Indy Student, Make Nothing, Pell Grant only $700?

Paying for College
1

<p>I'm an independent student. I am 26 years old and I did just recently move back home after owning a home with my fiance. After the relationship ended I moved back home with my parents and sold the house. I made 24 thousand last year and have never applied for aid before. On the Fasfa form I put living at "other" and didn't answer any questions about assets or parents income. It says the estimated Pell Grant will be $700 dollars... ***? My friend received like $5,000 dollars? What is going on?</p>

2

<p>I think half your income over a certain threshhold is counted. You made enough money that your EFC comes to that amount. What did your friend make in 2012? That, taxes paid and any assets (20% of any money or assets go directly to your EFC) are what make your EFC which determines the amount of your PELL.</p>

3

<p>What is your EFC? 50% of income over $9540 is counted toward your EFC.</p>

<p>Formula B here:</p>

<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/091312EFCFormulaGuide1314.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/091312EFCFormulaGuide1314.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Estimated Expected Family Contribution (EFC)= 04843</p>

<p>The EFC is an index that schools use to determine your eligibility and is not the amount of money that you have to pay. Your school’s financial aid office will use your EFC to determine the specific types and amounts of student aid you are eligible to receive.</p>

<p>You may be eligible for the following:</p>

<p>Pell Grant Estimate - $700.00
Direct Stafford Loan Estimate - $10,500.00</p>

5

<p>$700 Pell for that EFC seems about right. But a quick look at the formula I would think the EFC would be higher, $6-7k, though there are allowances for SS and state and federal taxes paid.</p>

6

<p>Why did you put that you “make nothing” in your title when you later say that you made $24k last year???</p>

<p>Also…what do you have in savings after selling the house?</p>

<p>As a single independent person, the assumption is going to be that a good chunk of that $24k can be put towards your college costs. </p>

<p>It’s not reasonable for the FA calculations to assume that a single person can’t contribute a good bit of his income (beyond a basic exemption of about $6k or so) towards his COA. </p>

<p>Certainly the tax-payers (the source of Pell) aren’t wanting to give a single person with that income a bunch of their money, when they likely don’t have $24k to spend on each adult in the family.</p>

<p>I don’t think his EFC is right…it should be higher. He should have a basic $94XX exemption, and then about 50% is supposed to go towards EFC.</p>

7

<p>Look at the chart here: <a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/P1201Attach20122013PaymentSchedules.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/P1201Attach20122013PaymentSchedules.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>To be getting $5000 in Pell Grants, your friend must have an efc of under 1000. That translates to earnings of less than $16k, unless your friend is married or has dependents, which will change the picture too.</p>

8

<p>A Pell Grant of $5K means your friend’s EFC is ~0.</p>

<p>xposted with CTScoutmom.</p>

9

<p>Was the 24k you made from a job or from selling the house? If it’s from the house it likely shouldn’t have been listed as income.</p>