<p>So if the EFC that is given to you immediately upon filing FAFSA says you are eligible for Pell grant and possibly one other, does that mean you WILL get that or you MAY get it? Is that up to the school? or does the school determine the other portions of financial aid that is offered?</p>
<p>This will be S second year. First we got 0!</p>
<p>If your EFC is below the cutoff for the PELL grant, your child will get the grant IF your final tax returns and numbers still keep your family eligible. Under most circumstances, it is not up to the school, but financial aid officers are allowed to make changes if they see mistakes on your app. By being eligible for the PELL grant, your child may also be eligible for other aid the school has. He will also be eligible for the Staffords. Of course the college has to participate in this (most all schools do but some like Grove City does not). The amounts and thresholds for the PELL have risen this year.</p>
<p>Pell is based on the EFC. If you have the EFC to qualify for a particular amount of Pell and are eligible then you will get it. They say ‘may’ because there are exceptions such as not being full time, the COA exceeding the amount of Pell (unlikely), not meeting SAP (satisfactory academic progress) which can affect all aid. Also, of course, EFC + merit awards + need based aid cannot exceed the schools COA.</p>
<p>The pell is not a campus based aid like SEOG and Perkins (for which each school gets a limited amount of funding)so if you qualify for a Pell amount then that is what you should get. The Pell does come as part of the award package from the school and the other portions of aid will take into account the Pell you have been awarded. (for instance if your ‘need’ is $8,000 and you get $5,000 Pell then the remaining need of $3000 is what your remaining aid is based on.).</p>
<p>And now my turn to put it in small terms:</p>
<p>if your school costs $50,000
and your efc is 0
andthe pell grant is 5,000
THEN</p>
<p>if you get absolutely no aid from your school the following will happen:</p>
<p>you will get 5000 from pell grant, and the rest will be loans.
Now just vary that situation with anything, like if you get 45000 in aid including loans the rest will be 5000 from pell grant</p>
<p>Thank everyone. I guess I am uncomfortable with taking this as “real”.
Next 2 questions, for most schools, for returning students when do the send out financial aid package information?
How does the CSS profile work into the awarding of aid?</p>
<p>For schools that use the profile, that is how they determine your need, and how they determine any institutional aid they will give you. The profile will take home equity into account (some schools cap home equity), and will also look at non-custodial parent’s income. These two things are typically what makes institutional versus federal need different. So even if a school meets 100% of need, and you have a 0 EFC on the FAFSA, if you have significant home equity you will be expected to contribute.</p>
<p>However, your Pell and subsidized stafford would still be in place as that is federal aid.</p>
<p>My son got a Pell Grant that says he may be eligible for up to $4000 my families EFC is $1544 (according to last years taxes). He is going to a community college taking 9 units. Is he still going to get some financial aid for living expenses, books, transportation etc. He received the Board of Governors waiver. We live in CA I just wanted to know if he would be receiving any money for his Pell Grant. We paid hundreds for books and he pays 100s for transportaion and school supplies. I am a single parent whos hours have just been cut by 16 hours per 2 week paycheck. He has living expenses clothing, food, everything. Is he going to be getting anything from his pell grant? We own no property, one old car and really are living check to check.</p>
<p>What does the college list as his estimated cost of attendance, what is the rest of his aid package, and how many credits does a student have to take there in order to be considered full-time? At my D’s school, a student taking 9 credits would be considered 3/4 time and Pell would be reduced to that level. Pell is an entitlement so whatever award he is entitled to will be given. But the school may have to reduce other grants in order to keep his total aid package at or under their estimated COA…they cannot award aid in excess of that.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure I understand what the poster of the above wanted to convey.</p>
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<p>I want to back up a bit. Is 9 credits considered full time? At most places, it’s 12 credits. If your son isn’t attending school full time, I believe his Pell grant will be prorated accordingly.</p>
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[quote]
Is he still going to get some financial aid for living expenses, books, transportation etc. He received the Board of Governors waiver. We live in CA I just wanted to know if he would be receiving any money for his Pell Grant.
[quote]
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<p>Yes, I think you will get the Pell anyway.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter what a school considers full time. For Pell grant purposes, the grant is prorated based on enrollment. Each semester, the award is paid this way: for 12+ credits, 100% of the semester award amount; 9-11 credits=75%; 6-8=50%; 5 or fewer=25%. At the upper range of the Pell chart (higher EFCs), sometimes there is no Pell payment or the payment is smaller than one might expect when the student drops below 12 credits. After the first 100% of the award amount is awarded in a year, the student MAY be eligible for more Pell grant (for example, in the summer after receiving full fall & winter Pell grants) - but there are some rules that govern that, and they are too convoluted to list here.</p>
<p>Is that true at trimester/quarter schools too? Not sure how things work in CA but many of our CC’s are not on a semester system. I thought there were different cutoffs depending on the school’s academic schedule…but could be thinking of another program.</p>
<p>I don’t know for a fact, but I think the payments are still based on the same %'ages - there is only one Pell chart, and it doesn’t have different categories for semester or trimester schools. What would happen is that the student would get the correct payment each trimester & the 2nd Pell rules wouldn’t kick in until the first 100% is reached. The one thing I know for sure is that students at trimester schools cannot get 200% Pell … the most they could ever get is 150% due to the nature of the payments. This I remember from our year-round Pell training.</p>
<p>*Is he still going to get some financial aid for living expenses, books, transportation etc. *</p>
<p>Your son will get a pro-rated Pell because he won’t be full time…he’ll be 3/4 time.</p>
<p>Are you asking if he’ll get additional money for housing, etc, from a community college? I doubt he’d get any additional free money - most CCs don’t have any other money to give out… He can get a small loan. I would suggest that he live at home and commute instead of borrowing money for housing.</p>
<p>I think she’s asking if he’ll get Pell, in addition to the BOG waiver. I’m wondering why he didn’t get a FA award letter from the school detailing all of that!</p>
<p>Kelsmom, I was thinking that trimester/quarter schools had a different number of credits than semester schools to be considered full-time. For some reason I thought that’s why the Pell payment schedule was broken down as full time, 3/4, etc…but you’re right that it’s 12 across the board. (It’s NYS aid that has the semester vs trimester schedules.)Sorry for the confusion OP!</p>
<p>DD’s school was on quarters. Anything less than 12 credits was NOT deemed full time. DS went to school on semesters…same rule…anything less than 12 credits was NOT deemed full time.</p>
<p>He is considered 3/4 time, 9 units. His pell grant from the fafsa website said he was eligible for up to $4000 according to my efc 544 will he still get 75% of his pell grant $3000? Well $4000 is for the fall and spring semester so will he still receive the $1500 for this semester with my efc at 1544?. As far as living expenses, i meant books, clothing, food, transportation etc, isnt he allowed to us some of his pell for that?</p>
<p>At 9 credits & a 1544 EFC, your son would get $1500 for the semester. If he gets a refund, he can use it for the things you listed.</p>
<p>Thank you so much. We were stressing. The college is behind due to staff cuts and we havent heard anything yet. Except for the FAFSA calculations. We turned our paperwork in (the last of it) in July but because of budget cuts they dont show us turning everything in until 8/03 which pushed his financial aid back to October. I had to pay for books, travel expenses and school supplies. I was just hoping he would be receiving something because now that he is 18, he is going to have to pay me back for all that. It was a huge chunk out of my pocket.</p>
<p>Kelsmom, how do you know? Are you a college student parent?</p>
<p>I am a financial aid officer.</p>