Everyone knows what a Pell Grant is; free money from the government for your education!  But how do you know whether or not you are eligible for a Pell Grant?

Determining Eligibility to Apply for a Pell Grant

There are lots of websites that promise to tell you if you are eligible for a Pell Grant (for a price of course!) but don’t be taken in.  Determining your Pell Grant eligibility is not rocket science, and you do not have to pay for it.

Pell Grants were created to help students who couldn’t otherwise afford college a means to be able to meet their tuition requirements, so keep in mind that your current financial status is going to play a big part in determining if you are eligible for a Pell Grant.  But first there are some specific eligibility requirements that all applicants need to be able to show.

• First, you must be an undergraduate student working on your first undergraduate degree
• Second, you must not be incarcerated in a state or federal penitentiary
• Third, you must have a social security number
• Fourth, you must be a United States Citizen or an eligible non-citizen
• Fifth, you must provide proof of a high school degree or GED certificate
• Sixth,  you have to be working towards a qualified degree program at an eligible school
• Seventh, you must demonstrate acceptable academic progress
• Eighth, if you are a male you must be registered with the US Selective Service
• Ninth, you may NOT be eligible if you have been convicted of illegal drug use while you were receiving federal student aid.
• Tenth, you have to sign a statement certifying that you will use any money received ONLY for education purposes and that you are not currently in default for any student loans or own any refunds.

And this is just to be able to apply for a Pell Grant.  Once you have applied, it is then determined if you are financially eligible to receive the Pell Grant.

Determining Financial Eligibility for a Pell Grant

In order to determine if you are eligible for a Pell Grant you are going to need to apply for a Pell Grant through the FAFSA website:  http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/

The application is going to require that you enter a good deal of personal information including your own income and that of your parents if you are still a dependant.  This information is then fed into a specific formula that is used to determine eligibility.  This formula is based on financial need, cost of attendance and expected family contribution.  The formula reads as follows:

Financial Need = Cost of Attendance – Expected Family Contribution

Cost of attendance is the easy part.  The school you plan on attending has set tuition costs that can be plugged into this particular spot.  Family contributions are rather arbitrary and are determined primarily on your parent’s ability to contribute to your education.  This amount is based off of the previous year’s tax return information.  The less your parents make (or the more dependent siblings you have) the less will be the expected family contribution and the larger will be your financial need and the larger your financial need the more money you are eligible to receive from the government towards your education.

When the FAFSA form calculates your eligibility it assigns numbers to each of these sections.  If your Expected Family Contribution falls below 5,273 for the year you can expect to be eligible for some Pell Grant money for that academic year.