Pell Grant Amounts Up-
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| Maximum Pell Grant Amounts | |
| Full time | $5,550 |
| Three-Quarter time | $4,163 |
| Half time | $2,775 |
| Less than half time | $1,388 |
If you know what your EFC number is, you can compare award amounts at different schools (with different CoA's) using the Pell grant calculator. Or you can see how your award changes depending on the number of credit hours you take.
Changes that have taken place in the past year have increased Pell grant eligibility to the extent that it is projected that 1 million more students will qualify for an award in 2010 than in 2009.
And the amount of the award will continue to go up. The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HCERA) (signed into law on March 30,2010) freezes the current Pell grant amounts for two years. After that, increases will be linked to the Consumer Price Index. As the cost of living rises, so will these grants.
This bill also increases highest allowable EFC number for Pell grant qualifications for 2010-2011. The new threshold is an EFC of 5273. Thousands of students who just missed qualifying will now be able to collect an award.
| The Congressional Budget Office has projected that mandatory spending increases on Pell grants will amount to $374 billion over the next ten years. |
By 2019, the maximum award is projected to be $5,975.
One of the reasons that more students are qualifying for higher awards now, is shown here:
Before 2007, in order to qualify for the highest award, your cost of attendance had to meet or exceed that amount. But when Congress started increasing the grants, they allowed the cost of attendance to be lower than the maximum award. So it is easier to qualify for more money and schools have no reason to raise their tuition based on higher Pell awards.
Although the college tuition rate has gone up far more than the award amount has, what a Pell grant is supposed to do is provide lower income students with a base of financial aid that can be added to using other grants, scholarships, work-aid and low-cost loans.
The 2010-2011 Pell grant application also allows students (or parents) who have recently lost their jobs, to indicate this on the form. An award can then be given to them, even if their financial information for 2009 would not qualify them for one.
After you fill out the Pell grant form you will get an estimate of your award amount based on your financial information and the schools you have listed. It will say "an award up to..." If (later on) you choose a school with a lower cost of attendance or if you decide to go less than full-time, this amount will be scaled back.
It is also possible that your federal Pell grant eligibility will qualify you for up to double your yearly award amount, if you enroll in a summer session.
Pell grant amounts are going up even though the requirements for renewal of these awards stays the same. More students will be able to use these grants instead of or in addition to college loans.return from Pell grant amounts to Pell grant main
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