<p>Friedpasta…even IF your kids end up being eligible for a portion of the Pell, it is going to be a SMALL amount. Every penny counts, I know…but really, this would be a small Pell allotment based on the EFC you posted.</p>
<p>I know ;)</p>
<p>I am thinking more in terms of it being correct as far as understanding Pell eligibility and if something was wrong with our FAFSA submission, and if someone else is in a similar situation and trying to find info here. </p>
<p>Maybe I will ask the school later out of curiosity; never knew COA figured in so I’ve learned something (I think! lol). Probably many others did not realize it, either. Everyone just focuses on those cutoff EFC numbers.</p>
<p>I’m curious as to how it works too. The only thing that I can figure is that perhaps the amount come under what the minimum PELL payable is, and that when you have a borderline EFC, it is not that simple to come up with the minimum amount. But I’m just guessing here. It appears that $584 (if i’m looking at this right and remember the numbers correctly) is the minimum amount that can be given and if somehow, the student comes up with less than that, you don’t get it.</p>
<p>Cpt, you may be right. We may never get an answer, I don’t know. </p>
<p>I ran into a friend this weekend who works in admissions at a state university here but who has some insight into financial aid. She said while COA does apply, which most families don’t realize, generally the “cutoff is the cutoff”, as she called it, and that schools use the tuition cost for the academic year and not a semester. So she was as confused as I, lol. </p>
<p>I’m not going to sweat it since it’s minimal and only one year for us, but I would love to get more information on why this came up this way as several young people in our family will be attending college within the next couple of years. It’s best to be as informed as possible. Also, so many people look to this site for info, as we have, and questions always seem to be only about being eligible for Pell according to EFC cutoff. Apparently there is more to it than that and going strictly by the chart is misleading.</p>
<p>Do ask, and shoot a PM off to Kelsmom as well. You should be getting an explanation for this. For some financial aid decisions, there is a lot of discretion involved, so yes, you or anyone is unlikely to get the whys and wherefores, or the methodology. But PELL is an entitlement and is by government formula. I think it’s important that we understand how it works because some of the kids who do ask questions and are PELL eligible are the ones for whom the answers and knowledge are the most important. In your case, we are looking at $1000 with the two kids, but you know, that is a nice hunk of change for the school year.</p>
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<p>IF the COA is at least $5600, they will be eligible for $582/a year each in Pell grants</p>
<p>Question…if the minimum Pell (someone mentioned upstream) is $584, would these kids get $582?</p>
<p>Sybbie, in our situation, the COA for our school (same for both) for this year is $5018+/semester, or $10,077/year, instructional and required fees. Probably more next year. </p>
<p>If the COA on the chart is by semester, then that explains it. But if that is for the full regular year, then it looks like they qualify even if the SAR says no.</p>
<p>That is why the confusion. No one seems to know why the SARs came back saying they don’t qualify. There are so many questions that pop up on here about Pell eligibility that I think it would be good to figure it out.</p>
<p>Fried pasta…I’m not sure it matters. It is possible that your kids EFCs were such that they did not meet the requirement for the minimum Pell award…if its $584…</p>
<p>FAFSA on the Web has not yet been updated with the new Pell tables. That is why you do not see a message that you are Pell eligible … you were not under the old tables. The kids will get a small Pell - the school will indicate that in their award letters. </p>
<p>A word of caution … when you are at the top of the Pell table, you have to have at least 12 credits to get any payment in a term.</p>
<p>Well, that would explain it but why the heck aren’t the tables updated? That’s not a hard thing to do. Unless there is something about the 13-14 tables that aren’t legally finalized yet.</p>
<p>Apparently, it IS a difficult thing to do. There was an answer to this question on the financial aid listserve this week - the feds are still in the process of updating everything related to the new Pell tables (it’s more than just fixing a few numbers on a page). There are other systems that have be updated, too, and it all has to work together.</p>