How Much Does Georgetown Cost? Tuition and Financial Aid 2026

You are standing beneath Healy Hall — the neo-Gothic clock tower that has crowned the Georgetown campus since 1879 — and across the Potomac River you can see the Lincoln Memorial. It is four kilometers from campus to the White House, three to the State Department, five to the World Bank. The annual tuition for that location? About $65,000 USD. The total cost with housing, food, insurance and the cost of living in D.C.? Close to $87,000-90,000 a year, which is roughly €80,000-83,000 or £66,000-69,000.

It sounds like a number that ends the conversation. But there are three details that reopen it. First, Georgetown tries to meet the full documented financial need of admitted students — international students included — through the Georgetown Scholarship Program (GSP). Second, Washington, D.C. is an expensive city, but internships at the State Department, the United Nations or McKinsey sit within a 15-minute Metro ride. Third — and this is the catch — Georgetown is need-aware toward students from outside the U.S. Most international applicants find this out too late.

In this guide I break down every dollar of Georgetown’s cost, explain the difference between need-blind and need-aware, show how the CSS Profile works for an international family, and lay out when Georgetown actually makes sense — and when it is smarter to look toward an Ivy League university that is need-blind for international applicants. Start with the full guide to Georgetown admissions, and convert your grades with the GPA calculator.

What exactly goes into the $87-90k a year at Georgetown?

The full Cost of Attendance (COA) at Georgetown for 2025-2026 is roughly $87,000-90,000 a year, which is about €80,000-83,000 (or £66,000-69,000), and more than $350,000 for a full four-year bachelor’s degree. Only tuition and mandatory fees go directly to the university — the rest is the cost of living in Washington, which you cannot avoid.

The breakdown according to the finaid.georgetown.edu price list (Georgetown College, the most typical basket):

• Tuition: about $65,000 — classes, libraries, infrastructure. All four undergraduate schools (the College, Walsh SFS, McDonough, and the School of Nursing) charge similar tuition.
• Housing: about $11,500 — a room in an on-campus residence hall. For the first two years, living on campus is effectively mandatory.
• Food (meal plan): about $7,500 — Georgetown requires it of students living on campus.
• Health insurance (Premier Plan): about $3,000 — a waiver is hard to obtain for international students, because home-country public insurance rarely meets the requirements.
• Books and student fees: about $1,500-2,000 — STEM and business tracks cost more.
• Personal expenses, transport, travel: about $2,500-3,500 — Georgetown includes things like international flights home in this line.

The crucial distinction: tuition and mandatory fees (about $65,000-68,000) are fixed and identical for everyone. The remaining $20,000-22,000 is made up of estimated costs — Georgetown covers them if you have aid; otherwise you finance them out of pocket.

Georgetown costs practically the same as the Ivy League (Yale ~$87k, Harvard ~$86k, Duke ~$87k). But unlike them, Georgetown is not need-blind for international students — and that changes the math.

How is Georgetown’s need-aware policy different from the Ivy League’s need-blind?

The single most important difference between Georgetown and Yale, Harvard or Princeton for an international applicant is one word: need-aware. For international applicants, Georgetown looks at whether you are requesting financial aid before it makes the admission decision. Yale, Harvard, Princeton and MIT do the opposite: they do not know whether you need aid when they decide whom to admit.

In practice: if you apply to Georgetown from abroad and ask for $80,000 a year in aid, your file is competing not only with other strong candidates but also with those who can pay the full price. With a ~12% acceptance rate and a limited international budget, the university statistically chooses a mix in which full-pay applicants have a slight edge. Georgetown states that it aims to meet 100% of the documented need of admitted students — international students included — through the Georgetown Scholarship Program. But that applies only to those already admitted. Need-aware filters at an earlier stage.

What this means for an international applicant:

• Family income up to roughly $65,000/year — apply for aid regardless. You qualify for a large package, and Georgetown rarely rejects an outstanding candidate solely because of need.
• Income of $65,000-150,000/year — requesting aid slightly lowers your odds. In reality it is still worth submitting if your profile is strong (a top secondary school + 1500+ SAT + olympiad results).
• Full ability to pay — for you, Georgetown is effectively need-blind; you compete only on the quality of your profile.

By comparison, at Yale this calculus does not exist — the admission decision is made without any information about aid. If you are on the fence between Georgetown and an Ivy League university, and your family cannot cover the full cost, it makes more economic sense to lean toward a university that is need-blind for international students.

Contrary to popular belief, Georgetown is not unusual in this respect — most American universities (outside the narrow group of need-blind schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Amherst, Bowdoin, Dartmouth) are need-aware for international students.

How do the Georgetown Scholarship Program and the CSS Profile work for international students?

The Georgetown Scholarship Program (GSP) is Georgetown’s internal need-based aid system — it is the channel through which most aid packages reach admitted students, international students included. The aid takes the form of grants (not loans), so you do not have to pay the money back after graduation. GSP is not just cash: the program also includes mentoring, book funds, support during the breaks between semesters and an alumni network — Georgetown treats GSP as a full community across all four years of the bachelor’s degree.

The key aid-documentation mechanism for an international student is the CSS Profile (College Scholarship Service), which is far more detailed than FAFSA — and the only form that applies to you, because FAFSA is reserved for U.S. citizens and residents. The CSS Profile requires documentation of income, savings, real estate, debt and business value (if your parents own one). Your parents’ tax returns plus bank documentation are usually enough, but Georgetown asks for certified translations into English. If your parents are divorced, Georgetown requires a Non-Custodial Profile from the second parent — this is one of the bigger shocks for international families, because many home-country aid systems count only a single household.

The Net Price Calculator on finaid.georgetown.edu lets you estimate the package before you apply. For a family with income around $50,000-65,000, the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) usually comes out below $5,000, meaning Georgetown contributes more than $80,000. For income of $125,000-175,000, the EFC is $15,000-30,000 and the contribution $55,000-70,000. These are estimates — the final package also depends on assets, the number of siblings in college and any extraordinary expenses.

Deadlines for an international applicant requesting aid:

• Early Action (non-binding, restrictive): application + CSS Profile by November 1, decision in mid-December.
• Regular Decision: application by January 1, CSS Profile usually by mid-February, decisions in March/April.

Remember — Georgetown requires the SAT or ACT plus TOEFL/IELTS and does not use the Common App (it has its own application portal). Your school-leaving qualification (A-levels, IB Diploma, High School Diploma, and so on) does not map 1:1 onto a U.S. GPA. Start with the GPA calculator so you know where you really stand, and read about the whole admissions process in the full Georgetown guide.

Why won’t an international student get a Pell Grant or U.S. federal aid?

This is a trap that many international applicants fall into: they read about “Pell Grants” or “federal student aid” and assume they can apply for them. You cannot. The Pell Grant is a grant from the U.S. federal government awarded on the basis of FAFSA — and it is available only to U.S. citizens and permanent residents (Green Card holders). The same goes for federal student loans (Direct Loans), Federal Work-Study and SEOG. An international student on an F-1 visa does not qualify for any of these programs.

In practice this means that all financial aid for an international student at Georgetown comes from the university’s own budget (the Georgetown Scholarship Program) or from private sources: the Fulbright Foreign Student Program (mostly graduate, occasionally undergraduate), home-country and private foundation scholarships (for example, corporate or family foundations), and international scholarship competitions such as the Davis United World College Scholars program (if you completed a UWC school).

The absence of federal aid has one more consequence: Federal Work-Study (a subsidized on-campus job) is not available to you. You can work on campus up to 20 hours a week on an F-1 visa (and full time over the summer), but only on a regular, unsubsidized contract. On-campus pay rates are usually $14-18/hour — realistically you will cover $4,000-7,000 a year of personal expenses. Working off campus on F-1 requires CPT or OPT and cannot begin in your first year.

How much will an international family actually pay for Georgetown after financial aid?

The real cost of Georgetown (the Net Price) depends on the family’s income and asset situation — the $88,000 sticker price only matters for those paying the full amount. The distribution of net cost for students receiving aid:

• Income up to $65,000 — Georgetown covers 90-100% of tuition and housing. Net Price: $0-6,000/year.
• Income of $65,000-125,000 — Georgetown covers 70-90%. Net Price: $6,000-22,000/year.
• Income of $125,000-200,000 — aid shrinks. Net Price: $22,000-50,000/year.
• Income above $200,000 — usually no aid. Full cost ~$88,000/year.

For a typical middle-income international family, the real cost of Georgetown can come to $0-8,000 a year — provided you get in despite the need-aware policy.

Four catches: need-aware filters earlier (the figures above apply only to students already admitted), assets count too (low income + a property worth several million = a higher EFC), the exchange rate fluctuates (if your savings are in euros, pounds or another currency, build in a 10-15% buffer because USD crosses can swing 10% or more within a single year), and aid is renegotiated annually (a parent’s better job means less aid the following year).

How much does it cost to live in Washington beyond the meal plan and the dorm?

Washington, D.C. is one of the most expensive cities in the United States — right behind New York, San Francisco and Boston. For a student after the first two years, who moves out of the dorm and rents an apartment, this means higher costs than the meal plan + dorm imposed by the university.

The real cost of living in Washington for a student:

• A room in a shared apartment near campus (Glover Park, Burleith, Foggy Bottom): $1,400-2,000/month.
• Groceries: $400-600/month.
• Transport (WMATA Metro): $80-100/month.
• Everything else (phone, gym, entertainment): $200-300/month.

Living off campus runs to a total of $25,000-30,000/year — sometimes more than the meal plan + dorm (~$19,000). Add a two-month deposit and a co-signer, which can be hard for an international student to arrange. The first two years you live on campus by requirement anyway, so you can leave this calculation for your third year. In return — internships at the State Department, the United Nations or McKinsey sit within a 15-minute Metro ride, which eliminates the cost of a summer sublet that students from Boston or New Haven face when they intern in D.C.

Is it worth paying the Georgetown sticker price if you don’t qualify for aid?

The short answer: conditionally. If your family covers $88,000 a year out of pocket (about $350,000 for the bachelor’s degree), Georgetown makes sense mainly when you are aiming for the Walsh School of Foreign Service (one of the best international-relations programs in the world), the McDonough School of Business, or a political-legal track that exploits the D.C. location.

On a budget of roughly $250,000-380,000, the alternatives are more attractive: the Sciences Po + Columbia Dual BA, the LSE BSc in International Relations (£36,000/year), or Bocconi (€16,000/year). The cheapest route with a better ROI is a bachelor’s at home (in international relations, economics or political science) followed by a Georgetown master’s (such as the MSFS) with aid — graduate study is cheaper in relative terms and gives you the same network of contacts.

The real justification for paying Georgetown’s full price is the location and the network in Washington. If your plan is a career at the State Department, the World Bank, the United Nations or think tanks such as Brookings — Georgetown’s network of contacts is practically impossible to recreate. If you plan to return to your home country, that argument weakens. Remember the selectivity, too: a ~12% acceptance rate means that even with a $380,000 budget and a top-1% profile, your odds are 15-20%. Always plan a Plan B.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Georgetown — Office of Student Financial Services: finaid.georgetown.edu — COA, Net Price Calculator, the Georgetown Scholarship Program, the aid policy for international students.
• Georgetown Undergraduate Admissions: uadmissions.georgetown.edu — deadlines, requirements, the university’s own application portal (not the Common App).
• CSS Profile (College Board): cssprofile.collegeboard.org — the financial-aid application form for international students.
• Federal Student Aid (Pell Grant — U.S. citizens only): studentaid.gov — who qualifies (and why an international student does not).
• Fulbright Foreign Student Program: foreign.fulbrightonline.org — graduate programs, advising and guidance for applicants from around the world.
• Davis United World College Scholars Program: davisuwcscholars.org — scholarships for UWC graduates.
• Your home country’s credential-recognition authority — for recognition of a Georgetown degree if you plan to return home, check your national ENIC-NARIC or equivalent body.
• A reputable currency reference — for the current USD exchange rate against your home currency.

Next step: start with the full guide to Georgetown admissions, compare the costs with Yale, Harvard and Duke, or calculate your GPA in the calculator.