I have a bit of a dilemma, I’ve gotten around 2000 dollars left over from my pell grant during my first spring semester this year (2020) do I have to stay at the school that gave me the money for the full year to keep it or could I transfer to another for the fall? I just would like to know if I have to stay the full year to keep my pell grant surplus or if it’s paid out per semester. I am going full time online off-campus as a dependent if that helps.
Pell is given out by the term (semester, quarter, summer) so as long as you completed that term you don’t have to pay it back or continue at that school.
You’ll receive a new Pell grant in the fall at the new school based off the 20-21 FAFSA.
Your Pell grant award is an amount you could receive in the financial aid award year, but it’s not guaranteed that you will receive the entire amount. You are eligible to receive up to one-half of the annual award each semester, but you only receive a portion of the semester award if you are enrolled in less than 12 credits. If you started school in the spring, you are receiving 2019-2020 Pell. Fall will be the 2020-2021 award year, so you will be working on a new annual award. Be sure to file the 2020-2021 FAFSA if you have not done so, and make sure you add the school code for the new school.
Thank you so much!