Pell Grants

[Collegelady2]

You'll be eligible up to 90 credits at a CC. Try to squeeze in those last 10.

Is that 90 credits of financial aid used or because my parents paid for most of the credits I have I could use for more than the 90?

[videogamesrock]

No it's for 90 credits total with or without prior fafsa. Once you exceed 90 credits you have to transfer to a 4 year school to continue.

[Collegelady2]

No it's for 90 credits total with or without prior fafsa. Once you exceed 90 credits you have to transfer to a 4 year school to continue.

I'm also way above that number if you count all the courses/credits i failed lol

[videogamesrock]

Failed credits are not counted, and ACE and other alternative are not either.

[cookderosa]

You can enroll anywhere as a "special status" student and take a few classes to send to TESU, they won't ask for your transcripts. You'll have to pay cash to do that, you won't be able to use Pell.

You can use Pell at only 1 school, and you won't get the most bang for your buck at TESU, so you have to do the math to see if it's worth it. I used a Pell back when I attended TESU.

What you CAN do is find the cheapest CC possible, apply as a degree-seeking student. Assume you find something priced at $70/credit and enroll full time 12 credits. If you qualify for full Pell, that's just a hair under $6000, so they'll kick the overage back to you as a check, split between 2 semesters. ($70x12=840 tuition) 1/2 Pell ~3000 minus 840 = roughly 2160 refunded to you (twice). You can use that money to pay whatever you want- TESU, books, CLEP, etc. because it's literally just cash. The numbers of course are just estimates, but if you run the various scenarios, you might find one that makes sense for you. In the end, you have to be degree-seeking somewhere to get the Pell.

[Ideas]

I am doing the Pell Grant overage which Cookderosa wrote about, with an online community college, but it's been harder than I expected. I think a person might be better off working more hours to pay for school instead, but everyone's situation is different.

For anyone considering it, I believe the most you will get in a semester is $1600, if you do it online and aren't a resident of one of the cheap states. In most states, I don't think residents can get a better deal at their local B&M school either. The states that are best are California, New Mexico, Texas, probably Arizona, and probably Kansas. Perhaps there are others.

Edit: To clarify, I mean $1600 after paying for the cheapest classes/books/etc. However, if you wanted to fail the classes, you could get a little more, but it doesn't seem like a good idea.

[rlw74]

Prior financial aid rep here...
You will have to be enrolled for a minimum number of hours to qualify for a pell grant.
You will have to be considered "degree-seeking" but that doesn't mean you have to get a degree from that school. You can transfer those courses to TESU when you are done and still be considered degree seeking according to FAFSA. The CC may look at your transcripts though and if you already have most everything for a degree with them they may set limits on what you can take.

Another thing to note, TESU will only take so many hours from a CC and those courses will all be LL. You might be getting pretty close to some of the limits and just wasting time taking classes you don't need. A lot depends on what transferred in, what you still need, if you need UL or LL courses and if you are getting close to your limit of CC credits. It might be cheaper to go the route of CC, another 4 year school in your area or just pay for those through testing/SL/study or others.

[Ideas]

Prior financial aid rep here...

Can you give information about certificates and the Pell Grant, or does it vary a lot by school or specific certificate?

[rlw74]

I think it depends on the school and what they mean by "certificate". At the time I worked at a community college we didn't have certificate only programs. We did have nursing, medical transcription, fire academy etc but all of those students were required to complete a series of General Education courses. So technically they weren't "certificate only" students.

Regarding being "degree-seeking". It was automatically assumed, as long as you didn't already have a degree, you were considered degree-seeking. Even now the definition is
"Federal Pell Grants usually are awarded only to undergraduate students who have not earned a bachelor's or a professional degree" and "Once you have earned a baccalaureate degree or your first professional degree, or have used up all 12 semesters of your eligibility, you are no longer eligible to receive a Federal Pell Grant." (https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grant...ships/pell). Most students did not declare majors in CC. Most students changed their course of study many times. Most students transferred to a 4 year college without ever completing an associate degrees. So we couldn't exactly hold anyone to being "degree seeking". BUT...

Where a student is held to something is with the government guidelines that govern the Pell Grant - there are lifetime limits (currently 12 semesters total). There are max amounts (currently $5815 per year) and this is calculated based on the cost of attendance, EFC, and full-time vs part-time status - so that $5815 is the max only if you qualify for it. There is a scale that is used. This helps prevent someone from enrolling in a 1 credit class and collecting the full amount and just coasting by for an unlimited number of semesters. Student loans have further guidelines which can place restrictions on a student if they fail to maintain a certain grade point average or make satisfactory academic progress.

Before pursuing a "certificate" only program you would 1) need to do this BEFORE you get an undergrad degree and 2) check with the school to see if the program is financial aid eligible.

[EI2HCB]

In my community College you need to declare a degree, mine is accounting, but I just got a bookkeeping certificate based on the credits I've taken as part of the degree, and Financial aid paid for half of it.