About what income makes a family "Pell eligible" ?

Paying for College
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<p>I saw on a website that for such families, certain need based income might be available?</p>

<p>Also , <em>about</em> what income would an EFC of $10-11k be associated with? Assume: 52 yr old parents. parents total savings < 10k. student's savings=$3k. 2 kids in school. home equity=80k; 401k=210k.</p>

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<p>Pell requires a FAFSA EFC of $5273 or less for this year - and with an EFC of $5K or higher, the grant awarded is only $555/year. I’ve read that most Pell grant funding is awarded to those with AGI’s of $30K or less but have known students with larger family sizes and larger family incomes to qualify for a fairly high award. The EFC formula has many variables - home equity and qualified retirement assets are not included in the calculations. You can see how the formula works here:</p>

<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111609EFCFormulaGuide20102011.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111609EFCFormulaGuide20102011.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If your EFC is low enough to qualify for Pell, you can use this chart to estimate what the award will be:
<a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/P1003PellPaymentSchedules.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/P1003PellPaymentSchedules.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>EFC determines Pell eligibility.</p>

<p>There really isn’t a set income because EFC can vary by family size and number of kids in college. A family can have a decent income, but if they have several children and 3 in college, they can qualify for Pell for each child. </p>

<p>For instance…</p>

<p>Income $80k - 5 children - 3 in college…</p>

<p>The EFC per child will be about $2700…so each child would get about $2500 in Pell money. Not bad…that’s about $7500 per year going to that family towards college costs.</p>

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<p>thanks. </p>

<p>so if the efc (FM rules) is LE 5,273 then that EFC is ‘pell eligible’. I say FM rules since Pell is a federal pgm.</p>

<p>Further, this EFC is generated for each child.</p>

<p>For a family with 52 yr old parents, parents total savings < 10k, and student’s savings=$3k, 2 kids in school, what income would generate an EFC LE 5,273?</p>

<p>One reason I ask is that I see many need based FA pgms that say something like ‘for all Pell Eligible students…’ you get thus and such FA. In addition to any funds released by the feds, it apparently might be a threshold to release institutional funds for some colleges.</p>

<p>I have also seen this anomalous phrase: </p>

<p>for all pell eligible students with EFCs LE $8,400… [you get thus and such FA]</p>

<p>This phrase does not compute to me. EFCs > 5,273 and < 8,400 would not be pell eligible. I talked to the FA office of the college and I still don’t get it.</p>

<p>also, when the FA people ask whether a sibling is in college fulltime, is it during the same yr that Fa is being requested for the child getting the FA or the previous yr? I know they ask for the previous yr’s earnings when calculating FA for the current academic yr.</p>

<p>I am thinking about the scenario when one sibling graduates and another comes on board.</p>

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<p>Well this is one explanation:</p>

<p>FAFSA EFC may make a students Pell eligible where the FAFSA EFC is found to be less than 5273 BUT the Profile (if said college uses that) may determine the IM “EFC” to be $8,000. That student would fall into the situation you describe. A number of students may have divorced parents where the custodial parent makes the student Pell eligible but if the NC parent is counted for the institutional method they don’t look so poor. So I think this colleges’ approach you describe is trying to prevent a “rich” NC parent from getting off the hook OR an income poor house/asset “rich” parent from getting too much FA (in the college’s view).</p>

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<p>this might be the explanation. I’ll try to wade thru this and see.</p>

<p>I saw on the college board’s site an explanation for my other question on siblings in college. </p>

<p>

<a href=“http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_familyinfo.jsp[/url]”>http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_familyinfo.jsp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

7

<p>

You are right, it does not make sense. Students with an EFC over 5273 (for 2010-2011) will not be Pell eligible. Where did you see that?</p>

<p>Using the finaid EFC calculator (which is out of date), a family of 4 with 2 in college might be Pell eligible (just) at a parent income of a little over $70,000 (assuming low parent assets and no student assets). A student’s assets of $3000 would increase that student’s income by EFC by 600 so, in that case the income would have to be lower. </p>

<p>This is a very very rough figure as so many things can affect the EFC. 2 families with the same income can have different EFCs because they live in different states (each state will have different allowances for state taxes), the source of the income (earned, unearned), how many parents are working (2 working parents get a higher allowance against income than one).</p>

<p>Really the need based programs saying that Pell eligible students will get xxx in aid does not make sense. The highest Pell is $5550 for students with 0 EFC. A student that just makes pell eligibility will only get around $500. Quite a big difference.</p>