<p>At first I was disheartened by the smaller amount and wished he was at a school where he would get the full ACG amount (that's the basic dollars and cents part of my brain talking), but when I thought about it, we are very happy with the college our son chose. One of the reasons he selected it was to be immersed in an academically-challenging environment where he would be inspired and motivated amidst other gifted students. No, it's not an Ivy league school, but it's perfect for him -- and that makes it perfect for us (and that's my heart talking.)</p>
<p>I have my answer regarding the ACG or SMART GRANTS ~ I qualified as a Junior and was awarded the full $4,000 ~ Looks like I will be paid in full again this year! What a great day!!</p>
<p>Academic Excellence L1 Waiver $8,000.00
WVU Acad Enhancement Grant $2,500.00
Fed Pell Grant $3,660.00
SMART Grant-3 $2,000.00
SMART Grant-4 Estimated $2,000.00
Total $18,160.00</p>
<p>I also have $1500.00 for APWU Scholarship and I am waiting for my Department of Mineral Resources Scholarships...</p>
<p>TOTAL TUITION ~
Books & Supplies $900.00
Undergraduate Loan Fee $43.00
Maintenance $2,650.00
Room & Board $2,550.00
Tuition & Fees $14,602.00
Total: $20,745.00</p>
<p>Congratulations!!!! :) :) :)</p>
<p>We inquired of UCLA FinAid office as to why the SMART Grant wasn't included in the finaid package, despite apparent eligibility. Answer: "Due to the eligibility restrictions of the ACG/SMART Grant, we do not award the SMART grant up front. If you qualify, you will receive the SMART grant at the END of each quarter."</p>
<p>Anyone hear of this before?</p>
<p>My son received his ACG up front his freshman year and it is also in his package for his sophomore year (I think he gets around $600 as a sophomore -- so we're still not at the full amount but more than he got as a freshman!). </p>
<p>The only reason I can think that they would delay the funds is because of the 3.0 grade point requirement (thinking they might weed a few more out or give students an incentive to keep their grades up), but I haven't heard of others doing that. It's interesting to see this being implemented in its early stages, since colleges seem to be taking different approaches...</p>
<p>From UCLA:</p>
<hr>
<p>The policy has changed for 2007-08. We are working on publishing the eFAN guide for 2007-08. You can access the 2007-08 ePAL guide (provisional award notification) at <a href="http://www.fao.ucla.edu/publications.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.fao.ucla.edu/publications.html</a>. As indicated on page 5:</p>
<p>Academic Competitive Grants (ACG) and Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grants — ACG and</p>
<p>SMART are available to undergraduate U.S. Citizens who are Pell Grant eligible and enrolled full time. ACG is awarded</p>
<p>to freshmen and sophomores while SMART is awarded to juniors and seniors. In addition to the eligibility requirements</p>
<p>specified above, ACG and SMART have many other requirements, which prevent the Financial Aid Office from estimating</p>
<p>your eligibility for them at the time your ePAL is generated. Your ACG or SMART eligibility will be determined quarterly</p>
<p>after the end of third week of classes, at which point you will receive a revised notification from the Financial Aid Office.</p>
<p>If ACG or SMART is awarded, your eligibility for student loans will decrease.</p>
<p>Most likely, the grants will be added toward the end of each quarter since processing after the end of the 3rd week of classes takes time. The policy changed because of the strict eligibility requirements. For SMART grants, students must maintain a 3.0, enrolled full time, and majoring in physical, life or computer science, engineering, mathematics, technology or a critical foreign language. Often times, student change majors between quarters and drop below full-time, so to monitor that, we must check eligibility every quarter.</p>
<p>In looking more closely at my son's financial aid award, he was offered $650 ACG for first semester and it says $0 for second semester. After reading on here, I am now assuming he "may" be eligible for the remaining $650 for second semester if he still meets the guidelines later in the school year. That would be great news since he would then be eligible for the entire $1,300 which would be a big boost over the couple hundred he got as a freshman.</p>