The Pell Grant is a federal grant that is awarded annually to students that may have difficulty paying for college, and if you want to be able to qualify it is imperative that you first gain an understanding of the general aspects of the Pell Grant, in combination with how eligibility for the award is established.
General Pell Grant Information
The Pell Grant is awarded on an annual basis, and can provide you with up to 5,550 dollars of funding for the 2010-11 school year. Most students however don’t qualify for the full Pell Grant amount, and instead receive about half of the maximum set amount for that school year. Because it is a grant, it never has to be paid back, and because it is one of the major forms of federal aid that is available to college students, you can apply by filling out a FAFSA.
The FAFSA, or Free Application for Student Aid, is the universal application for federal aid, and by submitting one by the appropriate deadlines you will automatically be putting yourself in the running for the vast array of federal aid that is available, including the Pell Grant. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get the award, or even become eligible, it only means that your information will at least be taken into consideration and evaluated to see if you can in fact become eligible.
Financial Need and EFC
The major thing that will determine your eligibility for the Pell Grant is your financial need, and the way this is determined by the Department of Education is via the calculation of the EFC. Your EFC, or expected family contribution is supposed to serve as a clear indicator of how much money your family can devote towards your college education for that school year, and the lower it is, the greater the likelihood you’ll become eligible for the Pell Grant.
The cutoff threshold for the 2010-11 school year is now set at 5,273 and if your EFC is lower than this figure then you should be able to become eligible provided that you satisfy the other Pell Grant requirements that are necessary to qualify.
Litany of Pell Grant Requirements
The most important of these have to do with your status as a United States citizen, whether or not you possess a high-school diploma, or GED, and whether or not you are able to provide a valid social security number. The school you are attending must be participating in the Pell Grant program, and you must be an undergraduate student in a degree-oriented curriculum, (although certain professional graduate programs do qualify).
You must be making satisfactory academic progress as defined by your school, as this will be evaluated on a semester by semester basis. Having a drug conviction while receiving federal student aid may negate your eligibility, although this requirement isn’t set in stone, and will be evaluated via a separate worksheet. Finally it is critical that you have never defaulted on a federal student loan in the past, or owe money on any past federal grants, as these may disqualify you from becoming eligible for the Pell Grant.
Once you have satisfied these requirements along with having the appropriate EFC you should be able to qualify for the Pell Grant, and it will then be up to your school, along with other factors such as your enrollment status, and cost of attendance, when determining the actual amount you are able to receive for that particular school year.
