Pell Grant Policy

Op5.08-2 Pell Grant Policy

Policy statement

A federal Pell Grant is a free grant that is available to eligible undergraduate students that have not earned a bachelor’s degree. Student and family income that is provided on the FAFSA and enrollment status determine eligibility and award amount. For fall and spring semesters, full-time status is 12 hours or more, three-quarter time is 9-11 hours, half-time is 6-8 hours and less than half-time is 1-5 hours. The Office of Student Financial Aid at MSU uses Pell Grant Formula 3 for determination of award amount. As a result, for the summer semester, 6 hours or more is full-time, 5 hours is three quarter time, 3-4 hours is half-time, and 1-2 hours is less than half-time.

Enrollment deadline

The deadline for adding classes for Pell consideration is the end of the change of schedule period each semester. Registration for all classes must be completed by this date, including Second Block classes, in order to be counted towards Pell eligibility. Check the academic calendar for the change of schedule deadline for each semester.

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 only if they have not received 100% of their award during the fall and spring semester. For example, if a student were enrolled full-time for both fall and spring, the student received the maximum eligibility for the Pell Grant and would not be eligible for any Pell Grant for the summer semester. However, a student who attended less than full time during either fall or spring semester, or who attended only one semester of the academic year and did not receive Pell funds from another institution during the academic year, may be eligible for a summer Pell Grant based on summer enrollment.

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.