New Law to Limit Number of Pell Grant Award Years

PALIKIR, Pohnpei (May 11, 2012) – The College’s Financial Aid Director announced that the U.S. changed a law that will affect student Federal Pell Grant award for the 2012-2013 school year and beyond.

According to Director Ignatius Haleyalig, the change limits the total number of years a student may receive Pell Grant to the equivalent of six years. Since the maximum amount of Pell Grant funding a student can receive each year is equal to 100%, the six-year equivalent is 600%.

Students who have filed 2012-2013 FAFSA will receive a letter from U.S. Department of Education regarding their Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU) status. If they have received more than 500% but less 600%, DOE will alert them that they have less amounts to receive in 2012-2013.

Student who have received 600% or more will receive a letter informing them that they have already received six years of Pell Grant funding and are no longer eligible to receive Pell Grant, starting in 2012-2013 school year.

This new policy will have a big impact on students who were enrolled in 2009-20010 through 2010-2011 and received 1^st and 2^nd Pell Grant. It was possible for student to receive up to two scheduled awards in a year. Therefore, some students will have a “percent used” of up to 200% for one or more of those years.

The following table shows example of LEUs of three students who received differing amounts of their scheduled awards over a four year period. The two years with two Pell is not factored into these examples.

The Financial Aid Office staff will provide a series of Workshop this summer to explain this new Policy and the Satisfactory Academic Progress in detail.

For more information, please contact the Financial Aid Office at 320-2480 or visit any of our campuses.