EFC Determines Your Pell Grant Eligibility

EFC means expected family contribution. This determines the eligibility of a student for college scholarships. The family’s financial history is looked into to estimate how much they can spend on their children’s education. Accordingly the federal government decides on the amount of money that will be awarded to the student. Since the Pell grant award is free money, EFC is looked into. If the student has already availed him or herself ofany loans or grants then his financial history is also taken into consideration.

Once EFC is calculated then the student will know exactly how much he/she is entitled to. Then he needs to fill fafsa application that is freely available at the government FAFSA site. On verification of all the details given in the fafsa form by the student, his scholarship is given to him/her. The family’s annual income, expenses, assets if any, how much tax is paid annually are all taken into consideration to arrive at Pell grant award.

There are online calculators available that will help you in knowing the dollar amount for this scholarship. Log on to the websites that offer online information regarding Pell Grant awards to know exactly how much you will need to enroll for any particular college. This is given only for citizens of America. International students do not qualify for the award.

The lower your efc, the more your award will be. For example; if your family can contribute $100 towards your education then the scholarship amount will be more. Say if your efc is $2000 then your awardt will be considerably less. The responsibility of efc first rests with the student and then parents. Each student is awarded with a different amount of free money through the grant, depending upon the EFC of the individual. The colleges look into this case by case and not on a unanimous basis.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 30th, 2009 at 12:14 am and is filed under General | . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “EFC Determines Your Pell Grant Eligibility”

  1. phillis cole Says:
    July 7th, 2010 at 11:26 pm

    I am a young 63 yr old woman.Need help with financing of a vehicle,housing & getting back to school to get a better job.My husband(ex) left me high & dry with “nothing” I wan to move to Lexington Ky near my son any thoughts? thanx for your help

  2. Khailil Fareed Says:
    August 15th, 2010 at 7:09 pm

    I am 50 years old. I have 6 college hours from Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL

    I need 6 more college credit hours to qualify the Minority Journalism Scholarship Program at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.

    Do I qualify for a Pell Grant?

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