<p>Quick question, I know a student can receive a Pell Grant for 16 semesters, and somewhere I think I read information stating that this is full-time semesters? I know that the Pell Grant is adjusted, so that a student taking 6 credit hours is considered a half-time student, getting half the Pell Grant. Is the part-time student still limited to the 16 semester limit? Or is that limit adjusted depending on the enrollment status of the student? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I know the maximum is 18 semesters but have never heard or read that part-time students have a different cap. I think that would be unmanageable. Possibly you are thinking of a state aid program? NY’s TAP program where FT and PT study take a certain number of “points” and the student has a cap on the number of points they can use, not the number of semesters.</p>
<p>18.</p>
<p>Not sure about part time rules.</p>
<p>The time limit is commonly referred to as 18 semesters, but it is not really 18 semesters. It’s 900%. Every semester, a student can receive up to 50% of the scheduled annual award. If the student takes fewer than 12 credits, payments are adjusted. If the student takes 1-5 credits, the semester award is 12.5% of the scheduled annual award; 6-8 credits is 25.0%; 9-11 credits is 37.5%; 12+ is 50.0%. This varies sometimes, since EFC’s that are high but still Pell eligible will have a payment schedule that doesn’t follow the normal schedule, and payment %'s are different for schools on the quarter system.</p>
<p>So if you add up the %'s you actually receive each semester, you get to keep receiving Pell until you reach 900% total. Take the amount received each semester divided by the total annual award & add those percentages. You can keep your own running total, but the school can also check percentages for you in the federal COD or NSLDS systems. It is possible you might be able to see your own totals at <a href=“http://www.nslds.ed.gov%5B/url%5D”>www.nslds.ed.gov</a>, but I don’t know that for sure.</p>
<p>As usual, kelsmom shines the light! That makes more sense and I have seen that 900% before and various percentages listed on financial aid summaries…just never put 2+2 together! It’s odd that finaid wesites list the 18 semesters and don’t say something like “the FTE of 18 semesters or 9 full Pell grants”.</p>
<p>It is very very likely that Congress will enact a stricter number of semesters as part of this year’s upcoming budget deal. The Pell grant costs have exploded and they are looking for a way to limit it. The emphasis is upon trying to maintain the current maximum Pell grant, but cutting back on the way and frequency it is used.</p>
<p>With all the close scrutiny of student FA in the budget process, I absolutely would not bank on the 900% staying around. I don’t really understand the logic of it in the first place. I can understand Pell being available for perhaps 5 years (or 500%) to give students a little cushion as graduating in 4 years can sometimes be hard to do (especially at some state Us where required classes are not always offered every semester or even every year - something we are running into). But 900% just seems like an invitation to drag it out.</p>
<p>When the 18 semester rule was first announced, I asked our wonderful federal trainer about it at a conference. I wanted to be sure I understood the 18 semester rule … was it 18 semesters or 900%, because the distinction was critical at my school. Her answer was, “SAP should have kicked in before 18 semesters.” Several colleagues & I laughed … sure, at a traditional 4-year college that may be the case, but it is not so at public U’s where many students are untraditional. Those who work their way through school do not progress at a rate that matches traditional students. Since then, of course, the SAP rules have tightened & timeframes are more restrictive.</p>
<p>FWIW, the semester limit for Pell was tried in the past. When the first group of students who would have been affected got to the point of losing Pell, Congress backed off and removed the semester restriction.</p>
<p>Congress is totally clueless when it comes to finaid, by the way. How on earth could they not have realized the cost of year-round Pell?? Any aid officer could have told them that many students would qualify … but they didn’t ask.</p>
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And there you have the hit the crux of the matter.</p>
<p>This issue is currently being debated in a Senate Committee. They are proposing to eliminate or consolidate additional financial aid programs to cut their costs so they can try to maintain the current maximum annual Pell grants. Something has to give - the total costs of current Federal financial aid programs have to be cut to meet budget targets.</p>