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The Pell Grant Calculator and Your FAFSA EFC...Compare College Costs

This Pell grant calculator uses the new, revised April 2010-2011 payment schedule to determine awards.

The calculator is most useful if you've completed your Pell grant application.

At this point you should know your FAFSA EFC (given at the end of the Pell grant form) and have some idea of your cost of attendance (CoA).

Find out your award amount and start figuring out if it will be enough, or whether you will need college loans.

To use the Pell grant calculator you must have Javascript enabled. Simply enter your EFC number, the school's cost of attendance for one year and choose an enrollment status.

These figures are based on the April 2010 payment and disbursement schedules for Pell Grant awards, for the 2010-2011 school year. They are different from the January 2010 schedules which had to be changed because of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. There is:

no change from January for a student whose Cost of Attendance is equal to or greater than $5,550 and whose EFC is between zero and 4617

now an award for those students with an EFC of between 4618 and 5273 and whose Cost of Attendance is equal to or greater than $5,550

still an award, but a lesser amount (than calculated in January) for students whose Cost of Attendance is less than $5,550

What do you think of these federal Pell grant changes?

Financial aid officers have some leeway in determining your award. It is the schools that set their cost of attendance and they can adjust your financial aid award under certain circumstances to increase your Pell grant amounts. Likewise, it is the schools who determine whether you are meeting the Pell grant requirements so that you can continue to get your awards every year.

Some of the changes for 2010-11 are:

maximum award increased to $5,550

minimum award is $555

Federal Pell grant eligibility now extends to a second award within the year for a summer session. You can use the Pell grant calculator to figure out what this award will be if the number of credit hours is different from your first award.

If you are thinking about college and you are wondering if you can afford it, well that is what a Pell grant is for. If you know that Pell grant eligibility is not a problem and you meet the qualifications, then start figuring out what you can get.

The calculator can be useful if you want to compare college costs to see if one school would qualify you for a higher amount than another.

It may also help you decide whether to go to school full-time or part-time. If you are already receiving Pell grants and you want to see how much you would get if you (for instance) switched to part-time, this tool will tell you.

You can also use it to check an award amount given by your school, to make sure it is right. And in this economic recession, you can use it in your personal budgeting to make a decision about a college loan.

If you use a different Pell grant calculator, it may not be based on 2010-2011 figures. One way to tell if a calculator is using the latest data is to see if there is an option for "less than halftime". The 2009-2010 school year was the first time that Pell grants were able to be used for this type of enrollment.

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