<p>The entire Federal Aid system is screwed up and confusing!</p>
<p>Here is my story:</p>
<p>My dad was unemployed for a year and we did an amendment to the FAFSA and this past fall (2010) I got the MAX Pell Grant amount for that semester and spring (current semester)with an EFC of 0, and the most recent FAFSA for the 2011-2012 school year I once again get an EFC of 0. Now I heard about a summer pell grant so I signed up for 6 classes today and I saw the amount it covered it and more. Now understand here I'm trying to save as much of the refund from the pell grant as possible for when I enroll at a university since im in Community College now. So I've been keeping all the leftovers of the grant for that reason, and of course im going to maximize my grant money while I have the possibilty to. I then thought that if I took two more classes I would get the max amount (2775 per semester) and it would cost me about 1400 in tution so I would get a refund of about 1300 in my bank account that would go towards my bachelors which I plan on going to University of Florida.</p>
<p>It's confusing but to my understanding I thought you get approx 5500 per school year for the max pell grant. Then to "reward" or "promote" accelerated degrees you would get an additional 2775 for doing the summer term so your total would be around 8000+. HOWEVER, I called the FINAID office at my school and they told me of how it PULLS from NEXT years term. </p>
<p>Can anyone explain this to me? </p>
<p>Would it be beneficial to take two classes that I don't need to graduate so I can get the extra money and raise my gpa at the same time? (I've already signed up for easy A classes that I can actually apply to my life [Personal Fin,Speach]</p>
<p>Thank you for reading this since it was so long and hopefully someone can clear this confusion!</p>
<p>The rules for summer Pell are very complicated (more complicated than I feel comfortable trying to explain - hopefully Kelsmom will see this thread).There are a lot of rules about having had to complete a full years worth of work and then more rules depending on whether your school uses a summer header (summer being part of the following year) or trailer (summer being part of the following year). And to complicate things further the summer Pell program is on the chopping block and may not even exist next year.</p>
<p>Update: I called Finaid today and got a lady this time who then told me that it is ADDITIONAL PELL money which is completely contradictory to what I was told the first time.</p>
<p>Hopefully kelsmom will see this and clarify some things.</p>
<p>it is an additional Pell. We had 2 family members get summer Pell in addition to their normal years Pell last year. </p>
<p>Complications arise if you have not already done a full years schooling before getting the summer Pell. And there is also the possibility the summer pell is going to be discontinued. All that is very up in the air right now unfortunately (along with SEOG possibly being canceled and the max Pell being reduced next year).</p>
<p>That’s one main point I wanted to confirm…that it is money added to my award not money moved around from next years pell grant (Which doesn’t make sense and was told by the finaid office is what happens)</p>
<p>It shouldn’t be if your school is a summer trailer school. But the problem is if your school is a summer header school and they cancel the additional Pell for the 2011-2012 school year. If that happens then it may end up affecting your Pell for next year.</p>
<p>And no one knows yet what is going to happen there.</p>
<p>I will try to keep it simple. You obviously have taken at least 24 credits this year in order to have received 100% of your Pell grant. You would be eligible to receive money from your 10-11 “second” Pell if you meet certain criteria. Your financial aid office will have a set number of credits that defines a financial aid “year;” this <em>can</em> deviate from what the academic definition of a year’s worth of credits as academic standing (grade level) is considered. Let’s just go high on our assumptions … if you have to earn 30 credits for a financial aid year, then you would need to have a combination of EARNED credits from the semesters in which you received 10-11 Pell + the credits in which you are enrolled for summer term that total at least 31 (the 30 for a year + one more). If you have that, you will receive a payment from your second Pell.</p>
<p>However, if your school’s summer term is a crossover term (that is, it includes both June 30 and July 1), there is another regulation that affects things. In this case, schools are required to calculate the actual amount you would receive if you get Pell from 10-11 and the actual amount you would receive if you get Pell from 11-12. They are REQUIRED to use the payment that is higher.</p>
<p>If your school’s summer academic term begins on or after July 1, they may use 11-12 Pell. Schools that are summer headers & the term begins on or after July 1 will use 11-12 for that term.</p>
<p>This is the first year that academic progression is a required component of the Pell process (although some schools used it last year), and it is as difficult for schools as it is for you. There may be some issues with advising, awarding/removing awards, etc as schools dip their feet into the murky waters of the new regulations.</p>
<p>Another issue for students is that if the school is required to use 11-12 Pell in the summer, and if second Pell is no longer allowed in 11-12, there could be problems in second semester of the regular award year. However … there has NOT been a decision to slash second Pell, so the assumption that must be used at this time is that the current regulations will be in place.</p>
<p>kelsmom - if a schools summer sessions crossover June 30/July 31 and a student is enrolled in different sessions that include before or after (or during) the crossover term, (and the school is a summer trailer and the EFC is the same for both years), will the school generally use the 2010-2011 and have the summer pell be part of 2010-2011? I am trying to finish up an accounting degree and really would like to do summer classes to speed up the process (if I can get classes I need that will work in the summer - the schedule is kind of weird). The whole maybe the summer pell will go away thing is making me nervous - I don’t want to mess up next years aid.</p>
<p>Wow thank kelsmom! I wish you worked at my school.</p>
<p>I sent an email asking if they were a summer header or trailer but no reply yet, if it helps we count the summer as one whole term. new this year, if you don’t sign up for ALL your classes (A and B/ A or B) before the first day of Summer A you don’t get Summer B aid. Maybe that helps you determine whether it’s a crossover. I guess I have until May to decide whether to drop those 2 classes I took to take advantage of the full pell.</p>
<p>Swimcatsmom, in the scenario you describe, you would be paid from 10-11. The school will use 10-11 if at all possible. It’s only when they HAVE to use 11-12 that they will do so. </p>
<p>You may remember that I pointed out on other threads how students can actually lose ACG/SMART for summer if 11-12 Pell has to be used. When this happens, schools don’t have a choice; they have to use 11-12 even if the overall result is a loss in available aid. I imagine most schools would be happy to use the smaller 10-11 Pell payment in order to allow a student to keep the ACG/SMART if the overall result is more money … but they can’t. On the flip side, if the 10-11 and 11-12 payments are the same … and the summer term is set up in such a way that 10-11 CAN be used (this refers to school policy regarding that particular term in question) … the 10-11 payment is used. The key is to keep in contact with the financial aid office to find out how it will work out at that particular school. Summer terms can be tricky devils, due to dates/modules/need for recalculating aid due to withdrawals from later modules/etc.</p>
<p>neelyt, it is hard to know for sure if it’s a crossover. The A, B, and B/A are probably modules within a single term. You definitely need to ask about how your summer aid period works. Signing up by a certain date in order to receive aid for the future module in the term is part of the deal … making sure you know the withdrawal policies is also a very important part of it, as well. If you intend to complete what you sign up for, all should be good. If you might withdraw from a future module, you need to know how your aid could be affected so that you can make enrollment decisions.</p>
<p>I know summer aid is confusing from the student side of things. My daughter has done couple of summer sessions and we always find the summer aid process quite stressful. The whole business with classes being in different sessions and aid including loans not initially being disbursed because some of the hours are not in the first session always makes me nervous. It always seems to work out in the end, but it is more stressful than regular year aid. (my daughter’s school does this whole thing of charging you interest because you didn’t pay by the deadline and they won’t/can’t release the aid, then backing the interest out when the aid is actually released - did not make me happy the 1st time I saw the interest charges).</p>