<p>I am a regular poster and I have changed my screen name to ask these personal questions.</p>
<p>We do not qualify for a Pell Grant because our EFC is slightly more than the 4600. We did submit a letter of special circumstances to schools. One school called us and asked us to complete their form of special cirmcumstances. We did not bother to do it because we did not like the first package from this school (we got it after our letter was sent). They just sent a new financial aid award even though we did not communicate with them further. They put a partial Pell Grant and another few hundred dollars into this package. Our EFC is not showing a change (I went back to the website to see if our FAFSA was changed by the school and it was not). Can a school offer a partial Pell Grant if the EFC is more than $4600? The new award was sent by email, if this matters. </p>
<p>Immediately following the email above, my child got another email from a different school. It requested that my child call the admission counselor to discuss the financial aid award if we have any questions about it. Is this a coincidence or is there some change that was made to our Fafsa?</p>
<p>Is there anything we need to do now? Does this mean that other financial aid awards will now change?</p>
<p>Hmmm…</p>
<p>It sounds like the FA officer changed your FAFSA which lowered you EFC (which you may not see yet online). Since Pell is federal money, I don’t think the school can just award you the money without a FAFSA change to lower EFC.</p>
<p>Kelsmom???</p>
<p>Yeah, this is what I was kinda thinking. Does this mean that all schools are going to put a partial Pell Grant into their financial aid packages now? How can a school award this before there is even a record of a change to the EFC? I mean, does the school even award a Pell Grant because isn’t that money awarded by the federal government? Would the Pell Grant amount be the same from school to school? What I am wondering if the school can offer a partial Pell Grant because of special circumstances without making changes to the fafsa?</p>
<p>The new health care bill included a boost for Pell grants. The maximum EFC is now 5273: [IFAP</a> - Dear Colleague Letters](<a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/P1003.html]IFAP”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/P1003.html).</p>
<p>Schools will be scrambling to repackage students. We have a ton of “fixing” to do … it will take awhile, since we have thousands of Pell eligible students.</p>
<p>Oh, now I can relax about this. I guess we just got some good news then. Thank you kelsmom for this information! </p>
<p>Can we assume that if we just received a partial Pell grant of $700 plus another $750 as ACG (academic competitiveness grant) that this identical sum would be in the financial award package from every other school that accepted our child as long as the cost of the school is more than 5,550? Our EFC does fall between 4618 and 5273. How is the amount determined for ACG and Pell Grants? What is ACG and it also some sort of federal money? Are those the only types of federal grants? Those are the two that were now in the new package. Also, how does the school receive the federal grants and when will they receive it?</p>
<p>ACG is Academic Competitiveness Grant, Federal Aid. Given to 1st and 2nd year students. The amount depends on a lot of factors. EFC, CoA, and such. You also have to maintain a 3.0 GPA in order to keep it as well. ACG and Pell Grant together cannot be more than the CoA. </p>
<p><a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/AcademicGrants.jsp?tab=funding[/url]”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/AcademicGrants.jsp?tab=funding</a></p>
<p>Pell Grant amounts are determined by your EFC. Basically, the lower your EFC, the more your Pell Grant amount. Also, the CoA, your status, and length of time has an effect on the Pell Grant, but I’m pretty sure it has much more to do with your EFC. </p>
<p>The Feds will send the money to the school. Not sure when they’ll receive it. It all happens in a timely manner, though. :)</p>
<p>xMastemah, thank you. Now, are the Pell grant and ACG the only two kinds of federal aid grants? If this school did not include the ACG in this package, I would not have even known that it even existed. We had no idea that we would qualify for federal aid grants and this is all new information for us. I guess the new Pell grant boost is going to help our family.</p>
<p>ACG has to be manually reviewed for eligibility. Some schools will post it before doing the manual check, then take it away if the student doesn’t qualify. We do not post ACG until we receive the student’s final transcript (which the student is responsible for sending us - which they often fail to do) & review it. We’ll add the award at that time. ACG is $750 for a freshman - as long as the student receives Pell & qualifies for ACG, he gets the $750. This is the last year for the program, though.</p>
<p>You can view the Pell schedule through the link I posted. Pell is on a sliding scale, with payment amounts awarded as “scheduled awards” - the actual payment in a term is based on enrollment (with 12+ being full time & amounts lower than 12 being 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 payments based on the full time semester payments). Pell is an entitlement, meaning you get it even if it exceeds the Cost of Attendance - say you have merit scholarships that are a set amount & when coupled with Pell, they are more than the COA - you’d still get the Pell.</p>
<p>The other federal grants are campus-based, meaning that the school receives a limited pool of funding & divvies it up. SEOG is one such grant. We only award it to those with 0 EFC; other schools may award to higher EFCs, depending on their student population & pool of funds.</p>
<p>The other federal grant is the SEOG. It has very limited funding and schools decide how to award it. A lot of schools require a 0 EFC for SEOG.</p>
<p>Interesting news about the change in EFC cutoff for the pell. I had no idea. Makes a lot more sense.</p>
<p>Kelsmom, thank you. We already received all packages and our child chose a school that has not yet sent a new package. It will be interesting to see if the new found $700 (Pell Grant) to 1450 (Pell plus ACG) will cause the school to take away institutional grants that were already awarded prior to our being Pell Grant elibible. We do still have a gap between need and this award at all of the schools that accepted our child. The school who just repackaged our child did not take away one dime in institutional grants.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, thanks for the EFC requirement for the FSEOG. I couldn’t seem to find it for some reason. Hopefully I’ll get the max amount from that as well. :/</p>
<p>Has anyone hear ever received/had their child receive the National SMART award?</p>
<p>It depends on how the school packages. We use equity packaging, where we award a combination of EFC and grants to equal a certain number for our incoming freshmen. In our case, students who get a Pell increase will lose institutional funding in the same amount.</p>
<p>I work with the SMART program. Did you have a specific question about it? </p>
<p>SMART grant, that is. I think there is some other SMART award, though - that one I don’t know anything about.</p>
<p>Well, I have 37 credits from dual-enrollment in high school. Not AP/IB credit, but credits from a CC. After my first year of university work, I’ll have 33 credits, so a total of 70. </p>
<p>Are my dual-enrollment credits going to go towards that 3rd, 4th, or 5th year SMART grant requirement? </p>
<p>How do they even know how many credits I have or my GPA? I thought the feds disbursed this money…do they work with schools to determine eligibility?</p>
<p>I mean, I’m a 0 EFC student with above a 3.0 and 70 hours makes me a junior usually. So will the school I’m applying to offer me this grant? (UNC chapel Hill and UNC Charlotte).</p>
<p>The schools disburse the money (they then request the money from the feds).</p>
<p>IF the school classifies you as a junior, and IF you are in a SMART-eligible major, the school will use your GPA from the school(s) where you earned the credits to determine your eligibility. Your GPA has to be at least 3.0 to get your first semester award. To renew each semester, your cumulative GPA must be at least 3.0. If the new school doesn’t use the old school’s GPA in determining your cumulative GPA, they just use it for the initial awarding in your first term at the new school. After that, they would use the GPA for the new school only. You would have to have the junior classification first before you can be awarded SMART, so it probably won’t happen right away (those are large schools, your credits probably won’t post that fast, and your unique situation means you’ll probably have to ask the financial aid office to review your case once your credits post).</p>
<p>If you don’t have junior classification in your first term, you would be eligible for ACG if you qualify & if you haven’t received year 2 yet (and if you have at least a 3.0 from your old school).</p>
<p>ACG & SMART are gone after this year, though.</p>
<p>kelsmom, thanks. What do you think a school would do that says they use “priority packaging” if the student is high on that priority list? My child is supposedly high on priority spectrum because of relatively high stats for this school plus geographic diversity. This is a private school.</p>
<p>Well, I wish I knew how my school was going to classify me during my first term. I know, for transferring purposes, I’ll be a 2nd year to them because they don’t count dual-enrollment courses during admissions, but I don’t know how they will use them if I’m to be admitted. Interesting. Good question to ask them I suppose. </p>
<p>Thanks for the explanation! I’ll have no problem keeping above a 3.0 and I am a physical/life science major, so hopefully it’ll work out best for me.</p>
<p>Why are they gone?</p>
<p>Let me rephrase, now that I’ve reread your post …</p>
<p>You say that you will have 37 credits going in this year? That would probably put you at sophomore status - Year 2 ACG. You have to have at least a 3.0 from your dual enrollment grades to qualify (plus the high school coursework necessary to qualify). If you are still classified as a freshman (that is, if all of your credits don’t count for college), the GPA check isn’t done.</p>
<p>Since there will be no SMART next year, the SMART question is a moot point - as you would not be a junior until after the SMART goes away.</p>
<p>They are gone because Congress only authorized funding for the program until 10-11 & it doesn’t appear they will change that.</p>
<p>Rubymom, if the school classifies your child as “priority” they will probably give the best possible package (just a guess).</p>
<p>Sorry for not being clear. I’ll have 70 credits going into Fall 2010.</p>
<p>But for admissions purposes, the school I’m transferring to only counted the ones from 2009-2010 because the other 37 were from dual-enrollment. I’m not sure if they’ll count all 70 for FA purposes.</p>