Does the Pell Grant’s Lifetime Eligibilty count towards credit hours that someone paid for themselves, or only on credit hours that the Pell Grant was slated to pay towards? For instance, if the Pell Grant paid for 60 hours but I paid for another 30 hours myself (coming to 90 hours total) would I still be eligible for another 30 hours of Pell paid classes towards the same Associate’s degree since I didn’t use the Pell for all of my classes? Or is it a hard 150% cap where they don’t care how your education was funded for if you reached an hour limit then they deny you any of the other funds regardless of you not having used all of your Pell allotment?
Further, are the 600 LEU and 150% rule one and the same?
The Pell Grant LEU tracks actual Pell Grant payments, based on the percentage of the total annual payment you could have received in a particular year. For example, if you are enrolled in 12 credits, you receive 50% of your annual Pell grant total in the semester. Your Pell usage is 50% for that semester. If you take 9 credits the next semester, you will receive 37.5% of your annual Pell grant in that semester. For the two semesters, your total usage that counts toward LEU is 87.5%. Only Pell paid out to you is counted. Once you reach 600%, you can no longer receive Pell. That could happen in 6 years, but it could also take longer (and with year round Pell, it could even be used up in less than 6 years).
The 150% is something different. That is for subsidized loans. It’s a confusing and tricky animal, but the bottom line is that it limits the amount of time a student is eligible to borrow subsidized loans to 150% of their published program length. After the 150% mark, the student loses the subsidy (which means the government no longer subsidizes the interest, so it accumulates the way it would for an unsubsidized loan).
Hello, I appreciate the reply. I contacted a school I was thinking about transferring to about this same issue and they echoed your answer. Pretty much that the Pell Grant only worries about Pell Grant hours paid out and not the aggregate attempted hours from any payment method to determine eligibility.
The 150% loan rule is still puzzling me a little. I would have the same question regarding subsidized loans. If I pay without the usage of them but still reach 180 hours, for example, will they still block you from taking those?
On top of both of these are the SAP rules (for which I believe the federal government creates a baseline) at which they can also deny financial aid pell or otherwise at 150% time. But if I’m not mistaken both the 150 rule regarding loans and the SAP rule can be combated though by a switch of majors or through a transfer which may reset SAP depending on the university since everything may not transfer to another major. If I’m incorrect about any of this I’d appreciate a clarification.
@kelsmom – this is quoted from that article linked above. can you explain what this means? can a student take out subsidized loans for grad school?
also - can you explain how a student can take out 150% of a pell grant? would that mean applying for a pell for summer? is that a separate application? or is it just 50% of what the whole school year’s award for that additional term? thanks!!
Well, considering that there are no subsidized loans for grad students & the article says the student paid off all previous loans … the rule would not come into play.
Students can now get the full Pell award fall/spring, then get up to another 50%, depending on enrollment, for summer.
^^ thanks. was thinking there weren’t subsidized loans for grad school, but that article made me do a double take. Ok, carry on and again, thanks for your thoughts (from past few years too!)
Thanks kelsmom for clarifying all of this. I had a chat with the financial aid advisor at my current school about all of this as a triple check and it was basically the same. Pell Grant only counts towards hours used with the pell grant, and Loans and SAP are taken in aggregate of everything no matter how it was paid. So if they don’t get you one way then there’s another regulation to snag you on. Really seems unfair towards people who maybe didn’t need help in the past but suddenly do. Thanks again.