<p>So I dropped out of high school in 2004 and finally decided to go back to school. I completed My GED in Feb of 2012. I signed up at the local community college were I plan to get my associates in Accounting and then transfer over to state college to get my BSN. So I signed up for 4 classes and it cost me 956.00 for spring quarter.</p>
<p>This semester (summer) I'm not going to be able to pay the $956.00 so I filled out the financial aid form to get some help. I have not received any response and classes are filling up quick. I was wondering if I can get some insight is there any chance I qualify for the pell grant?</p>
<p>In case it helps I'm 26 years old married with 1 child with another on the way. My wife and I make a total of $53,000 a year. I'm the first one from both my wife and I family to go to college.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this matters but I currently work 2 jobs and attending school full time.</p>
<p>Did you fill out the FAFSA? If so, what is your EFC?</p>
<p>Remember: everyone who fills out a FAFSA can borrow up to $9500 for your first year as long as it is not more than the cost of attendance. </p>
<p>No, your 2nd post does not matter.</p>
<p>After you filled out FAFSA, what did it say that your EFC is? If it’s higher than about $5,000, then that’s too high for Pell.</p>
<p>Since you’re an independent, you can borrow more. Add about $4k to the above numbers.</p>
<p>(EFC) = 00906
The EFC is an index that schools use to determine your eligibility and is not the amount of money that you have to pay. Your school’s financial aid office will use your EFC to determine the specific types and amounts of student aid you are eligible to receive.</p>
<p>You should be eligible for a partial Pell grant, as well as subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans. Have you submitted your community college’s code to the FAFSA site so that the results will be sent to them? </p>
<p>Congratulations on finishing your GED!</p>
<p>I put in my school code when filling out FAFSA and Thanks for the congratulations. I actually received a letter after writing this post that since I scored 3500 on the test I’m eligible for a scholarship through the school district and the community college I go to. They pick 5 from the graduating GED class and pay for the first two years of school. I have to write a essay explaining what my plans are and how the money will help. Either way if I win that it does not start till Fall.</p>
<p>wife and I make a total of $53,000 a year</p>
<p>I wonder if your EFC is correct. I would think that your EFC would be higher than $906. That sounds too low.</p>
<p>I hope so too. I entered the exact lines it asked me for on the 1040a form.</p>
<p>Way to go on the scholarship!</p>
<p>The EFC seems way low to me. What amount is listed for taxes paid? Please check this against your tax return to make sure you did not over-report. I honestly do not think you should have a Pell-eligible EFC. Better to find out sooner than later.</p>
<p>Kelsmom…I wonder if taxes reported paid was highish, but then they got/get a return?</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that EFC would be that low. The calculators indicate an EFC of about $5500 or so.</p>
<p>Besides, it doesn’t make sense that a family earning $53k would only be expected to pay less than $1k for the spouse’s college costs.</p>
<p>No matter how I plug in the numbers, I can’t get an EFC even close to that low. The single biggest reason for an artificially high EFC that I encountered during verifications was taxes paid … I have seen people add up ALL taxes (including SS and FICA), and I have seen them use the federal taxes before the refund amount. Both result in a too-low EFC. I really can’t think of anything else that would do it, other than reporting something in the untaxed income section that should not be there. For example, sometimes people will put their income in the section for work-study earnings … this will back it all out of the formula. There are other odd things that people do, but I can’t imagine that any of them would apply here. </p>
<p>The only other thing I can think of is that some of the earnings were from self-employment, and there were deductions against the income so that the actual income reported is less than $53,000. That would explain the EFC, and it could be correct.</p>
<p>The single biggest reason for an artificially high EFC</p>
<p>I think Kelsmom’s meant…artificially low EFC.</p>
<p>Have to agree with kelsmom and mom2 here. 906 seems like a very low EFC for and independent student with income of $53k. I would expect it to be more in the 5k range.</p>
<p>Now I’m worried I did something wrong. I know my school made me fax them a copy of my w2 so I hope they correct anything I messed up on</p>
<p>why don’t you go to a FAFSA calculator and relook at your #s. Make sure you entered them correctly. It possible that you made a mistake. Like the others said, it is better to find out sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>And I echo the earlier congratulationso on your GED. Way to go!</p>
<p>I looked over it twice and the info is what it asks for.</p>
<p>Thanks, m2ck … I DID mean low!</p>
<p>xin, if you feel comfortable posting it, what is: student income from work (Q38), spouse income from work (Q39), AGI (Q35), taxes paid (Q36), assets (Q40-42, unless you were able to skip because they were lower than the threshold), any amount on lines 43 or 44, number in household (Q93), number in college (Q94)? Something is wrong somewhere.</p>