Ok so when I finished my fafsa i was told by fafsa that i was eligible for x amount of money via grant. However the cc i am enrolled in is only offering a substantially smaller y amount of money. Whats the reason for the difference?
fafsa is ONLY an estimator of the amount of $ you MAY be eligible for. It is not a guarantee that you will receive that amount of $$ directly from the college you enroll in. Your need to run individual NPC’s to get an accurate estimate of the amount of FA you can expect to receive . But that amount may be entirely comprised of loans, not grants.
CC’s usually have VERY little $$ to offer students, as they are funded solely by taxpayers.
You ARE able to take out Federally backed loans, which start at $5500/year.
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized
The only grant that is listed as a particular amount when you receive your SAR after filing the FAFSA is the Pell grant. I can think of three possible reasons why your grant may differ from the amount on your SAR: 1) You are currently registered for less than full time, so your award is prorated based on current enrollment; 2) your school is very low cost so the Pell grant amount is actually smaller than it normally would be (you can pull up their Pell table to see if the award for your EFC is the same as the one listed on your SAR); your information was verified & your award changed as a result of changes resulting from the verification.
How much does your school cost per year? What was the Pell amount on your SAR from FAFSA?