Over the past weekend, I was accepted into Bates College. They gave me a HUGE financial aid package (the only benefit of being low income). Anyway, my pell grant did not show up on my package. Either it was lumped in under “Bates scholarships and grants” or they “purposefully” left it out.
I mentioned that they “purposefully” left it out because I read a past post where they did it to the another student. They basically said that the grant couldn’t be used. I don’t know the details the student was vague.
My question is: Are colleges not obligated to use the Pell Grant? I know that I should contact the Fin Aid department, but I wanted to see if my post could get quicker replies so that I know what to ask when I contact the college.
Many schools take the Pell grant first, then award their own aid, so Pell will be the first applied to tuition.
You should ask them if they can break out your scholarships and grants line by line so you can keep track of all applications and loans, especially if some scholarships and grants have minimum requirements. Go in personally if possible and keep notes on each gift, the name, the requirements, and the URL for that gift.
If they don’t mention Pell, show them the package you were offered earlier and ask when that will be disbursed.
that other student may have already exceeded his Pell eligibility.
You’re an incoming frosh. If your FAFSA EFC is below about 6000, then you do get a Pell grant…it’s just lumped into “grants” somewhere.
Call Bates financial aid and ask them…
Does your financial aid offer cover the cost of attendance at Bates?