Georgetown University offers tuition assistance to eligible faculty, staff and AAPs for courses taken at Georgetown University. We offer this benefit to members of our community to allow you to further your educational pursuits and learn from the strength of our academic community. The university expects that you will continue in your employment with Georgetown for at least three years after the completion of your degree/program.
TAP Benefit Highlights
- Employees must complete one year of continuous, eligible service in order to receive Employee TAP benefits.
- Eligible employees may use their tuition benefit only for classes taken at Georgetown University (undergraduate, graduate, as well as credit and non-credit certificate courses).
External schools are not covered under Employee TAP. - The lifetime TAP balance is either 120 GU credit hours or a dollar value equivalent of $22,985 for GU non-credit certificate courses. TAP covers 90% of GU tuition, and the employee is responsible for the remaining 10% as well as any other educational expenses or fees. If a student adds or drops a course while utilizing the tuition assistance benefit, the benefit must be adjusted, and the student will be charged for the applicable difference by the Office of Revenue and Receivables. At no time will the adjusted TAP benefit be issued to the student as a refund or credit for a subsequent semester.
- TAP benefits are limited to six credit hours per semester. For degree programs that require more than six (6) credit hours in a given semester, as specified by the program’s official curriculum structure, the University may grant an exception to this limitation.
- All employees (including AAP and Faculty) receive a lifetime maximum benefit of 120 credit hours. After the benefit maximum is reached, no additional TAP benefits are provided.
Tax Considerations
Generally tuition assistance benefits used to pay for graduate-level studies in excess of $5,250 per calendar year is taxable income and you will incur additional tax withholding in your paycheck each semester. In certain limited circumstances the University may be able to exclude this tuition benefits from gross income. Please refer to our Tuition Tax Facts for details.
Benefits for Courses Taken at Georgetown University
Faculty, Staff, and Academic and Administrative Professionals (AAP’s) are eligible for 90% tuition benefits for themselves the semester following completion of one year of continuous, full-time TAP-eligible service. Eligible service must be continuous. Any periods of ineligibility (employment at less than 90% time, leave of absence, etc.) do not count toward your continuous service requirement.
Benefits can be used for most undergraduate, graduate and non-credit courses at Georgetown University (an example of an excluded GU program is emergency first aid training).
Faculty may use this benefit only for graduate studies. Staff and AAP’s may use this benefit for both undergraduate and graduate studies.
The cost of non-credit courses will be applied toward your total lifetime dollar maximum. For example, one program costing $13,995 would exhaust a significant amount of your lifetime TAP benefit.
Please note that if used for graduate studies, the benefit may be subject to taxation.
Benefits for Courses Taken at Outside Institutions
Employee TAP benefits cannot be used for courses taken at outside institutions. Those who were previously enrolled or began a degree program effective Fall 2020 semester are the only “legacy” employees receiving outside school benefits.