Consumer Information
The consumer information page contains important resources for prospective and current GW students and to assist the GW community in finding important institutional information.
The SMHS Office of Financial Aid recognizes students choosing to enroll at the medical school make an investment of their effort, time, and money in the pursuit of a meaningful career. The SMHS Office of Financial Aid is aware that loan assistance is an integral source of financing for many students and that the decision to borrow funds for medical school is a highly personal one based on each student's personal and professional goals, circumstances, future earnings potential, debt from other educational programs or consumer debt, and comfort level with debt.
The SMHS Office of Financial Aid is committed to assisting students in making sound borrowing decisions with the goal of helping students obtain their medical doctorate with as little student loan indebtedness as possible.
Recognizing that many students may not be well-versed in financial issues, the office has established the following goals for the delivery of financial literacy and debt management programming:
- Goal 1 – To provide in-depth financial aid and financial wellness counseling to all medical students, regardless of borrowing status, including a mandatory one-on-one session for all incoming first-year medical students who finance their education with federal student loans or private loans certified by the SMHS Office of Financial Aid;
- Goal 2 – To help students develop a working yearly budget that represents the direct and indirect costs associated with earning a medical degree by encouraging them to scrutinize and minimize discretionary expenses;
- Goal 3 – To help students understand the terms and conditions of federal and private educational loans that are available to medical students, as well as the repayment options and obligations associated with each type of loan;
- Goal 4 – To provide timely information relating to local, regional, and national scholarships that are available to prospective and current students and to encourage them to apply for these outside resources; and,
- Goal 5 – Upon the student's last semester of medical school, to help borrowing medical degree candidates better understand their repayment options for the types of loans borrowed during medical school.
In conclusion, the SMHS Office of Financial Aid expects and encourages each prospective student borrower to carefully and thoughtfully determine the amount of debt with which he/she is comfortable and to do so based on a full examination of the costs of borrowing, a realistic assessment of potential earnings, and with consideration given to other personal and professional goals that the student may have for the repayment period. It is our hope that students will graduate with confidence in their borrowing decisions and with a full understanding of their loan repayment plan options.