The federal government shutdown may mean you can’t visit the Lincoln Memorial, but if you’re funding your GW education through federal student aid, you’re in the clear.

Funding for direct federal loans and Pell grants were already allocated through “permanent and multiyear appropriations,” according to the Department of Education’s contingency plan. That means the thousands of students who rely on federal funding to pay GW’s nearly $60,000 price tag won’t have to break the bank – nor will the more than 14 million students who receive federal aid nationwide.

Students with a work-study job can also keep working as the federal funds continue to flow.

But students who are just beginning a job supported by work-study funds may run into more trouble.  Employees who provide customer service and help with the “development of new programs or activities” related to the work-study program are among the 90 percent of Department of Education employees being told to stay home today, according to the Department’s memorandum.

And while student aid is looking mostly unscathed, financial aid experts are unsure how the programs could be impacted in the long term.