Awarding Pell Grants

This chapter discusses how to:

• Award Pell Grants for the 2009 and prior aid years.

• Award Pell Grants for the 2010 and future aid years.

Awarding Pell Grants for the 2009 and Prior Aid Years

This section provides an overview of Pell Grant awarding for the 2009 and prior aid years and discusses how to:

• Define Pell eligibility calculation setup.

• Calculate Pell Grants.

• Reinstate a cancelled Pell Grant award.

• Award Pell Grants for post-baccalaureate teaching certificate candidates.

Understanding Pell Grant Awarding

This section discusses Pell Grant Awarding for the 2009 and prior aid years.

Note. Beginning with the 2010 aid year, the system calculates Pell Grant differently. This section discusses awarding Pell Grants for the 2009 and prior aid years. For information on awarding Pell Grants for 2010 and future aid years:

See Awarding Pell Grants for the 2010 and Future Aid Years.

The Pell Grant awarding functionality automatically calculates students' Pell Grant awards based on their primary EFC, Pell COA, Pell COA for less than half-time (Pell LTHT), and enrollment (FA Load or Current Load). The system calculates the Pell Grant for each term, then sums each term's amount to give an annual Pell Grant award amount. As part of your setup, you can choose to use full-time enrollment, part-time enrollment, the student's actual FA Load value, or the student's Current Load value (which takes into account current and completed Open Entry/Open Exit session) as the enrollment value. You can also choose to calculate the student's Pell Grant eligibility using a different default enrollment value at different points in the term: before the term's start date, on or after the term's start date but before the financial aid census date, and on or after the financial aid census date.

When entering a Pell Grant manually on the Student Aid Package page, you can leave the award amount at zero. When you click the Validation button, the system automatically calculates the Pell Grant award according to the Pell eligibility calculation defined in your setup.

Defining Pell Eligibility Calculation Setup

You must complete the Pell eligibility calculation (PEC) setup for your Pell Grants to be properly calculated. The PEC setup involves defining the default enrollment value to use when calculating the student's Pell eligibility: before the term's start date, on or after the term's start date but before the financial aid census date, and on or after the financial aid census date. Having different default enrollment values for these three points in time gives you flexibility in projecting and awarding Pell Grants. You can calculate a student's Pell Grant using a projected enrollment value for the period prior to the term start date, such as full time or half-time. Then when the student's term begins, you can recalculate the student's Pell Grant award using the student's actual enrollment (FA Load or Current Load). The Financial Aid Term build process determines the student's FA Load using the units in the FA Taken field. The FA Load field is one of the fields you can lock using census-date locking. Current Load calculates the student's enrollment load using the units from sessions the student is currently enrolled in as well as sessions within the term that the student has already completed. This field enables you to calculate the enrollment load of Open Entry/Open Exit students more accurately. Finally, if you use census-date locking, you may want to use the census date locked value (FA Load) for any Pell recalculations that occur after the financial aid census date.

Note. If a term does not have a financial aid census date established, the Pell recalculation process uses the academic census date (defined in PeopleSoft Student Records).

The fields that define your PEC setup are the Academic Base Weeks, Non-Standard Base Weeks, Pell Calculation Start, Pell Calculation Midterm, Pell Calculation Census, and Pell Number of Terms fields.

Financial Aid Defaults Page

First, you must establish your PEC setup on the Financial Aid Defaults page. Because the values you enter on this page are used as installation level defaults, the values you enter on this page should be the values you want to use for most (or all as appropriate) of your undergraduate programs. For the Academic Base Weeks and Non-Standard Base Weeks fields, enter the information that represents the standard weeks of instruction for terms in the Academic Award Period (AAP) and Non-Standard Award Period (NSAP), respectively. In the Pell Number of Terms field, enter the number of terms in the academic year—2 for semesters, 3 for trimesters/quarters. This value equals the number of terms in the AAP, but depends upon your institution's academic program business processes. The Packaging routine uses the Pell number of terms to split the Pell Grant evenly among terms when you choose either Full Time or Half Time for a Pell calculation field.

In the Pell Calculation Start field, enter Full Time, Half Time, Current Load, or FA Load. Entering Full Time or Half Time projects the student's enrollment as either full-time or half-time prior to the student's term start date. If you enter Enrollment Current Load or Enrollment FA Load, the Pell calculation uses actual enrollment information.

In the Pell Calculation Midterm field, enter Enrollment Current Load or Enrollment FA Load to use the student's actual enrollment information or enter Full Time or Half Time to project the students' financial aid load. If your students are enrolled in Open Entry/Open Exit sessions or your institution supports dynamic dating using Student Records, use Enrollment Current Load because this field value gives a precise picture of the student's academic progress through multiple sessions in a term.

In the Pell Calculation Census field, select Enrollment FA Load. This field value directs the Pell calculation to use the financial aid load calculated on or after the census date.

Careers That Vary from Installation Level Defaults

For careers that require a different PEC setup than specified on the Financial Aid Defaults page, create an aid processing rule set with the required PEC setup for those careers. You create aid processing rule sets on the Aid Processing Rule Setup page; the fields for PEC setup on this page correspond to those on the Financial Aid Defaults page. Then you assign aid processing rule sets on the Valid Careers for Aid Year page to only those careers that need a PEC setup that differs from the installation level default. If two careers require the same PEC setup (which differs from the installation level default setup), create only one aid processing rule set and assign it to both careers.

Note. You do not need to create an aid processing rule set for every career. You do not need to assign an aid processing rule set to every career on the Valid Careers for Aid Year page. If you do not specify an aid processing rule set on the Valid Careers for Aid Year page, the Packaging routine uses the installation defaults for PEC.

For example, you may want to create an aid processing rule set for a career that has academic program weeks of instruction greater or less than the standard weeks of instruction at the installation default level. On the Aid Processing Rule Setup page, you would specify the values for the weeks of instruction in the Academic Base Weeks and Non-Standard Base Weeks fields for these careers. Fill out all fields in the aid processing rule set.

See Creating Aid Processing Rule Sets.

Academic Programs That Vary from Career Level Defaults

For academic programs that require a different PEC setup than specified at the career or installation level, create an aid processing rule set with the required PEC setup. Then you assign aid processing rule sets to only those academic programs that require a PEC setup different from the career or installation level default on the Valid Programs for Aid Year page. If two academic programs require the same PEC setup, create only one aid processing rule set and assign it to both academic programs.

For programs, the Pell number of terms that you enter on the Aid Processing Rule Setup page must match the Pell number of terms at the career level.

Note. You do not need to create an aid processing rule set for every career/program combination. You do not need to enter every program on the Valid Programs for Aid Year page. If you do not specify an aid processing rule set on the Valid Programs for Aid Year page, the Packaging routine uses the career or installation level defaults for PEC.

Individual Students Requiring Overrides to Default Values

Access a student's Pell Calculation Eligibility Student Override page (Financial Aid, View Packaging Status Summary) and click on the Pell Calculation Override link after querying a student.

Note. For a complete description of the PEC Student Override page:

See Overriding Pell Eligibility Calculation Setup Values.

See Also

Overriding Census Date Locking

Calculating Pell Grants

When the Packaging routine calculates the student's Pell Grant (whether you are packaging the student using Manual Packaging, Auto Packaging, or Mass Packaging), it first determines the PEC setup values to use. Because PEC setup defaults can be at the program, career, or installation level, the Packaging routine checks for defaults in the following order to ensure that the proper aid processing rules are used:

1. Aid processing rule set associated with the student's program.

2. Aid processing rule set associated with the student's career.

3. Installation defaults specified on the Financial Aid Defaults page.

Note. If the student has override values, those values take precedence over all other default values.

After determining the correct PEC values to use, the Packaging routine compares the current (system) date against the term start date (earliest session start date) and the financial aid census date. After the Packaging routine identifies the current date in relation to these dates, it calculates the student's Pell Grant term by term using the enrollment specified in the appropriate Pell calculation field (Pell Calculation Start, Pell Calculation Midterm, or Pell Calculation Census). Using the Pell COA, Pell LTHT or alternate Pell COA, appropriate weeks of instruction, the student's nine-month EFC, and the appropriate Pell Grant disbursement Schedule based on the enrollment value, the routine determines the term Pell Grant amount for the student.

The Packaging routine repeats this process for each term in the student's academic program, and adds the individual term amounts to determine the student's annual Pell award. For the Enrollment Current Load and Enrollment FA Load values, the routine disregards the split codes assigned to the Pell Grant financial aid item type and returns a split code of XX to indicate a custom split. For the Full Time and Half Time values, the routine derives a per term award amount by determining the annual Pell award using the appropriate Pell Grant disbursement schedule and dividing that amount by the Pell Number of Terms value.

Example

A student attends a semester-based institution, and is an undergraduate in the liberal arts academic program. Neither the student's program nor career have defaults that differ from the installation defaults. The student's annual Pell COA is 5,450.00 and the primary EFC is 154.00. According to the Federal Pell Grant Schedule, the student receives an annual award of 3,150.00 if enrolled full-time, an annual award of 2,363.00 if enrolled three-quarter time, and an annual award of 1,575.00 if enrolled half-time.

The student is first awarded a Pell Grant on March 1, 2000. To calculate the student's Pell Grant amount, the Packaging routine first determines whether PEC setup values exist at the student override level and then the academic program level for the student. After the routine determines that no aid processing rule set is attached to the liberal arts academic program, it checks for career level defaults. Because no aid processing rule set is assigned to the undergraduate career, it uses the installation defaults. The Pell calculation fields on the Financial Aid Defaults page have the following values:

The Packaging routine now compares the current date (March 1, 2000) against the term start date and census date to determine which enrollment value to use when calculating the student's Pell Grant:

Because the current date is before the term start date for both semesters, the Packaging routine uses the Pell Calculation Start value for enrollment, Full-Time. The student's Pell Grant award is 3,150.00 for the aid year, with a term amount of 1,575.00 for both terms.

The following table shows how the student's Pell Grant award changes as you recalculate the student's Pell Grant eligibility at different points in the aid year. The student's current load value after the census date is three-quarter time in fall and is half-time in spring. All amounts are in :

Reinstating a Canceled Pell Grant Award

Before reinstating a previously canceled Pell Grant, you must change the custom split code from XX to a valid disbursement split code for the student. You can then click the Validation button to recalculate the Pell Grant amount. After you recalculate the Pell Grant amount, you must remember to post it before leaving the award entry page.

Awarding Pell Grants for Post-Baccalaureate Teaching Certificate Candidates

For the 2001 aid year and subsequent aid years, a student who has earned a bachelor's degree and is pursuing an initial teaching certification or licensing credential that does not lead to a graduate degree is eligible for a Pell Grant for that aid year. The Packaging process determines the eligibility for this type of student by evaluating the following fields:

If a student is pursuing a teaching credential and has a bachelor's degree and the student's NSLDS loan year is not graduate, then the Packaging process evaluates the student for a Pell Grant for the 2001 aid year and subsequent aid years.

If a student is not pursuing a teaching credential but has a bachelor's degree and the student's NSLDS loan year is not graduate, then the Packaging process does not evaluate the student for a Pell Grant for the 2001 aid year and subsequent aid years.

Awarding Pell Grants for the 2010 and Future Aid Years

This section provides an overview of Pell Grant awarding for the 2010 and future award years and discusses how to:

• Define Pell eligibility calculation setup.

• Define Aggregate Aid Limit Percentage Maximums for Pell Grant.

• Calculate Pell Grants.

• Repackage Pell Grants.

• Manually award Pell Grants.

• Award Pell Grants using professional judgment.

• Reinstate a cancelled Pell Grant award.

• Award Pell Grants for post-baccalaureate teaching certificate candidates.

Understanding Pell Grant Awarding

Note. Beginning with the 2010 aid year, the system calculates Pell Grant differently from 2009 and prior aid years. This section discusses awarding Pell Grants for the 2010 and future aid years. For information on awarding Pell Grants for 2009 and prior aid years:

See Awarding Pell Grants for the 2009 and Prior Aid Years.

The Pell Grant awarding functionality automatically calculates a Pell Grant award based on a student's:

• Maximum Scheduled Award

• Pell Grant Formula and Enrollment

• Total Percent Used

Maximum Scheduled Award

The system determines a student's maximum scheduled Pell Grant (full-time, full-year Pell Grant award) by using:

• Expected Family Contribution (EFC)

  The student's 9–month EFC from a valid Institutional Student Information Report (ISIR)

• Pell Grant Cost of Attendance (COA)

  The student's Pell COA or Pell COA for Less-Than-Half-Time (LTHT)

  Note. If the student is enrolled only in terms tied to the Academic Award Period, Packaging uses the Academic Pell COA for determining Pell Grant awards.
  
  If the student is enrolled in terms tied to both the Academic and Non-Standard Award Periods, Packaging uses the Academic Pell COA for determining Pell Grant awards.
  
  If the student is enrolled only in terms tied to Non-Standard Award Period, Packaging uses the Non-Standard Pell COA for determining Pell Grant awards.

  See Defining Budget Components.

The system uses the student's EFC and Pell COA to determine the student's maximum scheduled Pell Grant award from the U.S. Department's Full-time Pell Grant payment schedule for the appropriate aid year.

Pell Grant Formula and Enrollment

These Pell Grant Formula options are available:

• Formula 1 — FA Load

• Formula 1 — Full-time

• Formula 3 — FA Load

• Formula 3 — Current Load

• Formula 3 — Full-time

Among the formula options, there are three enrollment values used:

• FA Load

  The Financial Aid Term build process determines the student's FA Load using the units in the FA Taken field. The FA Load field can be locked using census-date locking. If you use census-date locking, you may want to use the census date locked value (FA Load) for any Pell recalculations that occur after the financial aid census date.

• Current Load

  Current Load calculates the student's enrollment load using the units from sessions the student is currently enrolled (In Progress value from FA Term) in as well as sessions within the term that the student has already completed (Completed value from FA Term). This field enables you to calculate the enrollment load of Open Entry/Open Exit students more accurately.

• Full-time

  The student's full-time enrollment is assumed.

You can choose to calculate the student's Pell Grant eligibility using different default enrollment values for different points in time in relation to the term:

• before the term's start date,

• on or after the term's start date but before the financial aid census date, and

• on or after the financial aid census date.

Having different values for these three points in time gives you flexibility in calculating Pell Grant awards. For example, for Formula 1, you can calculate a student's Pell Grant using a projected full-time enrollment value for the period prior to the term start date. Then when the student's term begins, you can recalculate the student's Pell Grant award using the student's actual enrollment (FA Load).

Note. If a term does not have a financial aid census date established, the Pell recalculation process uses the academic census date (defined in Student Records).

See Defining Pell Eligibility Calculation (PEC) Setup.

See Pell Grant Formula Examples.

See Pell Grant Point–in–Time Examples.

Total Percent Used

The amount of Pell Grant the system can award a student also takes into account the percentage of a student's maximum scheduled Pell Grant award that has already been used. The system uses the Percent Scheduled Used from a student's incoming Aggregate Aid Data and any existing Pell Grant awards packaged by the system for the aid year to calculate the Total Percent Used.

The Percent Scheduled Used is populated by the NSLDS Data Push process but can also be overridden manually.

Since students can receive two maximum scheduled Pell Grant awards in a single award year, you must define the maximum scheduled award percentage for First Pell (Pell1) and Second Pell (Pell2) in the Aggregate Aid Limit Setup.

See Defining Aggregate Aid Limit Percentage Maximums for Pell Grants.

See Step 3.

Defining Pell Eligibility Calculation (PEC) Setup

You must complete the Pell eligibility calculation (PEC) setup for your Pell Grants to be properly calculated. PEC setup is done at the institution defaults level and be overridden at the academic career, academic program, and student levels.

The fields that define your PEC setup are:

• Academic Base Weeks

• Non-Standard Base Weeks

• Pell 3 Academic Weeks Only

• Pell Calculation Start

• Pell Calculation Midterm

• Pell Calculation Census

• Pell Number of Terms

Defining PEC at the Institution Level

Access the Financial Aid Defaults page (Set Up SACR, Install, Financial Aid Installation, Financial Aid Defaults).

Because the values you enter on this page are used as installation level defaults, they should be the values you want to use for most of your undergraduate programs.

Note. For a complete description of this page:

See Establishing Defaults.

Overriding PEC at the Career Level

Access the Aid Processing Rule Setup page (Set Up SACR, Product Related, Financial Aid, Aid Year, Aid Processing Rule Setup) and the Valid Careers for Aid Year page (Set Up SACR, Product Related, Financial Aid, Aid Year, Valid Careers for Aid Year).

Note. For a complete description of the Aid Processing Rule Setup page:

See Creating Aid Processing Rule Sets.

Note. For a complete description of the Valid Careers for Aid Year page:

See Listing Valid Careers for the Aid Year.

For careers that require a different PEC setup than specified on the Financial Aid Defaults page, create an aid processing rule set with the required PEC setup for those careers. You create aid processing rule sets on the Aid Processing Rule Setup page; the fields for PEC setup on this page correspond to those on the Financial Aid Defaults page. Then you assign aid processing rule sets on the Valid Careers for Aid Year page to only those careers that need a PEC setup that differs from the installation level default. If two careers require the same PEC setup (which differs from the installation level default setup), create only one aid processing rule set and select it for each career.

Note. You do not need to create an aid processing rule set for every career. You do not need to assign an aid processing rule set to every career on the Valid Careers for Aid Year page. If you do not specify an aid processing rule set on the Valid Careers for Aid Year page, the Packaging routine uses the installation defaults for PEC.

For example, you may want to create an aid processing rule set for a career where the Base Weeks of Instruction is greater or less than the Base Weeks of instruction at the installation default level. On the Aid Processing Rule Setup page, you would specify the values for the weeks of instruction in the Academic Base Weeks and Non-Standard Base Weeks fields for these careers. Fill out all fields in the aid processing rule set.

Overriding PEC at the Program Level

Access the Aid Processing Rule Setup page (Set Up SACR, Product Related, Financial Aid, Aid Year, Aid Processing Rule Setup) and the Valid Programs for Aid Year and Career page (Set Up SACR, Product Related, Financial Aid, Aid Year, Valid Programs for Aid Year).

Note. For a complete description of the Aid Processing Rule Setup page:

See Creating Aid Processing Rule Sets.

Note. For a complete description of the Valid Programs for Aid Year and Career page:

See Defining Valid Programs for Aid Year and Career.

For academic programs that require a different PEC setup than specified at the career or installation level, create an aid processing rule set with the required PEC setup; the fields for PEC setup on this page correspond to those on the Financial Aid Defaults page. Then you assign aid processing rule sets to only those academic programs that require a PEC setup different from the career or installation level default on the Valid Programs for Aid Year page. If two academic programs require the same PEC setup, create only one aid processing rule set and assign it to both academic programs.

For programs, the Pell number of terms that you enter on the Aid Processing Rule Setup page must match the Pell number of terms at the career level.

Note. You do not need to create an aid processing rule set for every career/program combination. You do not need to enter every program on the Valid Programs for Aid Year page. If you do not specify an aid processing rule set on the Valid Programs for Aid Year page, the Packaging routine uses the career or installation level defaults for PEC. For example, if an Academic Program supports a Leading Summer term, you want to create a unique PEC that distinguishes it from an Academic Program that does not support a Summer Term

Overriding PEC at the Student Level

Access a student's Pell Calculation Eligibility Student Override page (Financial Aid, View Packaging Status Summary) and click on the Pell Calculation Override link after querying a student.

Note. For a complete description of the Pell Calculation Eligibility Student Override page:

See Overriding Pell Eligibility Calculation Setup Values.

The other fields for PEC setup on this page correspond to those on the Financial Aid Defaults page.

Note. In the Pell calculation fields, if you select Formula 1 - FA Load or Formula 1 - Full-time, you must populate the Pell Number of Terms field. If you select Formula 3 - FA Load, Formula 3 - Current Load, or Formula 3 — Full-time Load, you must populate the Academic or Non-Standard Base Weeks fields.

See Also

Overriding Census Date Locking

Defining Aggregate Aid Limit Percentage Maximums for Pell Grants

You must define the maximum scheduled award percentage for First Pell (Pell1) and Second Pell (Pell2) in the Aggregate Aid Limit Setup.

Access the Aggregate Aid Limits page (Set Up SACR, Product Related, Financial Aid, Awards, Aggregate Aid Limits).

Note. For a complete description of this page:

See Establishing Defaults.

Calculating Pell Grants

The section discusses how Pell Grants are calculated and includes example calculations.

The system can award two full Pell Grants consecutively by term, First Pell (Pell1) and Second Pell (Pell2), to eligible students in a single aid year. As part of the Pell Eligibility Calculation (PEC), the system determines a student's Maximum (Max) Scheduled Award and uses this value to determine maximum Pell eligibility for the aid year. The system does not consider and does not award Pell2 until the student has been awarded Pell1 in the amount of his or her Max Scheduled Award.

Note. The system does not attempt to calculate a Pell Grant award for a student who has neither a federal nor an institutional application for the applicable aid year in the system. However, the system does attempt to calculate a Pell Grant award for a student who has an institutional application, but no federal application, for the applicable aid year in the system.

Step 1

The first step for Packaging (Manual Packaging, Auto Packaging, Repackaging, Mass Packaging, or Batch Repackaging) to calculate a student's Pell Grant award is to determine the Pell Eligibility Calculation (PEC) setup values to use. Because PEC setup defaults can be at the program, career, or installation level and can be overridden at the student level, Packaging checks for defaults in the following order to ensure that the proper aid processing rules are used:

1. Student override values.

2. Aid processing rule set associated with the student's program.

3. Aid processing rule set associated with the student's career.

4. Installation defaults specified on the Financial Aid Defaults page

Once PEC values are detected, the checking for defaults is done and those values are used.

Step 2

The second step is to compare the current (system) date to the term start date (earliest session start date) and the financial aid census date. After identifying the current date in relation to these dates, Packaging uses this date to determine which PEC Pell formula and enrollment values to use (Pell Calculation Start, Pell Calculation Midterm, or Pell Calculation Census).

Step 3

The third step is to determine the percentage of the student's max scheduled Pell Grant award that has been used. Determining what percentage of a student's Max Scheduled Award has been used is integral to how the system awards Pell Grant.

To accurately calculate a student's remaining Pell eligibility, Packaging uses Percent Scheduled Used field on the Aggregate Aid Data page. This field is populated either by the NSLDS Data Push process or manually overridden.

Note. Note: You must regularly push NSLDS data to the Aggregate Tables in order for Packaging to calculate accurately the student's remaining Pell eligibility against the Max Scheduled Award.

Access the Aggregate Aid Data page (Financial Aid, Awards, Aggregates, Update Incoming Aggregates, Aggregate Aid Data).

For a complete description of the Aggregate Aid Data page:

See Updating Aggregate Aid Information.

See Updating Aggregate Aid Information.

Step 4

The fourth step is to use the identified Pell Grant formula with the appropriate Pell Grant Payment Schedule based on the enrollment load value, the student's Maximum Scheduled Award, the appropriate weeks of instruction or Pell Number of Terms, and the student's Total Percent Used (of Pell) to calculate the Pell Grant award term by term.

The Packaging routine repeats this process for each term in the student's academic program, and adds the individual term amounts to determine the student's annual Pell Grant award.

Pell Grant Formula Examples

The next four sections provide of examples of the Pell Formula calculations supported by the system:

• Formula 1 — FA Load

• Formula 1 — Full-Time

• Formula 3 — FA Load

• Formula 3 — Current Load

• Formula 3 — Full-time

See Defining Pell Eligibility Calculation (PEC) Setup.

Formula 1 — FA Load

The system divides the Pell Grant award by the Pell Number of Terms. It uses the student's FA Load value for each term to determine which Pell Grant schedule to use.

Pell COA = 5000.00 USD

EFC =02350

Max Scheduled Award: 3000.00 USD

Pell Number of Terms: 2

Summer: Leading

FA Load Term 1: 3/4 (Summer Term)

FA Load Term 2: 3/4

FA Load Term 3: 3/4

Annual Award: 3000.00 USD

Term 1 Actual Award: 2250.00 USD / 2 = 1125.00 USD

Term 2 Actual Award: 2250.00 USD / 2 = 1125.00 USD

Term 3 Actual Award: 750.00

The Term 3 Actual Award is calculated like this: (2250.00 USD / by 2 = 1125.00 USD, THEN reduced to remaining eligibility: 3000.00 USD (Annual Award) minus 2250.00 USD (combined Term 1 and Term 2 Actual Awards) equals 750.00 USD.

Formula 1 - Full-Time

The system divides the Max Scheduled Award (full-time, full-year) by the Pell Number of Terms.

Pell COA = 5000.00 USD

EFC = 02350

Max Scheduled Award: 3000.00 USD

Pell Number of Terms: 2

Summer: Trailing

FA Load Term 1: FT (Summer Term)

FA Load Term 2: FT

FA Load Term 3: FT

Annual Award: 3000.00 USD

Term 1 Actual Award: 3000.00 USD / 2 = 1500.00 USD

Term 2 Actual Award: 3000.00 USD / 2 = 1500.00 USD

Term 3 Actual Award: 0.00 USD

Student used entire Max Scheduled Award in Terms 1 and 2, leaving no remaining eligibility for Term 3.

Formula 3 - FA Load

The system sums the Academic and Non-Standard Base Weeks to determine the length of the Academic Program's Weeks of Instruction. This value serves as the denominator in the percentage calculation for a student's number of enrolled weeks in a term. Formula 3 — FA Load uses the FA Load from FA Term to determine which Federal Pell Grant disbursement schedule to use when it is calculating the student's eligibility. The FA Load value uses the number of financial aid eligible units in which the student is enrolled for the term to determine the student's load.

Pell COA = 5000.00 USD

EFC = 02350

Max Scheduled Award: 3000.00 USD

Base Weeks Academic + Non-standard = 34

Term 1 Weeks in Term = 12

Term 2 Weeks in Term = 10

Term 3 Weeks in Term = 12 (Non-standard/Summer)

FA Load Term 1: 3/4 (Summer Term)

FA Load Term 2: FT

FA Load Term 3: FT

Term 1 Actual Award: 12 / 34 x 2250.00 USD = 794.03 USD

Term 1 Actual Award: 10 / 34 x 3000.00 USD = 882.30 USD

Term 1 Actual Award: 12 / 34 x 3000.00 USD = 1058.70 USD

Annual Award: 2735.03

Term 1 disb: 794.03 USD

Term2 disb: 882.30 USD

Term 3 disb: 1058.70 USD

Formula 3 - Current Load

The system sums the Academic and Non-Standard Base Weeks to determine the length of the Academic Program's Weeks of Instruction. This value serves as the denominator in the percentage calculation for a student's number of enrolled weeks in a term. Formula 3 — Current Load uses the Current Load from FA Term to determine which Federal Pell Grant disbursement schedule to use when it is calculating the student's eligibility. The Current Load value uses the number of units that the student is currently enrolled in (Financial Aid, Financial Aid Term, Maintain Student FA Term, Statistics tab, Session Detail box, In Progress field) plus the number of units from completed sessions in the term to determine the student's load for the term.

Pell COA = 5000.00 USD

EFC = 02350

Max Scheduled Award: 3000.00 USD

Base Weeks Academic + Non-standard = 34

Term 1 Weeks in Term = 12

Term 2 Weeks in Term = 10

Term 3 Weeks in Term = 12 (Non-standard/Summer)

FA Load Term 1: HT (Summer Term)

FA Load Term 2: 3/4

FA Load Term 3: HT

Term 1 Actual Award: 12 / 34 x 1500.00 USD = 529.35 USD

Term 2 Actual Award: 10 / 34 x 2250.00 USD = 661.73 USD

Term 3 Actual Award: 12 / 34 x 1500.00 USD = 529.35 USD

Annual Award: 1,720.43

Term 1 disb: 529.35 USD

Term 2 disb: 661.73 USD

Term 3 disb: 529.35 USD

Formula 3 - Full-time Load

The system sums the Academic and Non-Standard Base Weeks to determine the length of the Academic Program's Weeks of Instruction. This value serves as the denominator in the percentage calculation for a student's number of enrolled weeks in a term. Formula 3 — Full—time Load uses Full-time as the FA Load Value to determine which Federal Pell Grant disbursement schedule to use when it is calculating the student's eligibility.

Pell COA = 5000.00 USD

EFC = 02350

Max Scheduled Award: 3000.00 USD

Base Weeks Academic + Non-standard = 36

Term 1 Weeks in Term = 12

Term 2 Weeks in Term = 10

Term 3 Weeks in Term = 12 (Non-standard/Summer)

Ignore student's actual enrollment and use Full-time Load for all terms

Term 1 Actual Award: 12 / 36 x 3000.00 USD = 1000.00 USD

Term 2 Actual Award: 10 / 36 x 3000.00 USD = 833.33 USD

Term 3 Actual Award: 12 / 36 x 3000.00 USD = 1000.00 USD

Annual Award: 2833.33 USD

Pell Grant Disbursement Rounding

Financial aid award disbursement amounts, including Pell Grants, are determined in part by the Rounding Option selected in Financial Aid Item Type setup. For complete information on Financial Aid Item Type setup:

See Defining Financial Aid Item Types.

If the Financial Aid Item Type Rounding Option attribute equals None, then no rounding takes place, and Pell Grant award disbursement amounts are in U.S. dollars and cents. If the Rounding Option attribute does not equal None, then the following Pell Rounding Rules are applied regardless of the settings of Rounding Option, Round Direction, or Award Remainder Rule.

• If the number of terms is even, the system alternately rounds term amounts up or down based on how the first term amount is rounded and disregards the decimal amount for all other terms. For example:

  If the first term decimal amount is equal to or greater than .50 USD, then the first term amount is rounded up, and all remaining terms follow a rounding treatment of down, up, down, etc. regardless of their decimal amounts.

  If the first term decimal amount is less than .50 USD, then the first term amount is rounded down, and all remaining terms follow a rounding treatment of up, down, up, etc. regardless of their decimal amounts.

  Example 1: Formula 1, two terms, Full-time student, Even Term Rounding

  Term 1 Full-time 2775.00 USD/2 = 1387.50 USD – Round up to 1388.00 USD

  Term 2 Full-time 2775.00 USD/2 = 1387.50 USD – Round down to USD 1387.00 USD

  Total Award = 2775.00 USD

  Example 2: Formula 1, four terms, Full-time student, Even Term Rounding

  Term 1 Full-time 2650.00 USD/4 = 662.50 USD – Round up to 663.00 USD

  Term 2 Full-time 2650.00 USD/4 = 662.50 USD – Round down to 662.00 USD

  Term 3 Full-time 2650.00 USD/4 = 662.50 USD – Round up to 663.00 USD

  Term 4 Full-time 2650.00 USD/4 = 662.50 USD – Round down to 662.00 USD

  Total Award = 2650.00 USD

  Example 3: Formula 3, four terms, Mixed-load student, Even Term Rounding

  Term 1 (8–weeks) Half-time (1038.00 USD x 8)/30 weeks = 276.80 USD – Round up to 277.00 USD

  Term 2 (8–weeks) Half-time (1038.00 USD x 8)/30 weeks = 276.80 USD – Round down to 276.00 USD

  Term 3 (8–weeks) Full-time (2075.00 USD x 8)/30 weeks = 553.33 USD – Round up to 554.00 USD

  Term 4 (8–weeks) Full-time (2075.00 USD x 8)/30 weeks = 553.33 USD – Round down to 553.00 USD

  Total Award = 1660.00 USD

  Note. For Example 3, note that for Term 2, the disbursement is rounded down even though cents are greater than or equal to .50 USD. Also, note for Term 3, the disbursement is rounded up even though the cents are less than .50 USD

• If the number of terms is three, the system rounds to one direction, up or down, for the first two terms, and to the other direction for the third term. Whether the system initially rounds up or down for the first two terms depends on the decimal amount of the first term only; it disregards the decimal amount for the third term and rounds up or down based on the first two terms.

  If the first term decimal amount is equal to or greater than .50 USD, then the first term amount is rounded up, the second term amount is rounded up, and the third term amount is rounded down.

  If the first term decimal amount is less than .50 USD, then the first term amount is rounded down, the second term amount is rounded down, and the third term amount is rounded up.

  Example 4: Formula 1, three terms, Full-time student, Three-term Rounding

  Term 1 Full-time 4700.00 USD/3 = 1566.66 USD – Round up to 1567.00 USD

  Term 2 Full-time 4700.00 USD/3 = 1566.66 USD – Round up to 1567.00 USD

  Term 3 Full-time 4700.00 USD/3 = 1566.66 USD – Round down to 1566.00 USD

  Total Award = 4700.00 USD

  Example 5: Formula 1, three terms, Full-time student, Three-term Rounding

  Term 1 Full-time 2200.00 USD/3 = 733.33 USD – Round down to 733.00 USD

  Term 2 Full-time 2200.00 USD/3 = 733.33 USD – Round down to 733.00 USD

  Term 3 Full-time 2200.00 USD/3 = 733.33 USD – Round up to 734.00 USD

  Total Award = 2200.00 USD

• When determining the rounding methodology, the system only includes terms where the scheduled disbursement's decimal amount is greater than zero to determine whether there is an even number of terms or not. In other words, terms with a scheduled disbursement amount ending in whole dollars are not considered part of the term count when assessing terms eligible for rounding.

  Example 6: Formula 1, two terms, Mixed-load student, One-term Rounding (only one term has a decimal amount greater than .00).

  Term 1 Full-time 2075.00 USD/2 = 1037.50 USD – Round up to 1038.00 USD

  Term 2 Half-time 1038.00 USD/2 = 519.00 USD – No rounding needed, 519.00 USD

  Total Award = 1557.00 USD

  Example 7: Formula 1, four terms, Mixed-load student, Three-term Rounding (three terms have decimal amounts greater than .00).

  Term 1 Less-than-half-time 1325.00 USD/3 = 441.67 USD – Round up to 442.00 USD

  Term 2 Three-quarter-time 3975.00 USD/3 = 1325.00 USD – No rounding needed, 1325.00 USD

  Term 3 Full-time 5300.00 USD/3 = 1766.66 USD – Round up to 1767.00 USD

  Term 4 Full-time 5300.00 USD/3 = 1766.66 USD – Round down to 1766.00 USD

  Total Award = 5300.00 USD

• Disbursement protection is not used with Pell Grant awards. The system disregards the disbursement protection attribute of the Financial Aid Item Type setup for Pell Grant item types and always recalculates the Pell Grant award and scheduled disbursements without regard to what has been originated or disbursed.

  If the originated or disbursed amount exceeds the revised calculation by 1.00 USD (for example, the disbursed amount = 1367.00 USD and the revised calculation amount = 1366.00 USD), the disbursement process takes 1.00 USD back, and you should consider a change origination with Common Origination and Disbursement for the recalculated, lesser amount.

  If the originated or disbursed amount is less than the revised calculation by 1.00 USD (for example, the disbursed amount = 1127.00 USD and the revised calculation amount = 1128.00 USD), the disbursement process disburses an additional 1.00 USD for the term. You should consider a change origination with Common Origination and Disbursement for the recalculated, greater amount.

  If the originated or disbursed amount contained cents and the revised calculation no longer contains cents (for example, the disbursed amount = 333.33 USD and the revised calculation amount = 333.00 USD), in order for the total Pell Grant award (sum of all scheduled disbursements) to result in whole dollars, you should either: (a) turn rounding off at the Pell Grant item type level so subsequent disbursements contain cents, (b) perform a custom split to reflect cents in subsequent disbursement terms, or (c) handle cents through professional judgment. If you choose option (a) and you have already disbursed your Pell amounts with cents, you should consider continuing to award in dollars and cents (Pell Item Type Rounding Option = None) for the duration of the award year.

Pell Grant Point–in–Time Examples

This section provides examples of how a Pell Grant can be calculated differently based on the PEC setup and different points in time in relation to the term start date:

• Before term start date

• Mid-term prior to term census date

• On or after term census date

A student attends a semester-based institution, and is an undergraduate in the liberal arts academic program. Neither the student's program nor career have defaults that differ from the installation defaults. The student's annual Pell COA is 5450.00 USD and the primary EFC is 00154; resulting in a Max Scheduled Award of 5,200.00 USD. The Pell Number of Terms is 2. According to the Federal Pell Grant Schedule, the student receives an annual award of 5200.00 USD if enrolled full-time, an annual award of 3900.00 USD if enrolled three-quarter time, and an annual award of 2600.00 USD if enrolled half-time.

The student is first awarded a Pell Grant on March 1, 2009. To calculate the student's Pell Grant amount, the Packaging routine first determines whether PEC setup values exist at the student override level and then the academic program level for the student. After the routine determines that no aid processing rule set is attached to the liberal arts academic program, it checks for career level defaults. Because no aid processing rule set is assigned to the undergraduate career, it uses the installation defaults. The Pell calculation fields on the Financial Aid Defaults page have the following values:

Packaging compares the current date (March 1, 2009) against the term start date and census date to determine which enrollment value to use when calculating the student's Pell Grant:

Because the system date is before the term start date for both semesters, Packaging uses the Pell Calculation Start value for enrollment, Formula 1 Full-time. The student's Pell Grant award is 5200.00 USD for the aid year, with a term amount of 2600.00 USD for each term.

The following table shows how the student's Pell Grant award changes as you recalculate the student's Pell Grant eligibility at different points in the aid year. The student's current FA Load value after the census date is three-quarter time in fall and is half-time in spring.

See Defining Pell Eligibility Calculation (PEC) Setup.

Pell Grants for Non-standard Terms and Two Pell Grants in an Aid Year

To support Leading or Trailing Summer terms, the system can package a Pell Grant across both Academic and Non-Standard award periods. You should consider carefully the Disbursement Plan/Split Code being used to award Pell1 and Pell2. The system uses Disbursement Plans to determine for which terms to consider the student's Pell eligibility, but it does not use the Split Code nor Split Code Formulas as part of its distribution spread determination. Instead, the system uses either (a) Pell Number of Terms or (b) Academic plus Non-Standard Base Weeks to determine each term's award amount and how the award is spread across the enrolled terms.

Note. Although not used for Pell Grant awarding, the system still requires that you specify default Split Code and Split Code Formula values so that the fields are populated. These values are not used to distribute the Pell award into scheduled disbursements.

If your institution intends to award Pell Grants in either the Leading or Trailing Summer, you need to create Disbursement Plans that encompass all terms in which the student may receive a Pell Grant.

If the Academic Program supports a Leading Summer term, create a new Disbursement Plan like this:

• Semester-based: Leading Summer, Fall, Spring

• Quarter-based: Leading Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring

Example:

• Leading Summer Term: 2675.00 USD

• Fall Term: 2675.00 USD

• Spring Term: 0.00 USD

If the Academic Program supports a Trailing Summer term, create a new Disbursement Plan like this:

• Semester-based: Fall, Spring, Trailing Summer

• Quarter-based: Fall, Winter, Spring, Trailing Summer

Example:

• Fall Term: 2675.00 USD

• Spring Term: 2675.00 USD

• Trailing Summer Term: 0.00 USD

If the Academic Program supports both Leading Trailing Summer terms, create a new Disbursement Plan like this:

• Semester-based: Leading Summer, Fall, Spring, Trailing Summer

• Quarter-based: Leading Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring, Trailing Summer

Similar to awarding Leading or Trailing Summer terms, if you intend to award a Pell2 award in the succeeding term following a Pell1 award, you should use the same Disbursement Plan/Split Code pattern for both awards. Inherent logic in the system ensures that, based on the Disbursement Plan/Split Code being used, Packaging inserts a Pell2 award in the next available term following a Pell1 award.

Example — Leading Summer:

• Leading Summer Term: 2675.00 USD (Pell1)

• Fall Term: 2675.00 USD (Pell1)

• Spring Term: 2675.00 USD (Pell2)

Example — Trailing Summer:

• Fall Term: 2675.00 USD (Pell1)

• Spring Term: 2675.00 USD (Pell1)

• Trailing Summer Term: 2675.00 USD (Pell2)

The system supports the awarding of Pell1 and Pell2 awards in the same term up to the maximum Pell eligibility based on the student's enrollment for that term. For purposes of this example, the student:

• has an Incoming Aggregates Percentage of 65 percent, which leaves a remaining Pell1 eligibility of 1,855.

• is Half-Time for the Fall Term – scheduled max award of 2,650 /2 = 1,325.

• is Full-Time for the Spring Term – scheduled max of 5,300 / 2 = 2,650

• is Full-Time for the Trailing Summer Term – scheduled max of 5300 / 2 = 2,650

Example — Pell1 and Pell2 in the same term:

• Leading Summer Term: 0.00 USD (No Enrollment)

• Fall Term: 1325.00 USD of Pell1 (based on the student's scheduled max award for that term's enrollment.)

• Spring Term: 2650.00 USD of Pell1 and Pell2 (530.00 USD of Pell1, based on the student's remaining Pell1 award of 1855.00 minus 1325.00 Fall Pell1 and 2120.00 of Pell2, based on the student's scheduled max award of Full-time for the term of 2650.00 minus the 530.00 of Pell1 already awarded.)

• Trailing Summer Term: 2650.00 USD of Pell2 (based on student's scheduled max award for that term's enrollment)

• Student receives both a 1855.00 USD Pell1 and a 4770.00 USD Pell2 for the award year.

Pell Grant Packaging Error Messages

The following table lists and explains possible Pell Grant Packaging error messages:

Repackaging Pell Grants

If your system

• has existing awards with a Disbursement Plan/Split Code that includes only Academic terms; and

• you want to tie these existing awards to a Disbursement Plan/Split Code that spans both the Academic and Non-Standard terms,

you cannot use a repackaging plan that incorporates the Repackaging Rule Validate Item Type for Pell item types. This is because Validate Item Type always uses the Disbursement Plan/Split Code tied to the existing award. You can use the Repackaging Rule Use Original Plan to repackage Pell Item Types that require a Disbursement Plan/Split Code change. If your institution does not intend to award Pell Grants in Leading or Trailing Summer terms, you can use the Repackaging Rule Validate Item Type for Pell item types.

Awarding Pell Grants Manually

If you manually award a Pell Grant that exceeds the Max Scheduled Award, the system reduces the award down to the Max Scheduled Award amount. Conversely, if you manually award a Pell Grant for less than the Max Scheduled Award, the system allows the award.

Note. When entering a Pell Grant manually on the Student Aid Package page, you can leave the award amount at zero. When you click the Validation button, the system automatically calculates the Pell Grant award according to the Pell eligibility calculation defined in your setup.

Awarding Pell Grants using Professional Judgment

Any amount of Pell Grant you award using Professional Judgment is accepted. Pell1 or Pell2 can exceed the Max Scheduled Award, the Total Percent Used value, and other Pell Grant awarding validations.

Reinstating a Canceled Pell Grant Award

Before reinstating a previously canceled Pell Grant, you must change the custom split code from XX to a valid disbursement split code for the student. You can then click the Validation button to recalculate the Pell Grant amount. After you recalculate the Pell Grant amount, you must remember to post it before leaving the award entry page.

Awarding Pell Grants for Post-Baccalaureate Teaching Certificate Candidates

A student who has earned a bachelor's degree and is pursuing an initial teaching certification or licensing credential that does not lead to a graduate degree is eligible for a Pell Grant for that aid year. The Packaging process determines the eligibility for this type of student by evaluating the following fields:

If a student is pursuing a teaching credential and has a bachelor's degree and the student's NSLDS loan year is not graduate, then Packaging evaluates the student for a Pell Grant.

If a student is not pursuing a teaching credential but has a bachelor's degree and the student's NSLDS loan year is not graduate, then Packaging does not evaluate the student for a Pell Grant.