<p>Hey guys.. new here.</p>
<p>I have around $8,000 of financial aid, the majority of which was Pell grant. I was unable to attend school during the fall/spring of 08/09 but am attending Summer 1 and Summer 2.. anyways. I'm spending less than $1000 of my financial aid on these classes.. </p>
<p>What is the outcome of the remainder of the financial aid?</p>
<p>I will tell you what our experience with summer aid as been. I don’t know if this is the same for all schools though I suspect it is.</p>
<p>Financial aid tends to be a case of you use it or you lose it. Aid that is awarded for the school year is usually paid out equally through the regular school year (fall/spring). So for instance if you got the maximum Pell of $4731 for the 2008-2009 school year then in a school with a 2 semester system it would generally have been paid out in 2 halves - 2366 for the first semester and 2365 for the 2nd (both schools I have experience with round - they do not give $2365.50). If you do not attend school the first semester but do the 2nd semester you only get the half of the Pell you are eligible for in semester 2. So you do not get the full award in one semester. In our experience summer aid is something you have to apply for separately from regular year aid. If you have attended school full time during the regular year then of course you have used your full Pell eligibility and possibly full loan eligibility. If you attended only part of the year or not at all then you may still have some Pell and loan eligibility remaining. The schools I have experience with the summer semester is treated as a half semester for aid purposes (I don’t know if this is standard for all schools but it is for the 2 I know). This means that even with the full Pell unused you can only get 1/2 a semester worth of Pell for the summer session - $1183. Also these schools do not offer WS for summer session (though I believe some schools do) and require a student to be enrolled for at least 6 credit hours to be eligible for summer aid. </p>
<p>You need to check with your school about how they calculate summer aid and also whether you must reapply for aid for the summer. Based on my admittedly somewhat limited experience it seems likely that you will receive quite a bit less in aid for the summer session than you were awarded for the year. But only the school you are going to can tell you for sure. The remainder of the 2008-2009 aid you did not use will be lost to you. </p>
<p>Another thing to check is whether the school counts summer as part of the preceding year or part of the upcoming year. If it is part of the preceding year then summer aid will not affect your 2009-2010 aid. If they count it as part of the upcoming year then it will reduce your next year’s aid. I think it is more common for it to be part of the preceding year but it can be either way.</p>