<p>Students need to be aware that the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 that was signed into law in December 2011 limits their lifetime Pell grant usage to 12 semesters. The law contains a significant change from previous law, which stated that students would be able to receive Pell for 18 semesters, and that it would be tracked beginning in 2008-09 award year. Now it is not only 12 semesters instead of 18, and usage will be tracked from the beginning of the Pell program ... so any Pell received at any time will be counted toward the lifetime limit. This is important for many part-time and returning students to know --- I have seen students who received Pell for many years, and some of them are going to be done with Pell effective 12-13 award year. Remember that it is not actually "semesters," but usage ... it is possible to receive Pell more than 12 semesters if you are part time (see the link at the end of this post).</p>
<p>Pell grant usage is currently being reviewed and updated in the national database. It is expected that students will be able to review their lifetime usage, beginning in July, at National</a> Student Loan Data System for Students. Please be aware that you may receive an award letter listing a Pell award for which you may not be eligible ... schools are just now beginning to receive reports of students who are at or over 450% Pell, and they must manually review and adjust awards. In the future, there may well be lags between initial and adjusted awards where Pell is concerned because of the nature of the beast ... timing, late updates, and the manual process required to review/adjust. Therefore, it is important that STUDENTS be aware of their lifetime usage ... if you exceed lifetime usage, the amount in excess will be removed and you will owe. There is no appealing the limit, and you just plain are not going to get the money, regardless of whether or not you think the school messed up when they gave an award that was later removed. Schools will work diligently to make sure everything is done in a timely manner, but the system is not perfect. You need to be on top of your own usage so that you know if you are at the end of the Pell rainbow. Please realize that you probably won't receive any grants to cover the Pell from the vast majority of schools.</p>
<p>Here is an explanation of the lifetime limit and how it is calculated: Student</a> Aid on the Web.</p>
<p>This totally sucks because I’ve already used up my lifetime eligibility during my first year of college (I was a full-time student last year). I got the email this morning and I was pretty devastated…</p>
<p>It is impossible for you to have used your lifetime eligibility in one year. You can’t get more than one year’s Pell in a year. (Though you Used to be able to get two year’s in the brief period of 2nd Pell being available, but using 6 years eligibility in one year is impossible).</p>
<p>I was online today and saw that the NSLDS site now has “Financial Aid Review” as an option. If you click on the link, it will tell you all your Title IV grants (like Pell) and loans for your school career. </p>
<p>Tofutown, you cannot have used all your Pell if your first year of school was 11-12. However, if you are taking summer classes & used your annual award in fall and spring, you could be out of Pell for the year.</p>
<p>(Unless you used your Pell in the past and never got a four-year degree … and now you are working on a 4 year degree & are out of Pell.)</p>
<p>i had gotten the famous email saying that i am no longer eligible for pell starting fall 2012!!</p>
<p>i would like to know how this disaster got past the congress??? a lot of returning students over 40 are certainly not happy with this one…especially if they had already maxed out on their loans!!</p>
<p>how does congress think that people would be able to financially afford this???</p>
<p>a response is welcome even though i might have opened up a huge debate…</p>
<p>The assumption is that students should be able to get their education in 6 years (12 semesters) if they want federal grants. the public can’t afford to keep giving money if students aren’t going to get their degrees in a timely manner. </p>
<p>What if everyone on Pell Grants took longer than 6 years? </p>
<p>Tofu…something doesn’t sound right. If you’ve ONLY gone to school for 1 year, then you didn’t use up all of your Pell eigibility. Either the letter you rec’d is wrong, or you didn’t read it correctly.</p>
<p>I think Congress was very much thinking about how people can afford this, meaning those people paying for. it. Students have 12 semesters of Pell. You use it up, then no more. I don’t see what isn’t fair about this.</p>
<p>Obviously, what isn’t fair is the lack of a grandfather provision for those who received Pell grants previously, relied on their continuing eligibility (based on prior law) and just had the rug pulled out from under them.</p>
<p>There’s a huge difference between implementing the new law prospectively only and implementing it retroactively. Retroactive implementation (as has occurred) clearly results in more immediate cost savings . . . but at a significant price for those students already in the system.</p>
<p>Though I’ll concede it is not fair, it is not unreasonable what is being done. When programs are discontinued, that is it. Future eligibility is done. I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy here, as I think 6 years of payments is what the limit should be.</p>
<p>Since the point of Pell grant is to help students get a 4-year degree, I think, it is fair to implement a 6-year rule retroactively.</p>
<p>In fact, the perpetual students were being unfair to American taxpayers. I would go even further and say that some (not all) abused the existing system. The only thing that congress did was closed the loophole.</p>
<p>a lot of returning students over 40 are certainly not happy with this one…especially if they had already maxed out on their loans!!</p>
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<p>Sorry, no sympathy here. If you have maxed out loans and do not have an undergrad degree yet, then why on earth should John Q. Public keep throwing its money away? You have maxed out loans … that means you have borrowed $157,500 … and do not have an undergrad degree to show for it??? </p>
<p>If you DO have an undergrad degree and are returning for another undergrad degree, you don’t get Pell at all … no Pell after the first undergrad degree.</p>
<p>u know what? i think that i will talk with my financial aid counselor and find out what my options are in my case…i guess a lot of people have to do that now if they want to continue their education…especially with this debacle being enforced…i just hope that i get SOMETHING instead of NOTHING!!</p>
<p>I am over 40, and returned to school after planning the expenses. I was at school and even taking classes before anyone told me my approved Pell Grant was used up. And I moved 3,000 miles to go to school. I need a career change. I have a 2 year degree and almost finished a BS. I haven’t been at a college in at least 6 years. When will the Pell Grant reset, so I can use some tuition again. What are their reasons, it seems all we hear about now is how the USA is running out of money and this is what effects me the most. Whatever is the reason, I think this issue has never been addressed or discussed, and hurts people who get to school and then learn about this. What are the reasons the Education System stops assistance?</p>
<p>The pell eligibility limit is a lifetime eligibility limit. It does not ever reset. It has nothing to do do with how long it has been since you were in school. it is how many years of pell you have received during your life.</p>
<p>The thinking is presumably that 6 years of grant money is considered enough for someone to complete a degree.</p>