<p>I have just read about the new 12 semester limit for pell grant recipients and I am worried. I am an older student and when I got out of high school (in the early 1990's) I went to the local community college. Back then it was not sectioned into semesters but into quarters. I think it took me just over two years to graduate which would me 9 to 10 quarters. Now I am starting in a new program at the same community college. It will take me 4 semesters to finish this program and I wonder how Pell Grant will look at the quarters and if they will be counted the same as semesters. If they count the quarters as semesters I may not be able to finish my current program. Also are short summer semesters counted the same as the longer fall and spring semesters?</p>
<p>I believe there are three academic quarters in a school year (DD went to a college on quarters). I’m not an expert on this…but if you think of 12 semesters as being equivalent to 6 years that might help you. When you receive the Pell on a quarter system school, it is divided into three parts…not two (like in semesters). I’m guessing that for a school on quarters…it would be 18 quarters (not sure what exactly happens in terms of summers…).</p>
<p>If you are in school full time in the regular school year, there is no additional Pell in the summer anymore. That was only around for a couple of years. If you have not had the full year’s Pell you are entitled to (for instance if you start mid year or are not full time), only then can you get pell in the summer. it is treated the same as a regular session. At my daughters school the whole summer is treated as a unit for FA so if you do 3 hours in one session and 3 in another, then you are half time. However, they do not distribute loan aid until you start the session that takes you to the minimally required half time status. For instance if you do 3 hours in Maymester (a three week session) and 3 hours in june, they won’t distribute loan money till you start the June session.</p>
<p>The maximum time you can get Pell is for 12 full time semesters or 600% of annual Pell. For a quarter system a years worth of Pell would be divided into 3 sessions instead of 2. So you should be able to get 18 quarters, which is the same as 600% of annual Pell (or 12 semesters).</p>
<p>First of all, none of your past Pell grants will count toward the 12 semester limit. 08-09 was the first year of keeping tabs on the Pell used. If you are on a quarter system, you will be awarded one full Pell grant for the year, which will be divided up among the quarters. Since it is 600%, or 6 full annual awards, quarters or semesters are all the same … it’s the percent of each annual award used that counts, and you can’t use more than 100% in a single year.</p>
<p>I know this post is not that recent but it comes up very high in a Google search :re the Pell 12 semester lifetime limit, so I add this answer for anyone still needing to know how this works. </p>
<p>The correct answer is that past receipt of grants will affect you no matter how old. I can personally attest to having my limit used up by grants received as early as 1989. I had 100% (of the 600% limit) used up by receiving ~700$ one year.
So also beware. You only had to receive the full amount you were eligible for in a given year to use 100%. In other words, you didn’t have to receive the max Pell Grant award. They do prorated quarters, each quarter full time = ~33%, each semester 50%. Remember the lifetime limit is 600% not 100%. 6 years * 100% each year (100% means you went all 3 quarters or both semesters fulltime, i.e. 12 or more hrs each term, not including summers) if you went half time one semester that =25% (half of 50%).
I know it gets confusing if math is not your strong suit & I’m trying to explain it enough but not too much so I may be making it worse ;-). </p>
<p>There is a website that tells you your %. I have found it to be inaccurate and impossible to dispute. You can try to contact the Financial Aid office at your current or former school if your % seems off. </p>
<p>Also, summers are not so straightforward. Schools were required to treat summers as a full academic year in 2010 & 2011. You could receive up to a full year’s Pell Grant during the summer term, in addition to the regular school year grant. Therefore, many people used up 5 of their 6 years of eligibility just attending from fall 2009-spring2012. Yep in less than 3 calendar years you could be 2 semesters from being all used up for your lifetime. So a lot of community college students planning to transfer to 4 year schools & cramming in as many courses as possible (but still only 12 credits at a time just all year long) at cheap cc rates but still needing 2-3 years time to attend university to get a Bachelors (due to major sequencing) are getting big nasty surprises when they have no grant $ left to finish their degrees. </p>
<p>Throw in a past & you are doomed. Or if you had to retake courses, take 12 credits a semester, work/raise a child, had the audacity to ever have an illness, you know be human, well, I, won’t rant… </p>
<p>It is true that all study of laws not being able to be applied retroactively would lead one to believe this technically shouldn’t cut anyone off until 2016 at the earliest, but I can’t find anyone debating or suing over that. I assume the previous answerer thought it started counting with 2008 because the initial 18 semester limit DID specifically start as of the passage of that limit. It was the first time such a limit ever existed and it was NOT retroactive. </p>
<p>This one was RETROACTIVE with no cutoff point no matter how old & worthless the credits & many of us believe done specifically to punish those who accepted those summer Pells. My personal 2 cents is that a rolling limit say x years out of 10 seems reasonable albeit unnecessary as an infinitesimally small # of people are really willing & able to maintain academic progress & NOT graduate over that kind of time period. You have to be horribly unlucky or determined to accomplish that & it’d be pretty pointless, may as well graduate & work. I mean seriously, for 5k in grant money a year minus tuition? </p>
<p>To prevent someone from doing that, going back to credits 15 or 20 or more years old is absurd. Clearly in most cases people leave school because they can’t afford it, become ill, pregnant, family crisis, or for positive/neutral reasons like a great job or they just decide that the school/major isn’t their thing. In either case there should be a point in time or in an economic downturn when we say the past no longer bars you from needing help now. You were poor then, you’re poor now clearly whatever education you got then didn’t fix your economic problems. If you’re mature enough now to try again, we’re a great enough country to help you out.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Quarter system schools typically have four 10 week quarters, of which three make up the normal academic year. The fourth quarter is the summer session. A student taking 15 credits per quarter will complete 45 credits in an academic year.</p>
<p>Compare with semester system schools that typically have two 15 week semesters and an 8 week summer session. A student taking 15 credits per quarter will complete 30 credits in an academic year. A semester credit is one and a half times a quarter credit.</p>
<p>You only had to receive the full amount you were eligible for in a given year to use 100%. In other words, you didn’t have to receive the max Pell Grant award</p>
<hr>
<p>You DID receive the full amount of YOUR allowable Pell Grant in that year if you used 100%. You are only eligible to receive 100% of your award in an academic year, even if you choose to attend in the summer session. For a full time student, that means 2 semesters or 3 quarters. In the two years in which a student could receive summer Pell, students could actually receive up to 200% in a single year. That absolutely would accelerate lifetime usage … but the student would also be earning credits that decrease the time needed to complete a degree. That is assuming the student does not drop, fail, repeat, or take unnecessary classes. The whole point to the cap is to pay for the classes a student needs to complete a degree, but no more than that.</p>
<p>I am not saying that I agree with the cap, with the fact that it is retroactive, or with the fact that it was not originally supposed to be retroactive to “forever” & ended up being so. I have been in the financial aid business long enough to know that my opinion is not important; I have to do what I am obligated to do. However, remember that it is Congress who makes these laws. If the public is unhappy, it is important to contact members of Congress to explain your position and let them know what you think would be fair.</p>