How exactly do Pell Grants work?

I feel completely clueless right now, but I haven’t been able to get a definitive answer elsewhere, so I hope some of you can help me out. So I qualify for a $1400 Pell Grant, and naturally I’d like to put that money towards paying my college tuition. However, I’m unsure how to actually get to that money. Is it paid directly to the school, and if so, when? Do I have to pick it up in some capacity and then pay it? Is there a step beyond simply filling out the FAFSA that I’m missing?

Have you already filed your FAFSA? It’s paid directly to the school. Your college FA office will be happy to help you through the process.

The money is split between semesters (or quarters if that’s how your school operates). The money goes directly to the school. So, if your school has 2 semesters, then $700 would go towards tuition for fall semester.

Did you enter the code of the school that you’ll be attending? Did the school ask you for more documentation? Did you register classes as a full-time student?

Most schools have a financial award page on your student portal. You have to go to it and accept the awards you want. Some (all? each school my kids attend do) schools automatically accept the grants for you, so Pell grants, school grants, state grants are marked ‘accepted’ by the computer, because who wouldn’t want the free money? You have to accept the loans (and will have to do an online training) in the amounts you want.

Just check your portal. The awards may not be posted yet, but may be there.

Is your EFC 1400, or is your Pell grant 1400? I ask because there is no $1400 Pell grant amount, so I want to make sure. If your Pell grant amount is $1465 (the only amount in the $1400’s), you would get $732/$733 for each semester (fall/spring) if you are enrolled in 12 credits or more in that semester. For 9-11 credits, you would get $550/$549, for 6-10 you would get $366/$365. At some of the higher Pell EFC’s, the payments at less than full time are adjusted from the way they are determined for higher Pell EFC’s. In your case, while most Pell EFC’s do receive a partial Pell payment for 1-5 credits, you would not receive any payment for 1-5 credits.

Did you use the data retrieval tool in your FAFSA to link your parents’ tax return?

@kelsmom: out of complete curiosity, how did you know that, and why is it set up that way (re: only amount in 1400’s is $1465?)

There is a Pell grant schedule published annually by the Department of Education. It shows the various Pell awards for each EFC band, including the amounts at the various credit loads. The full schedule is sort of hard to read, so it’s easiest just to look up a Pell grant chart on a college website (financial aid departments create easy-to-read charts and post). Here is a good one: http://wayne.edu/financial-aid/pdf/2016-2017_pell_grant_schedule-web.pdf . The Pell amounts are set by Congress.

@kelsmom that is very helpful. I thought the Pell grant was determined by max Pell amount minus EFC

Full disclosure: There can be some variance in Pell amounts for very low-cost schools - I don’t know of any off-hand, though, so I can’t provide a link to that Pell chart. If you go to a really inexpensive school, your Pell chart could be different.