<p>I'm in my last semester and reached my aggregate Stafford loan limit.
As such they gave me 694 dollars in pell, when 4 weeks ago I was eligible for 2750.
They said that reaching my stafford loan limit somehow affects my pell eligibility and halts it.</p>
<p>Is this true or am I being fed a line because the counselor doesn't the law?
(I tried to explain to her that pell is not counted in aggregate limits of stafford)</p>
<p>Lastly, What is the Aggregate limit of the Pell? I've read 18 semesters and also 900% (of what)?</p>
<p>How long (how many semesters) have you been in school? You say you’re in your last semester? Is this for a BA? Typically Pell grants are for students of low income families to complete undergraduate school… I do believe there is an 18 semester limit, but for a low income student perhaps they are working and not taking a full load each semester so it takes them much longer. You can still receive Pell monies if you are half-time.</p>
<p>A BA yes. 10 semesters, 5 years because I changed my major a couple times.
Typically pell is for whoever qualifies. I’m an independent student, over the age of 23 when I entered, who makes less than 10k a year. Thus a zero efc has qualified me for full aid every year.</p>
<p>I think you all are hung up too much on the last question. The primary question of this thread is, “Does reaching the Stafford aggregate limit affect Pell eligibility?” </p>
<p>So far all my research says no. I’m looking for anyone with expertise on the subject.</p>
<p>Are you still a full-time student? Did you take any summer classes? The 18 semester limit is the only one that I’m familiar with. The only thing I can think of is if you took summer courses, and that was the first semester of the 10/11 academic year, you may have run out of your first full Pell grant for the year and they need to recalculate (which is probably done manually) to award a second Pell.</p>
<p>Kelsmom does deal with many Pell eligible students. She can probably give you a pretty good take on what’s happening if you PM her with some specifics. I’m not ready to say you are being “fed a line” but something doesn’t “sound right.”</p>
<p>You have 5 or fewer credits this semester, I am willing to bet. Your Pell grant is $2775 based on 12 or more credits. When you drop below full time, your Pell grant is prorated.</p>
<p>And no, reaching your agg limit for loans does NOT affect your Pell eligibility. </p>
<p>The 18 semester limit (actually, it is 900%, so it could be more than 18 semesters if you are going part time) began last year … so it’s not affecting anyone yet (they don’t count the semesters prior to the rule being put in place).</p>
<p>Your Pell grant can be removed if you are over your aggregate loan limit. In that case, you would need to reaffirm or reallocate loans to put you back in good graces. Go to <a href=“http://www.nsdls.ed.gov%5B/url%5D”>www.nsdls.ed.gov</a>. Are you over $23,000 subsidized total or over $57,500 combined total? If not, this paragraph does not apply for you.</p>
<p>@sk8rmom
Thanks for that link, that will be a great place to start.</p>
<p>@kelsmom
Thanks Kelsmom! yes my 694 was prorated 1/4 time because I only had 3 semester hours of financial aid eligibility left when I initially registered. A retroactive change from ‘W’ to ‘Drop’ of some accidentally registered classes a semester before, gave me 6 more hours to work with, so technically my pell should be updated to 75% of one semester, or roughly 2081. </p>
<p>However, the info you posted about the loans was exactly what I was looking for and I’m checking on that now. Is that confirmed somewhere so that I can go look it up? Like maybe in the handbook posted above?</p>
<p>A retroactive change from ‘W’ to ‘Drop’ of some accidentally registered classes a semester before, gave me 6 more hours to work with, so technically my pell should be updated to 75% of one semester, or roughly 2081. </p>
<hr>
<p>I doubt that a change from a W to a “drop” will change your Pell award. Did you actually have to pay for the classes your dropped? I don’t understand how the change you describe would increase your Pell. If you didn’t take the class, you wouldn’t be eligible to be paid for it. When you drop a class, your Pell will prorate. Schools have policies regarding the lock date for financial aid eligibility. For example, where I work tuition is non refundable after the end of the drop/add period. Throughout the drop/add period, if you drop classes, your Pell will be reduced accordingly. After the end of drop/add, you retain all of your Pell unless you withdraw from ALL classes. However, you also do not get any tuition refunded when you withdraw/drop classes. So it doesn’t matter if you drop or withdraw … your Pell is reduced either way throughout the drop/add period.</p>
<p>There are several places in the handbook that address Pell and loans. You can google it if you want. I do know the regs, though, as my job is to manage the Pell program (and I also process loans).</p>
<p>How many classes are you actually registered for this semester? It sounds like you’re talking about aid eligibility increasing because of a change in status (W to drop) in a prior semester, but I think Pell would be calculated based on how many you’re actually taking NOW.</p>
<p>I thought I posted a big message explaining all this from my desktop. I’ll have to double check and see what happened.</p>
<p>I’m taking 12.
On Jan 13th I was only eligible for 3 hours of aid.
On Jan 20th they retroactively changed 2 W’s to drops from a semester in which I took and passed 15 hours, one year ago.
The W’s were counted in my attempted hours. Now they aren’t anymore because Drops don’t count as attempted or show up on your transcript. </p>
<p>This isn’t the issue though. The school knows I’m now eligible for a total of 9 hours of aid.
Anyway, I called back today and they said to call back Monday. It looks like my interest on my loans is pushing me over the cap.</p>
<p>I think you may be confused as to how all of this works. There is no limit on eligibility for federal aid when you are in an eligible semester. You can lose aid for future terms because you took too many credits (your school’s SAP policy will outline how many credits you can take before you lose financial aid eligibility). However, if you are in a term for which you are eligible to receive any Pell grant, you must receive ALL of your Pell grant eligibility. </p>
<p>The interest on your loans has nothing to do with anything. The cap is BEFORE interest, not after. Were you ever in repayment on your Stafford loans, though? If so, and if you missed a payment (or were late), you might have lost some interest-break benefits & thus this WOULD push you over your limits (because it is added back to your base loan amounts). </p>
<p>What happened a year ago will not impact your Pell eligibility for the current term. If you are receiving ANY Pell in the term, you must receive all Pell for which you are eligible.</p>
<p>Are you saying that they retroactively adjusted your 09-10 Pell grant due to a change that was made this year? If so, you still should receive your eligibility for this term. You might have a balance on your account from the 09-10 reduction, but you would not have a reduction to 10-11 Pell.</p>
<p>You were eligible for 3 hours of aid on January 12, but you say you are taking 12 hours. Did you add 9 hours after your financial aid lock date? If not, did you receive 10-11 Pell in the summer 2010 term? If you did, you may only be eligible for a smaller Pell payment due to using all of your first scheduled Pell award and not meeting the requirements for academic progression required to receive any portion of your second Pell award.</p>
<p>If you have a loan overaward issue resulting from missing a payment/being late as described above, you are eligible to keep any Pell disbursement made before the school was advised of your overaward … but you cannot receive any more disbursements until you have taken care of the overaward. If you had received payment for 3 credits, then the school was advised of your overaward, then you registered for another 9 credits … THIS would keep you from being paid for the 9 credits until you have resolved the overaward.</p>
<p>I’m going to have to remote to my desktop and see if I still have the long post I wrote.
My Spring 2010 hours were retroactively adjusted from 18 attempted to 12 attemped because 2 classes were changed from W to drop. </p>
<p>You do realize that “Attempted” hours count towards the Schools maximum hours for elgibility right? My 09-10 pell was never adjusted - My attempted hours were. </p>
<p>NLDS shows over 3k in interested included towards my maximum. I’ve never missed a payment or been in repayment since I’ve gone through school straight without a gap. I’ve never had a summer course. Yet, I recieved an email from them telling me I reached my Stafford cap. If you subtract the interest, I’m under it. </p>
<p>I appreciate you’re concern about how the hours work, but I am 100% sure about that part and not confused in any way. I think there might be some mis-communication here because total attempted hours affecting financial aid eligibility is well defined at every institution.</p>
<p>Also you don’t just get full pell if you are eligible for full pell but aren’t enrolled full time or if you have reached the aid cap for the institution. You get pell based off your enrolled hours, and your eligible hours. If you take 6 hours, you get 50% pell. If you take 3 hours, your get 25% pell. If the financial aid cap at your institution is 180 hours, and you have 180 hours, you get NO pell or Stafford no matter how many hours you are taking. If you have 174 hours attempted, you get 6 hours pell eligibility, even if you are enrolled for 12. </p>
<p>A Withdraw goes on your transcript and counts toward eligible hours. A Drop does not. What happened a year ago will indeed affect my pell eligibility for this term if It pushed me over the 180 hour limit. If you have 180 hours attempted, and an extenuating circumstance allows you to change a W to a drop, you now have 177 hours attempted. If the cap is 180 hours at that school, and this happens before the lock date, then you just went from zero to 3 hours of eligibility.</p>
<p>I do indeed understand the regulations, as it is my job to do so.</p>
<p>This is the first time I have heard of a school that caps the attempted hours mid-term. That is unusual, but if it is the school’s policy, then it is the school’s policy. In such a case, I guess they would revoke the rest of your Pell eligibility. </p>
<p>Again, though, interest does not factor into your lifetime Stafford limit. If you see that interest is being included in your base amounts, you need to contact your servicer (you will find the number on NSLDS). Only base amounts count toward the agg limit. Do you have your original paperwork from each loan? Do the disbursed loan amounts in NSLDS match these amounts? If not, you need to find out from the servicer why not. Mistakes DO occur. Your aggregate outstanding principal balance should not be greater than your disbursed amount for any loan. If you find one that is, you need to ask the servicer why.</p>
<p>Thanks, I’ll double check that because I do still have all the origination information. Maybe that will shed some light on it. </p>
<p>To be explicitly clear, the school sent me a letter last fall here is what it said:
</p>
<p>Note: The expected time for my major is 120 credit hours. I transferred in as a junior with something around 130 attempted hours and changed majors (long story). As such I was awarded an additional 24 hours of eligibility. For a grand total of 120*150%+24 = 204… of which I used 201 after passing my classes last semester. This gave me 3 hours eligibility for spring. </p>
<p>Now:
The 2nd school week of Jan 2011, before the lock date, extenuating circumstances allowed me to DROP two W’s from 1 year ago, specifically for the purpose of extending my aid to cover my last three classes. (During spring 10 I still took and passed 12 hours, so 18 attempted with the 2 W’s.)</p>
<p>Once that went through I received this letter: (Notice how my attempted lowered from 201 to 194… [One hour was a lab])
</p>
<p>So instead of having 3 hours available, I have 10 hours, 9 of which I’m using this semester to graduate. </p>
<p>I hope that helps As I said I’m not really concerned with that part. Just the part where they said that being over the Stafford limit halts my Pell eligibility. </p>
<p>They dispersed 694 pell and partial stafford to my account, then the update of attempted hours went through, then they dispersed the remainder of the Stafford, and no more pell, accompanied by a letter saying I’d hit my max Stafford. Of course when I called I got the response that my Stafford was affecting my pell, and since you confirmed that the Stafford limit can indeed do that, it now looks like the interest may be the underlying problem. Does that make more sense?</p>
As I said I’m not really concerned with that part. Just the part where they said that being over the Stafford limit halts my Pell eligibility. </p>