<p>Hi. I have a question about Pell Grant. I am currently attending a community college, but this is my last semester. Next semester I should be starting at a University. I filed FAFSA in April and listed both schools on it. I got offered 2 separate amounts of Pell Grant from both schools: $725 from the community college and $1450 from the University. I accepted both but then I read on the University website that you can only accept one Pell Grant. Does it mean I could only accept $725 or $1450? So those amounts were offered for each school for the ENTIRE YEAR, not for one semester at a time? If so, why can't they just automatically provide you with one offer only (obviously, the higher one) to eliminate the confusion?
Thank you.</p>
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That’s not how it works. Each school is in charge of determining your federal aid eligibility for the year and offering it to you. Some students apply to multiple schools and will receive multiple aid offers. Of course they will not actually receive all that money, only their actual eligibility in the semesters they actually attend at a particular school (and only one school at a time). Even if you accept both aid offers, you can’t receive federal aid from two schools in the same semester. You can receive part of the year’s eligibility from one school in the fall and then the balance from the other in the spring. </p>
<p>In general the amount of Pell for a year should be the same at any school you attend. The Pell, unlike some other federal aid, is not based on the school’s COA - you get the full amount you are eligible for based on your EFC and on your enrollment status (full time, half time etc). So if you were offered the Pell for a full year at the CC and you were full time, I would expect the offer to have been $1450 for the year with only half being paid out in the fall. Were you full time at the CC in the fall? What did you actually receive for the semester? </p>
<p>It sounds to me like the community college offered you FA just for the one semester (which would be half your eligibility for the year) as they knew you would be just attending for one semester. And the University offered you the full year’s worth of eligibility, perhaps not realizing you were just going to be there until the spring. You will be able to receive Pell from the University in the spring, but it will just be the remaining semester’s worth of eligibility. So if your eligibility for the year is $1450, you will receive half of that in the Spring.</p>