Finding Your Pell Grant Status
Finding Your Pell Grant Status
If you’re a student seeking financial aid, your Pell Grant status is probably on your mind quite a bit. Fortunately, the government makes it easy to find out where you are in terms of your eligibility and your Pell Grant status for this type of lending. Remember that this is one of the best forms of lending—grants don’t have to be repaid—so there is plenty of competition out there for it. It is disbursed based on need, so you’re actually in a better position if you have a low income and a low expected family contribution toward your tuition.
You FAFSA And Pell Grant Status
Your Free Application for Federal Student Aid will have to have been filled out before you’ll know whether or not you’ll get this form of lending. Once this is filled out, you can submit it by mail or, preferably, you can submit it electronically. When you open up an account with the government’s financial aid site, you’ll be given a PIN that will allow you to get in and check out the Pell Grant status of your loans, grants, scholarships and deferments, if required, at any time you need. You’ll get your results for Pell Grant status on your loan faster than this, however.
When you apply for federal funding online, your Pell Grant status will be delivered to you by email the first business day after you apply. You’ll be able to check it right away to determine where you stand. Your grant will be among the types of federal funding listing on your SAR—your Student Aid Report—which will give you all the details as far as funding goes. In addition to your Pell Grant status, this report will let you know about PLUS loans and all the other types of student lending out there that may be available to you. This is the best tool to have at your fingertips.
Your Pell Grant Amount And Keeping Track Of Your Pell Grant Status
The Pell Grant amount that you’re awarded will depend upon your need. This will be determined by assessing your expected family contribution, your status at the school and the amount of money it costs to go to the school of your choice. In the future, your progress toward your degree and your grades will also play a part in continuing your student aid, so you have to make sure you maintain adequate progress as you go through your school.
There are formulas used to determine your total Pell Grant amount over which you have no control. These grants are really designed to help those most in need, so you may not get much of a Pell Grant if you happen to have a family that can contribute a lot to your education. If you have a high income yourself, this will also diminish your amount.
Your Pell Grant status can be checked at any time using the PIN number provided by the government and by accessing your SAR. As you continue on through school, you’ll want to make sure that you consider this type of funding as one of the most desirable. You can always get loans, in most cases, but grants and scholarships are much more economical ways to fund your education due to the fact that there is no repayment requirement.
If you need help with your FAFSA, you can contact your college’s financial aid office. They can help you to make sure that you fill in the right information and that you provide accurate figures for your costs of attendance. Your Pell grant amount will be the maximum available if you were a full- or part-time student or under the age of 24 and lost a parent due to military service after September 11, 2001. Just keep track of your Pell Grant status so you always know if anything else is expected of you!