My son is back in college after some difficulties and going down a wrong path but is now trying to turn things around. He is pursuing an engineering degree at a HBCU, mostly because he qualified for a full tuition scholarship. The thing is, the pell grant was applied and then the tuition and fees were applied, so they used up the pell grant for that and they just now applied the scholarship, but they reduced it because they say it is non-refundable. He also took out the student loan apparently, which is the only reason that he is now due a refund, but much smaller than he was expecting. I believe they should have went back and applied the scholarship against the tuition and then the fees (I’m not sure if the scholarship was supposed to cover fees) be deducted from the pell grant and loan and the rest refunded. Is that not how it should work?
Many colleges use the Pell Grant first to fill financial need. This is not unusual at all.
Dixie- congrats to your son for turning things around!
Colleges typically don’t have much leeway in the use of Pell. It’s a federal entitlement program and there are compliance rules that go along with government money. You can call and ask for a phone appointment with a financial aid officer and they will explain their rules which might make more sense once you’ve heard it directly from the source.
Most institutions want their money to go as far as it can… which means they apply scholarship funds AFTER every single other source has paid out. They don’t want to be using university funds if there are state or federal scholarships that the student qualifies for.
Good luck to your son. I hope he’s got enough resources to finish his degree this time!
Thanks, but it’s not looking good. The university he went to originally applied all of his scholarships and grants and refunded anything left over. The scholarships were not refundable, but those took care of most of the costs and then the pell grant money that was left was refunded. My daughter just started at a different university and same thing with her, they applied everything and refunded what was left over. He needed the pell grant money to cover gas, books and such. The university is about 1 1/2 hours away, he was not able to get the classes he needed online so he is having to drive there and back 4 days a week. He is looking for a part time job right now, but it is costing a fortune in gas money. I let him use my credit card with the understanding that he would pay me back when he got his refund and it’s not even going to be enough to pay off the credit card, much less get him through the rest of the semester.
Can he make an appointment with a financial aid officer ASAP? Hugs, this sounds very frustrating…
I definitely think he should meet with a financial aid advisor as soon as possible.
It is up to the school and a good financial aid office can really be helpful. My daughter had one who applied everything in the most helpful way to D so D got the biggest amount returned to her (Pell grant, loan). That woman left and daughter got less in future years (it was the SEOG applied first instead of last). D did have a few forms of aid that could only be used for certain things, like a state grant that could only be used for tuition and Bright Future which this school required to be applied to tuition. School money was not refundable so they applied that next to tuition, fees, and her meal plan.
If his scholarship is not for a set dollar amount but jut ‘tuition’, then he needs to meet with the financial aid person and it would be helpful to have the amounts written out and show how he thinks it should be applied, like:
Tuition - $4000
Fees $400
and the list out the awards:
HBCU scholarship for tuition and fees: $4400
Pell $6200
SEOG $1000
Student Loan $3000
As you know, the order of application does matter.