To be considered for any Winter Session grant and/or loans,  students must be enrolled at least half-time in the Fall term prior to the Winter Session and have registered for Spring courses. 

If eligible, the Winter Session grant will be awarded automatically. After registering and prior to billing, the Office of Financial Aid will send notification that the student’s financial aid has been adjusted. The student may then view the Winter Session grant in Banner Self-Service.

Students who withdraw from Winter Session will not be allowed to retain any refund created by, or associated with Winter Session aid.

Winter Session Grant is for tuition only. Living expenses, such as meals and housing, are not included in your Winter Session funding.  Therefore you should plan additional resources to cover these expenses.  (However, students with a $0 Parent Contribution may be eligible for meals and/or housing assistance, if charged by Brown for the Winter Session time-period only.)

Loans must be requested separately. We do not automatically award loans, as Winter Session borrowing may impact a student's loan eligibility during the academic year.

Students should notify the Office of Financial Aid in writing via email to request a loan. A Financial Aid Counselor can provide students with their loan eligibility prior to registering for Winter Session courses; however, loans will not be processed until registration.

Students eligible to participate in the Book/Course Material Support (BCMS) Program will automatically receive support to cover the costs of books/course materials for Winter Session courses. BCMS BRDD students will continue to receive necessary support for their RISD winter session courses. The process to order your books is the same as it was in the Fall semester.

Winter Session grants are only available for continuing undergraduate students who are currently receiving Brown University Scholarship during the full academic year. Students graduating in December will have finished their undergraduate studies, therefore, are not eligible for a Winter Session grant.

Students graduating in December cannot use the Winter Session to extend the loan deferment/grace periods outside of the traditional Fall or Spring semester dates, even if they are enrolled in a final Winter Session course. 

Funding through a grant from the Global Experiential Learning and Teaching (GELT) Program covers all essential travel costs (flights, accommodations, meals, health insurance for international locations and site tickets). Although loan eligibility may be available to cover other travel-related expenses, any credit resulting from a loan will not be available as a refund until after the program has begun. Travel allowances are not provided for on-campus classes.