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Information re: the loss of my Pell Grant?

UnknownSaintUnknownSaint KasynRegistered User regular
edited March 2009 in Help / Advice Forum
So without notice, my Pell Grant (and apparently that of many others at my school) disappeared off of statements for next months financial aid, lowering my total financial aid received by about 2/5ths. There has been zero warning, no bureaucratic mixups, and I maintain a 4.0 so it's definitely not academic eligibility. We are still working off of the same financial information for the whole year so it's not financial eligibility either.

I realize the best answers are going to come from my school, and in the morning myself and other students are going to go find out for ourselves, but I was just curious if anyone has any information or is beginning to see instances of this happening? For the life of me I can't google up anything mentioning schools that may be potentially doing this, and I'd like as much information as possible about all this, as it is really going to screw me hard in the next few months.

UnknownSaint on

Posts

  • Dunadan019Dunadan019 Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    one of the things about a pell grant is that you have to be a full time student.

    usually this means you have to take at least 24 credits in a year. however, i have heard about people losing that status for droping under 12 a semester (passed classes). since you have a 4.0, i doubt this is the reason....

    also, a pell grant is limited to 4 years in most cases. so if you are in your 9th semester - super senior, you won't be able to get a pell grant.

    your GPA doesn't matter at all btw, since pell grants are all need based.

    Dunadan019 on
  • UnknownSaintUnknownSaint Kasyn Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    Full time student, closing in on the end of my junior year so no quarter limit has been reached. D:

    UnknownSaint on
  • SentrySentry Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    I believe that, due to the budget, students in California won't be receiving the money for the Pell Grant this semester. Let me find the article...

    Sentry on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    wrote:
    When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
    'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
  • SentrySentry Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    hmm... my googlefu has failed. I could have sworn I read that last month though. Either way, call Financial Aid.

    Sentry on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    wrote:
    When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
    'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
  • UnknownSaintUnknownSaint Kasyn Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    Apparently my whole school is affected. Financial aid told us it is probably a bug though, I guess we'll see...

    UnknownSaint on
  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    Sentry wrote: »
    I believe that, due to the budget, students in California won't be receiving the money for the Pell Grant this semester. Let me find the article...
    I don't know why California's budget would affect the Pell Grants, given that California doesn't have anything to do with Pell Grants, since they're federal.

    Thanatos on
  • GanluanGanluan Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    Sentry wrote: »
    I believe that, due to the budget, students in California won't be receiving the money for the Pell Grant this semester. Let me find the article...

    You might've seen an article about how tax refunds are being suspended in California.

    Ganluan on
    TrueAchievements Profile
  • SentrySentry Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    Thanatos wrote: »
    Sentry wrote: »
    I believe that, due to the budget, students in California won't be receiving the money for the Pell Grant this semester. Let me find the article...
    I don't know why California's budget would affect the Pell Grants, given that California doesn't have anything to do with Pell Grants, since they're federal.

    But I believe they are administered by the California government.

    Sentry on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    wrote:
    When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
    'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
  • SentrySentry Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    Yeah, I officially have no fucking clue what I'm talking about. I swear I read this somewhere, but I can't find a single thing to back up a thing I've said, so disreguard everything I've put in this topic.

    Sorry!

    Sentry on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    wrote:
    When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
    'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
  • wasted pixelswasted pixels Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    Actually, Sentry, you're almost right. You're probably thinking of the Cal grant, which is indeed a clusterfuck right now. It wouldn't shock me if that was related to the OP's problem -- someone up the bureaucratic ladder accidentally (maliciously?) freezing ALL grant money instead of just Cal money.

    I have it on pretty good authority that California is a sucky place to be right now.

    wasted pixels on
  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    wasted pixels wrote: »
    Actually, Sentry, you're almost right. You're probably thinking of the Cal grant, which is indeed a clusterfuck right now. It wouldn't shock me if that was related to the OP's problem -- someone up the bureaucratic ladder accidentally (maliciously?) freezing ALL grant money instead of just Cal money.

    I have it on pretty good authority that California is a sucky place to be right now.
    They just got the budget passed.

    The budget clusterfuck they've got going on right now has been pretty much perpetual for as long as I've been alive (my mom works for a pseudo-state agency).

    Thanatos on
  • wasted pixelswasted pixels Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    Thanatos wrote: »
    The budget clusterfuck they've got going on right now has been pretty much perpetual for as long as I've been alive (my mom works for a pseudo-state agency).

    Christ almighty. I don't think I'd be able to sleep at night.

    wasted pixels on
  • Dunadan019Dunadan019 Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    Thanatos wrote: »
    Sentry wrote: »
    I believe that, due to the budget, students in California won't be receiving the money for the Pell Grant this semester. Let me find the article...
    I don't know why California's budget would affect the Pell Grants, given that California doesn't have anything to do with Pell Grants, since they're federal.

    apparantly there are state pell grants as well.

    OP, are you sure this is a federal pell grant and not a state one?

    Dunadan019 on
  • UnknownSaintUnknownSaint Kasyn Registered User regular
    edited March 2009
    Yes this is the federal pell grant that was removed.

    Anyhow, to update this there was a school-wide bug for everyone (except students in Engineering for some reason) that basically removed the pell grant from their spring billing statements, and then updated the amount to reflect this. Many students went from receiving refund checks to owing money, so when I went down to financial aid as it opened this morning there were about a hundred pissed off students wondering what was going on and spreading rumors that it was affecting other schools.

    But yeah, just a weird glitch on financial aid's side of things, thanks for the responses anyhow!

    UnknownSaint on
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