<p>Looks like Pells are going to be capped at $4860 and second Pells eliminated according to below House appropriations committee summary. (There's a link in the link if you want to read the whole 459 page bill!)</p>
<p>What is a “second” Pell?</p>
<p>As I understand it, the proposal is to eliminate summer school Pells. You would only be able to get two Pells a year (fall and spring). </p>
<p>As of last month, the plan was also to eliminate federal subsidies of loans for grad and professional school. Therefore, if you are a senior and intending to soon continue your studies, I’d suggest maxing out your federally subsidized loans as an undergrad and then using any other resources you have for grad school.</p>
<p>Byrd and other federally funded merit scholarships will also likely be eliminated in a few months.</p>
<p>A second Pell is when a student could draw down two Pell awards at the same time. Last year some students could use a first Pell award for fall and spring semesters, and then get a “second” Pell award to help pay for summer enrollment expenses too.</p>
<p>This is what has been approved in the budget deal: </p>
<p>"Funding levels were reduced for the following programs: Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants (SEOG) ($20 million), TRIO ($25 million) and GEAR UP ($20 million).</p>
<p>Thurgood Marshall Legal Scholarships, B.J. Stupak Olympic Scholarships, Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarships and Teach for America appropriations were completely eliminated"</p>
<p>Maximum Pell Grant was previously $5550, right? So if the new maximum is now $4860, that is a difference of $690. What happens to a student whose SAR estimates they qualify for $4900? Will that student receive $4860 or will they receive $4900-$690=$4210? </p>
<p>Will this effectively raise the student’s EFC or is it possible a school that gives good aid might make up the difference with an institutional grant or tuition waiver?</p>
<p>Nothing is for-sure yet, other than the fact that the second Pell in a single year is eliminated. There are actually several things that might arise from that decision, and the financial aid community is awaiting further guidance.</p>
<p>As far as reductions in 2011-12 Pell, that is not decided yet.</p>
<p>Many schools are doing what my school is doing … holding off on awarding summer aid due to not knowing what the rules will be.</p>
<p>memama, it doesn’t raise the EFC. It reduces the available federal aid. Some schools may have institutional money to make up the difference, but many will not.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Son of a gun. Those are biggies over in my neck of the woods. Shoot! My state does not rightly have a lot of funds for higher education to begin with. But between the tried and true scholarships being cut out and the Pell(s) being reduced it is going to be hard for a lot of folks out there. Crying shame.</p>
<p>kelsmom - so is there a chance that 2011-2012 Pell will remain the same with reductions later? </p>
<p>It seems as though even schools with good track records in FA are leaving many more of their students either coming up short or taking out loan amounts that at best border on being unsustainable.</p>
<p>Will I be able to get the 2nd Pell this summer 2011 or is this rule in effect starting summer 2012?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Can you elaborate on this? So if our SAR says we qualify for $5500 with a 0 EFC, what happens? Do we get $5,500 or $4860?</p>
<p>The $690 difference between $4860 and $5550 matches up with the CCRAA mentioned in attached Dept. of Education memo:<br>
<a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/P1001.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/P1001.pdf</a></p>
<p>
</a></p>
<p>What exactly does this mean? So will I get the $5500 or $4860? Will I get the Summer Federal Pell Grant for 2011 Summer?</p>
<p>I can’t figure out if summer Pell is gone for this year or starting next year. Is SEOG also gone, or just reduced?</p>
<p>Our 1st summer school session starts in a little over 4 weeks. It would nice to know how things stand. Same for the next years FA - our school has already done their 2011-2012 FA awards, so I guess there may be some unpleasant surprises coming up.</p>
<p>chaos, Beats me, 'til you’ve got the money in hand, you ain’t got it. All I know is it looks like Pell Grants aren’t going to be as beat up as they could have been. When the dust settles everyone will know better what’s going on. I’m not sure what happened with CCRAA automatic Pell increases. I think at one time, next year the $690 was supposed to be something like $1050–that’d be wild if the $5550 ended up increasing to around $5900 still. Don’t hold your breath in anticipation of that though.</p>
<p>"so I guess there may be some unpleasant surprises coming up. "</p>
<p>Yes, but we can all take solace in knowing that a family of 4, making $5 million/year will be able to keep an extra quarter million $ because of the recently passed extensions …</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Where did you hear that SEOG may be affected?</p>
<p>There was a link somewhere to the actual budget figures and it showed -$20 (million) by SEOG.</p>
<p><a href=“http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/storysupplement/finalprogramcuts.pdf?iid=EL[/url]”>http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/storysupplement/finalprogramcuts.pdf?iid=EL</a></p>
<p>under the labor, health, and human services section.</p>
<p>2nd Pell award is gone for this year. The question that remains is whether or not the new rules for summer crossover periods will stay in effect. These mandate that a student must receive his/her 2011-12 Pell in summer (if the school’s definition of summer term includes both June 30 and July 1) if it will result in a higher Pell payment than the 2010-11 summer Pell award. With no summer Pell award, that may mean the schools must pay from the next year … which may then result in reduced or no eligibility come January 2012. The hope is that this will not be the case. But we don’t know yet.</p>
<p>If you received Pell for 2010-11 but did not receive 100% of the first scheduled Pell award yet, you would have some eligibility remaining for summer term … for example, if your award is $5550 and you only received $2081 fall/$2775 winter, you have (5550-2081-2775)=$694 remaining that can be used in summer. But if you used the entire $5550 already, there is no 2010-11 Pell grant for summer.</p>
<p>We will be swamped tomorrow at work with students asking about this, since we will be sending a message to students overnight. </p>
<p>To answer the question about 2011-12 Pell awards, yes, they can be reduced even though you were informed that they would be $5550. The feds giveth & they taketh away … sometimes after the fact, leaving everyone to scramble.</p>
<p>SEOG funding will be reduced, but what that means for schools and students varies. SEOG is campus-based funding, and schools get a pool that they divvy up. We were set to increase our maximum award this year, but I don’t know if we will have to adjust that now. We don’t know yet how much our school’s allocation will be reduced … will it be 20% across the board, or will there be some other way to determine how schools will be affected? We don’t know yet.</p>
<p>I’m saying that a lot these days …</p>