Pell Grant Lifetime Eligibility Limit

<p>I ran into the problem of the technology driven courses over ten years hold can not be used toward graduation, but still count toward the Pell Grant lifetime limit. Some colleges will not accept any classes over ten years old.</p>

<p>Yes, the Pell lifetime limit is based on the amount of Pell you have received in the past. If you received Pell for those technology courses, they count toward the lifetime limit whether the classes are useable now or not.</p>

<p>I know that a student can only get the Pell Grant at only one college at a time, but is it possible to get the Pell Grant at one college and the Stafford Loan at another at the same time? The small local college I attend does offer some of the courses that I need every semester and I sometimes have to enroll part-time. The big state university offers some of these courses online. The university is to far from my home to attend regular lectures or I would enroll full time there.</p>

<p>No, you can only receive federal aid at one school at a time. I think there is one exception I saw mentioned here once where if 2 schools have some particular type of relationship or agreement. I don’t honestly remember the details. It is probably fairly unusual though.</p>

<p>Hi, I would like to know if anyone knows that after a person has reach the Pell Grant Lifetime Eligibility Limit if they are still eligible for federal loans. Pell grant is free money and I imagine there is a limited amount. In addition, the limited amount for student loans thru the government is $57,000, which loans comes from a different pot of money than Pell Grants so as long as a student has not maxed out on loans shouldnt they still be eligible for loans thru the government?</p>

<p>Yes, you can continue to receive loans even if you have reached the Pell LEU maximum. If you are independent, you may borrow up to $57,500 in loans (of which up to $23,000 may be subsidized). You can also receive SEOG, if your school awards it to you. Only Pell has the limit at this time.</p>

<p>Thank you for taking the time to answer my question.</p>

<p>Thank goodness I came here. I was beginning to panic. I have not yet received a letter concerning my Pell grant eligibility but am aware that I am nearing 500% and will probably surpass that next fall and spring. I only have three semesters left (and that is going less than full time). </p>

<p>I am a “non-traditional” student (meaning I’ve returned to college in my mid-forties) and believed that I was going to be fine (close, but okay) until I ran across the phrase “life time limit” in my reading on another site. No one’s mentioned this to me–not the government, not the university and I don’t like surprises. Not when I’m this close to being done. </p>

<p>Twenty-five years ago (young and short-sighted), I realized I no longer wanted the degree I’d been striving toward and realized that I needed to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. I was only an “okay” student then–barely holding on to a 3.0. I’m now a 4.0 student and I know exactly what I want to do. While I don’t think it’s the government’s job to provide me with a free education, without the benefit of grants and federal loans, I couldn’t afford to do this. I guess I’ll be finishing up school deeper in debt than I’d anticipated. </p>

<p>It does seem that a grandfather clause for college seniors would be fair. For some people this will mean being unable to complete their degree and all they’ll have left is a load of debt and nothing to show for it. If they think the number of people defaulting on student loan debt is high now–just wait for the fallout from this decision.</p>

<p>Have you checked the govt website to see where you are as far as % of pell received? If you are not full time, you may find you will manage to get to the end without running out of Pell. My understanding is that the 600% does not equate to 6 years of school, but instead but is 600% of full time eligibility. So if you if you attend only part time, your years of eligibility would be more than 6. For instance, if you attend half time for a year. you would only get 50% of your eligibility for that year, not 100%. In that situation, it would take 2 years to use up 100% of the 600%. (I don’t think I expressed that very well, but I have to get of to work so hopefully it makes sense).</p>

<p>In all honestly, and I say this as someone whose family has benefited from the Pell, I think 600% is a more than reasonable limit. Before they changed it, it was 900% which seemed excessive to me.</p>

<p>Pell Grant money is the icing on the cake, but not the cake itself.</p>

<p>I agree with you I just became aware of this change, and yes I am over 40 returning to school not because I want to because I have to. Congress bails other people out at the expense of my tax dollars, such as the banking system, Fannie Mae, Chrysler and on and on, along with rewarding them for mismanagement of funds. They were able to have their bad management wiped cleaned to start again. They could not have found a better/fair way of fixing this issue. No I do not expect the government to pay for me to stay in school forever, but do not pull the rug out from under me, when you did not inform me of the correct cost. Meaning many students will not only be able to finish school to better their job opportunities to have a larger paycheck to pay this unfair bill they will be sent. This change should be grandfather clause.</p>

<p>I too am a “non traditional” (ie, over 40) student. I transferred 2 years ago from a local community college to a university and somewhere during the process, my transfer credits double posted. I was initially declared ineligible for further aid by my university because I showed as 20% or more over the credits needed for my degree. We got it straightened out, but while I was figuring it out (and panicking!) I discovered that I was getting close to maxed out on my Pell Grants and that i probably would fall short before graduation–as of today, I have 1 semester left and I am at 599.984% eligibility. </p>

<p>And you know what, I am FINE with that. I had to take a lot of pre reqs for my major (I’m a Professional Accountancy (CPA) major) plus I had to take some “refresher” math classes (I was right way back in high school about not needing algebra during my life–until I went back to college and needed it!) so it has taken me 6 years plus 1 semester to graduate. That is going full time, never repeating a class, and taking summer classes. So I took an additional student loan and got a work study job to pull me through this last semester and I told my kids (I have sole custody and a whole lot of back child support that isn’t getting paid) to go easy on their shoes this year!</p>

<p>I do wish that the financial aid offices would let people know about the lifetime eligibility–it was NEVER mentioned to me, and when I mentioned it to my fellow students, NONE of them were aware of it. Since I was aware of it, I was able to plan for my last semester. I will always be grateful for the Pell Grants and scholarships I received. Students also need to be aware of the economic viability of the majors that they choose and be aware that as wonderful as it may be to study English Lit or Cinema, it probably won’t pay the bills–or their student loans…</p>

<p>The Pell Grant Lifetime Limit is tracked by the Department of Education, and information regarding a student’s eligibility is, I believe, included on the Student Aid Report. The 600% limit was recently implemented, although it is retroactive in that “old” Pell grants were included.</p>

<p>yes, they should change it or have it done through an executive order.</p>

<p>i suggest people write to their senator or congressman about this…</p>

<p>Not seeing why this is such a hindrance. If I’m reading it correctly you’re not limited to only receiving funds in 12 semesters, it’s 600% of your eligibility. If you’re a part-time student, why should you expect to receive your full eligibility for that semester/year? They’re giving you the equivalent of 6 years to complete a 4 year degree, and you’re not penalized for attending less than full-time unless you’re trying to draw full eligibility while doing so. Exactly how long do you expect the taxpayers to subsidize your education?</p>

<p>have to agree, I think 600% is a more than reasonable limit. Perhaps the one thing they need to do is make sure students know from day one, and every semester thereafter, that there is a strict limit and where they are in regard to that limit.</p>

<p>That’s where some students really got caught - the newest regulations are including ALL prior Pell, so students who received Pell in the past are finding that they have run out of Pell - even though they had no idea that it could happen, since it was not in effect previously. It really hurt schools with large populations of economically disadvantaged students. My previous employer identified students with a semester or less remaining who had run out of eligibility and assisted them with grants … but they couldn’t afford to do that for everyone. Well, they couldn’t afford to do it, period … but they felt that they just couldn’t lose potential grads who only had a semester remaining.</p>

<p>I am one of the students who has run out of pell but you need to know why it is. I live in the state of Ga. if you are place in a remedy class it is hard for you to get out of it. The broad of regents has put in place for students to remain in these classes for a long time by using the compass test. even if you pass you class with an A you can not move on til you pass the compass I have had this problem one reason being that in taking the compass test if you miss at lest one question it put you back a grade lever. I have repeated MATH 96,97,99 for the pass few years and I still can not move to my college lever classes there are students that have left college because of this dumb rule. I had started going to school in Fl and when the college seen how many times I had taking the classes and passed the put me in my college lever courses here is the thing by the time that happen I got the news that my pell was gone and the college I was going to did not do student loans. So that meant me going back to ga and repeating the same classes over again.</p>

<p>Thank you, I’ll look into that. Maybe I’m reading it wrong. </p>

<p>I don’t necessarily think it’s the government’s responsibility to pay for my education and I don’t have a problem with the limit. However for those of us who are almost done, this is pretty much jerks the rug out from under us without a lot of warning. It seems to me that giving seniors some leeway in finishing up would be fair.</p>

<p>I’m not trying to draw full eligibility. I don’t get to decide that anyway. Not sure where you got that from and I don’t appreciate the insinuation.</p>

<p>My complaint was a) lack of warning b)no grandfather clause for people who are almost done. I’m 3 semesters from being done and I do have student loans to fall back on, so I’ll be fine. There are others who are completely out of aid (Pell and loans) and are nearly done. They are the ones who are trying to figure out how they’re going to finish school with no funds to do so. </p>

<p>What this will translate to for those of us it’s caught late in the process is a number of people who went back to school in order to improve their standard of living. Now they can’t finish school and will have to pay student loans on an already inadequate income.</p>