually divided between semesters of the academic year. Unused portions of a scholarship provided for Fall semester can be applied toward Spring semester, with the explicit approval of your academic department and the Graduate School. Unused portions of a Spring semester scholarship cannot, however, be applied toward either past or future semesters, but will revert back to the Graduate School to support other students. This stipulation applies both to scholarship-only awards and to the scholarship component of an assistantship or fellowship award.
By way of example, suppose you were awarded 12 credits of scholarship support for the Fall semester and no scholarship support for the Spring semester. If you register for only 9 credits in the Fall semester, you may request through your academic department that the remaining 3 credits of scholarship support be carried over to the Spring semester. If approved by both your department and the Graduate School, the 3 credits of scholarship will be credited to your account for Spring semester. But if you are awarded 12 credits of scholarship for the Spring semester and register for only 9 credits, the 3 credits of unused scholarship will revert back to the Graduate School; you will not be permitted to apply it to either the preceding Fall semester or the following Summer or Fall semesters.
Graduate School Fellowship Awards
Graduate School Fellowship stipends are provided without a service obligation. Students may be appointed to a Graduate School Fellowship for a full academic year (September through April), or for a single semester; those holding a Graduate School Fellowship appointment in one semester of an academic year may be appointed to a Graduate School Assistantship in the other. (Recipients of the special four year Georgetown University Fellowship awards should see the following section for information regarding their appointments.)
Fellowship payments to U.S. citizens and permanent residents are provided on the last Friday of each month during the academic year. Unless otherwise noted in your award letter, you will receive a total of eight (8) stipend payments during the year, from September through April. International students receive their fellowship stipend payments once per semester for each semester of the fellowship award, on the last Friday of the first month of the semester (September and/or January). Unlike Assistantship stipends, which are paid through the University's payroll system, Fellowship stipends for recipients who are U.S. citizens will not be reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by the University. Therefore, U.S. recipients generally will be required to report the amount of the award to the IRS and may be required to make quarterly tax payments. Recipients who are not U.S. citizens may have taxes withheld and the amount of the award may be reported to the IRS. If deemed reportable, they will also be required to obtain either a U.S. Social Security Number or IRS Individual Taxpayer ID number, if they have not already done so. Please see the section, “Important Tax and Immigration Information,” below. Most Graduate Fellowships awards will also provide a scholarship component. See the preceding section on "Graduate School Scholarships" for general policies regarding these awards.
As recipient of a Graduate School Fellowship, you must be enrolled as a full-time student and you must make satisfactory progress toward a Graduate School degree, as determined by your academic department and the Graduate School. Failure to maintain satisfactory degree progress or violations of academic integrity will result in termination of the Graduate School Scholarship award and retroactive revocation of the entire scholarship for the current semester. Any unused portion of a stipend or scholarship award will revert back to the Graduate School to support other students.
Georgetown University Fellowship Awards
A limited number of newly admitted Ph.D. students will be awarded Georgetown University Fellowships. For University Fellowship recipients who matriculated prior to the Fall 2007 semester, each year's award will include an eight-month stipend which is $3,000 greater than the standard Graduate School stipend, plus full scholarship support. For University Fellowship recipients matriculating in the Fall 2007 semester or afterward, the annual University Fellowship award will be a twelve-month long standard Graduate School stipend, lasting through the Fall, Spring, and Summer terms, plus full scholarship support during the academic year (Fall and Spring semesters).
University Fellows matriculating prior to the Fall 2007 semester will have no service obligation during two of their five years of support; during the other three years, they will have teaching and/or research obligations, as determined by their individual departments. The preferred sequence of service/non-service semesters will vary among departments, in accord with their different pedagogical structures. University Fellowship recipients matriculating in the Fall 2007 semester or afterward will have service obligations during the fall and spring semester of each academic year; they will have no service obligation over the summer term. During those semesters in which they do have a service obligation, University Fellows will be appointed to the appropriate category of Graduate School Assistantship, and will receive their stipend in monthly payments through the University's payroll system, as described in the section, "Graduate School Assistantship Awards," above.
As recipient of a Georgetown University Fellowship, you must be enrolled as a full-time student and you must make satisfactory progress toward the Ph.D., as determined by your academic department and the Graduate School. Failure to maintain satisfactory degree progress or violations of academic integrity will result in termination of the Graduate School Scholarship award and retroactive revocation of the entire scholarship for the current semester. Any unused portion of a stipend or scholarship award will revert back to the Graduate School to support other students.
Health Insurance for Graduate Students
All graduate students who are enrolled full-time are required to have health insurance. A charge for the Georgetown University sponsored plan will AUTOMATICALLY be assessed to the student account of those graduate students who are enrolled for 8 or more credits; those who are enrolled in Thesis Research are eligible to apply for such coverage, except those enrolled in non-resident thesis research. Graduate students who are already insured under another plan and whose coverage will continue for the entire school year must WAIVE the University insurance in order to have the charge removed from their student account. Those not meeting the 8-credit or thesis research enrollment eligibility should either work with their program and the Graduate School to find appropriate registration alternatives that can help the student meet the full-time requirement, or contact the Student Health Insurance office for alternative coverage information.
Doctoral students who are awarded an assistantship or fellowship that provides a full stipend will have the fee for the Georgetown University sponsored plan paid by the Graduate School. In order to be eligible, during the Fall and/or Spring semester the student must hold a full-stipend Graduate School Assistantship (one in which the student performs 15 hours or more of service per week) or hold a non-service fellowship. Masters students receiving an assistantship or fellowship award do not receive health insurance coverage from the Graduate School and are responsible for paying the fee themselves.
The funds provided by the Graduate School may ONLY be used to pay the fee assessed for the Georgetown University sponsored individual student health insurance plan. These funds may not be used for any other purpose, including the purchase of the Georgetown University-sponsored family plan or other insurance coverage. If a student waives the Georgetown University sponsored plan, the Graduate School funds will be withdrawn from the student's account.
Under the Georgetown University sponsored health insurance plan, covered students have the option of purchasing dependent coverage. The funds provided by the Graduate School, however, will be limited to the cost for coverage of the eligible student alone. Under no conditions will the Graduate School support the cost of health insurance coverage for the student's dependents or family.
Withdrawal from Courses
All Graduate School Assistantship, Scholarship, and Fellowship recipients should take special note of the policies regarding withdrawal from courses. As noted above, scholarship awards cover tuition charges only for courses to be applied to a degree program. Because courses from which you withdraw cannot be applied to your degree program, your scholarship award will not cover the tuition due for such courses.
No tuition is assessed for courses from which a student withdraws through the Add/Drop period, but prorated tuition is assessed for any course dropped after the end of the Add/Drop period. If you withdraw from any course after the Add/Drop period, you will be held responsible for the full amount of prorated tuition due for that course, according to the schedule posted on the Registrar’s website in effect at the time of the withdrawal; scholarship support for the courses for which you remain registered will not be affected. The scholarship funds that had covered the dropped course(s) will revert back to the Graduate School to support other students.
Important Tax and Immigration Information
Georgetown University’s Tax Department maintains the most accurate and current information concerning tax obligations. Information on reporting can be found on the Tax Department website at: http://www9.georgetown.edu/finaff/tax/tax.html.
International students who receive any type of Graduate School Assistantship, Scholarship, or Fellowship award will be required to complete a special set of tax forms before their award can be processed. Some forms need only to be completed once, while others may need to be updated annually. Recipients are asked to contact the Tax Department for their specific requirements. In addition, if they receive an assistantship stipend they will be required to have a valid United States Social Security Number (SSN). Any individual for whom the University is required to report taxable or non-taxable income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will be required to have a valid United States identification number. This number can be either a valid SSN or an IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). The ITIN is suitable only for those individuals who do not already have a SSN and do not have work authorization, therefore precluding them from obtaining a valid SSN. Further information and forms are available from Lawrence Smith of the University’s Tax Department located at 2121 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 400. His telephone number is (202) 687-5448.
International students should note that in some cases a portion of or the entire amount of any award may be subject to mandatory Federal, State, and Employment tax withholding. In addition, international students must hold a visa status that permits them to receive the award. Students holding a valid F-1 or J-1 status sponsored by Georgetown University are eligible for any of the awards offered by the Graduate School. For international students who will not be in a GU-sponsored F-1 or J-1 status, it is important that you contact the Office of International Programs to confirm that you will be eligible to receive the award you have been offered. Awards will not be given to students who are ineligible based on visa status. The office is located on the 2nd floor of Poulton Hall; the telephone number is (202) 687–5867.
Finally, for All Awardees
In order to assure that you have received this information and that you understand your obligations as a recipient of a Graduate School Assistantship, Scholarship, or Fellowship, you must return to the Graduate School the signed "Formal Acceptance of Financial Assistance and Recipient Obligations" form, printed on the back of the blue copy of your award letter. You must also complete the “Formal Acceptance of Financial Assistance and Recipient Obligations” printed on the back of your original award letter and retain it for your records. Your award cannot be processed until we have received the signed blue acceptance form.
Other Financial Aid Resources
You may contact the Office of Student Financial Services for more information about financing your education. The staff can assist you with various options of financial aid including Federal Financial Aid, Employment Programs, and Supplemental Loans.
Georgetown University
Office of Student Financial Services
G 19 Healy Hall
Washington, DC 20057
(202) 687 4547
For more information about Georgetown University’s monthly payment plan, you may contact the Office of Student Accounts at (202) 687-4092.
Revised 5/09
