What is the 2026-27 cost of attendance?

On-campus new students: $81,442 total COA (tuition & fees $58,704; housing $9,350; food $9,232; total direct $77,286; plus transportation, personal, and books). Off-campus is $83,976 and living with a parent is $74,260.

Washington College· Scholarship Stacking

Stacking Outside Scholarships at Washington College

How Washington College treats outside scholarships when they arrive on top of institutional merit aid.

Verified Jun 2026today· COWORK

The verdict

Loan-first displacement

At Washington College, an outside scholarship reduces loan offers before touching institutional grants. The strategy follows from that: every $1 in outside scholarship is effectively $1 less in graduation debt.

washcoll.edu publishes the $81,442 cost-of-attendance worksheet the math is run against.

Stacking policy at Washington College

Honors Fellowships ($1,500-$5,000/yr) are stackable with other merit aid. The full-tuition George Washington Signature Scholarship, however, REPLACES other merit offers. For private/outside scholarships, the office reduces loan and work-study first, but an over-award can still affect grant aid.

Outside private scholarships may affect need-based aid if total aid exceeds calculated need or the sum of scholarships exceeds the cost of attendance; whenever possible the Office of Student Financial Aid reduces loan and work-study awards first. Honors Fellowships explicitly stack with other merit aid; the George Washington Signature does not (it replaces other merit).

Source: https://www.washcoll.edu/admissions/admitted/available-scholarships.php

Common stacking mistakes

Assuming the George Washington Signature stacks on top of your merit award
The full-tuition George Washington Signature Scholarship REPLACES other merit offers (it is not additive), and only five are awarded per incoming class via an invitation/interview through the Presidential Fellows program.
Treating an outside/private scholarship as pure extra money
A private scholarship can affect need-based aid if total aid exceeds calculated need or the sum of scholarships exceeds the cost of attendance; Washington College reduces loan and work-study first, but an over-award can still reduce grant.
Overlooking renewal limits
The merit scholarship requires a 2.5 cumulative GPA (international 2.0) and full-time continuous enrollment, is capped at eight semesters, and reviewed each spring; leaving WC to attend another school forfeits the merit and need-based aid.

Stacking questions families ask

What is the 2026-27 cost of attendance?: On-campus new students: $81,442 total COA (tuition & fees $58,704; housing $9,350; food $9,232; total direct $77,286; plus transportation, personal, and books). Off-campus is $83,976 and living with a parent is $74,260.

Rules that bite at Washington College

The trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook. Each is derived from Washington College's own published policy, not generic advice.

renewalMerit-based Academic Tuition Scholarship (guaranteed): renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewable annually; requires a 2.5 cumulative GPA (international students 2.0) and full-time, continuous enrollment. Maximum of eight semesters; renewal reviewed at the end of every spring term (notified in June). A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

Aid-office script (copy & send)

A binding written answer beats a verbal hallway promise. This script is keyed to Washington College's published displacement type. Paste it, fill in your name, and send it before you accept an outside award.

Subject: Outside-scholarship treatment question, fall applicant

Dear Washington College Financial Aid Office,

I'm a fall applicant reviewing how outside scholarships interact with my institutional aid package. I've read the public policy at https://www.washcoll.edu/admissions/admitted/available-scholarships.php and the $81,442 cost-of-attendance worksheet.

If I win a $5,000 outside scholarship after the package is built, can you confirm it reduces my Direct Loan offer first, before any institutional grant is touched?

If the loan offer is smaller than the outside award, what is the next aid type that gets reduced (work-study, institutional grant, other)?

A written answer (email is fine) is important because the outside-scholarship awarding bodies want confirmation before disbursing. Thank you for the time.

— [Student name], [Application ID if available]

How Washington College compares across our verified dataset

68 of 272 verified schools in our dataset use loan-first displacement.
Washington College is in a recognizable cluster (68 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
247 of 272 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Washington College is one of them. The cohort minority (25 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.

Sources used on this page

Every claim is checked against Washington College’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.