Pell Grant Policy

Op5.08-2 Pell Grant Policy

Policy statement

A federal Pell Grant is a free grant based on financial need that is available to eligible undergraduate students at Missouri State who have not earned a bachelor’s degree. Student and family income and assets and family size that are provided on the FAFSA and enrollment intensity determine eligibility and award amount. Full-time status is 12 hours or more for all semesters, including summer. The Office of Student Financial Aid at MSU uses Pell Grant Formula 1 for determination of award amount.

Award amounts are determined by a concept called enrollment intensity, which is defined as the percentage of full-time hours at which a student is enrolled. For example, full-time enrollment is 12 credit hours per semester, and if a student is enrolled in 7 hours, their enrollment intensity would be 7 divided by 12 multiplied by 100 to equal 58%. This student would be awarded 58% of their full-time Pell amount, as determined by their FAFSA results.

Pell award recalculation

Existing Pell award amounts for a semester will be continually recalculated based on enrollment intensity until the end of the full semester change of schedule period (COSP) for each semester, which is the university’s Pell recalculation date (PRD). Credit hours will then be frozen for students with a Pell award who are registered for classes as of the PRD, and Pell awards will not be adjusted for subsequent changes in enrollment intensity after this date, including registration in Second Block classes, if the student begins attendance in each class. Check the academic calendar for the change of schedule deadline for each semester.

Eligible students who have not received an initial Pell award or are not enrolled in any classes as of the PRD but enroll later in the semester will receive a Pell award based on their enrollment intensity as of the date of the initial calculation. Pell awards will not be adjusted for subsequent changes in enrollment intensity after this date, including registration in Second Block classes, if the student begins attendance in each class.

If a student does not begin attendance in all classes for a semester, resulting in a change in the student’s enrollment intensity, the Office of Student Financial Aid must recalculate the student’s award for that semester based on the lower enrollment intensity.

Dual enrollment

Pell recipients that are less than full-time at MSU and dually enrolled with another accredited university may be eligible for a consortium agreement. Requests for consortium must be received by the change of schedule period deadline each semester of dual enrollment.

Summer Pell Grant

Missouri State University Office of Student Financial Aid defines an academic aid year as a fall and spring semester, with the summer term as a separate session considered a “trailer” semester.

Students may be eligible for a Pell Grant during the summer semester using the same formula as for the fall and spring semesters described above. Students must be enrolled in 12 hours in the summer to receive their full-time Pell Grant amount.

Declining Pell Grant funds

A student may decline all or part of a Pell Grant disbursement that the student is otherwise eligible to receive, as long as this action is taken in the same award year as the funds were received. In doing so, the student will reduce the Pell “Lifetime Eligibility Used,” or LEU, which is the measurement by which Pell eligibility in the academic career of an individual student is tracked.

To decline Pell funds, students must send a signed, written statement to the Office of Student Financial Aid indicating that they are declining Pell funds that they were otherwise eligible to receive. The student should understand that those declined funds may not be available once the award year is over.