FAQ

The Pell Grant is limited (for everyone) to 600% of an annual award. We call this your LEU or lifetime eligibility used. Each academic year (AY) your Pell Grant award is calculated based on your expected family contribution (EFC). The EFC determines the dollar amount. For 2019-20, the maximum Pell Grant was increased to $6,195 (for a zero EFC). However, when your Pell Grant is disbursed to your student account, the Department of Education (ED) tracks it as a percent used, not just as dollars paid. The Pell Grant is prorated every disbursement based on your attendance for that payment period (term or semester). If you were to attend full time for a full academic year, 100% of your LEU would be used in that AY. If you didn’t attend the full year, or if you attended at less than full time, you would use less than 100% of your scheduled award. Alternatively, if you also took summer classes, you could use up to 150% of your scheduled award, again dependent upon your school and enrollment level. All of those percentages add up for all of the years you received a Pell Grant at any institution, regardless of the dollar amount that was paid. To date you have used 510.236% of your maximum 600% LEU.

To determine your remaining eligibility, we subtract your LEU from the 600% maximum. That equals 89.764%. Then we multiply that remaining LEU by your Pell Grant as calculated by your EFC (i.e. $6,195 for your 0 EFC). $6,195 x .89764 = $5,560 (rounded down — you can’t exceed 600%). So for 2019-20, you have at most $5,560 of Pell Grant dollars and 89.764% remaining. Each term, you are still eligible for up to 100% of that term’s award (33.3333% of a year). So, if you will be full time Summer term, you will receive a full 33.3333% of that $6,195 EFC calculated Pell Grant, or $2,065. The same would go for Fall term, assuming full time attendance. If you take fewer than 12 credits, your award will be prorated at 75% for 9-11 credits, 50% for 6-8 credits, and 25% for 1-5 credits. So, after two terms of full time attendance we would subtract what you had been paid from your individual maximum of $5,560 (i.e. $5,560 – $2,065 * 2 = $1,430) to determine your remaining award. Now if you were to continue at full time Winter term, you would receive only $1,430, because you do not have $2,065 remaining eligibility. We can only disburse the lesser of your limits (term maximum based on EFC and enrollment or LEU). You would have zero Pell Grant Spring term after receiving the remaining $1,430 Winter term. If you want your Pell Grant to last longer, you can reduce your enrollment level, but it will not increase your dollar amount for this academic year. If you have remaining LEU after this AY, you may see a dollar increase on that LEU for future academic years, if your EFC remains at zero and Congress appropriates additional Pell Grant funding. However, your LEU still cannot exceed 600%.

If you wish to decline your Pell Grant this year in hopes of getting more dollars out of your remaining LEU, you can do so by specifically writing a statement that meets the following requirement:

To decline Pell Grant funds, a student must deliver to the school a signed, written statement clearly indicating that the student is declining Pell Grant funds for which he or she is otherwise eligible and that the student understands that those funds may not be available once the award year is over.

There are other reasons why you would not be eligible for a Pell Grant besides EFC, such as having graduated and having a bachelor’s degree, so consider carefully before declining your Pell Grant.

Now what your community college told you about being eligible for additional funding based on a four year program (i.e. bachelor’s degree) vs. a two year program is true, but out of context. You are eligible for federal aid up to 150% of your published program length. So for an associate’s degree, you could get a Pell Grant (and other federal aid) for up to 135 credits at a quarter school. And then if you continued at a university, you could get aid up to 270 credits, which includes the credits transferred in from your associate’s degree. However, that is still limited by any other limiting factors, such as LEU or aggregate loan limits. It is important to consider all factors and not narrow your focus too much on one question and answer pair. Make sure that your specific questions allow for consideration of the big picture.

I didn’t go too much into how less than full time enrollment affects your Pell Grant LEU. However, if you multiply the enrollment level by the term or semester usage, you can figure out the LEU (e.g. three quarter time (75%) for a term (33.3333%) equals 25% used (0.75 x 33.3333%). You can do the math to figure out how to make your 89.764% last the whole year, if you want to.

As to your Oregon Opportunity Grant (OOG) eligibility, it also is lifetime limited. The maximum number of terms you can receive OOG is limited to 12 full time equivalent (FTE) terms. That means that you could have up to 24 terms at half time or a lesser amount with a combination of full and part time attendance. OOG pays only either full or half. There is no separate three quarter or less than half time award, though three quarter will pay the same amount as half time. There is also a difference in the dollar amount between a two year school and a four year school. Your community college was correct to say that your OOG award eligibility would be higher at a university, but it is still limited to 12 FTE terms for your lifetime. Without looking at how much you had already used, in general, your question was answered correctly. However, because you don’t have any eligible terms remaining, we can’t give you an OOG award, at any level. OOG also does not disburse Summer term. It is a Fall, Winter, Spring award only.

At this point, you can apply for a transfer scholarship, if you have not. I would encourage you to apply for Foundation scholarships beginning October 1, 2019 for the 2020-2021 AY. All other scholarship deadlines have passed for the 2019-2020 AY. You should also apply for OSAC scholarships beginning November 1, 2019. Many other scholarship links and search tools are listed on our website.

You can always apply for private student loans to supplement your federal loans. Please see our information about alternative loans on our website.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us here in the financial aid office. We are here to help!

1. No action will be taken by financial aid staff that is for their personal benefit or could be perceived to be a conflict of interest.
• Employees within the financial aid office will not award aid to themselves or their immediate family members. Staff will reserve this task to an institutionally designated person, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
• The University has no preferred lending agreement with any lender of private educational loans and does not maintain a preferred lender list. Neither the University nor any employee shall enter into any revenue-sharing arrangement with any lender or accept offers of funds for private loans to students in exchange for providing concessions or promises to the lender for a specific number of loans, a specified loan volume, or a preferred lender arrangement.
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• No amount of cash, gift, or benefit in excess of a the minimum amount shall be accepted by a financial aid staff member from any financial aid applicant (or his/her family), or from any entity doing business with or seeking to do business with the institution (including service on advisory committees or boards beyond reimbursement for reasonable expenses directly associated with such service).
• No compensation may be accepted for any type of consulting arrangement or contract to provide services to or on behalf of a lender relating to education loans.
2. Information provided by the financial aid office is accurate, unbiased, and does not reflect preference arising from actual or potential personal gain.
3. Institutional award notifications and/or other institutionally provided materials shall include the following:
• A breakdown of individual components of the institution’s Cost of Attendance.
• Clear identification of each award, indicating type of aid, i.e. gift aid (grant, scholarship), work, or loan.
• Standard terminology and definitions.
• Renewal requirements for each award.
4. All required consumer information is displayed in a prominent location on the institutional web site(s) and in any printed materials, easily identified and found, and labeled as “Consumer Information.”
5. Financial aid professionals will disclose to their institution any involvement, interest in, or potential conflict of interest with any entity with which the institution has a business relationship.

Statement of Ethical Principles

The primary goal of the institutional financial aid professional is to help students achieve their educational goals by providing appropriate financial support and resources. To this end, this statement provides that the financial aid professional shall:

Advocate for students

• Remain aware of issues affecting students and continually advocate for their interests at the institutional, state and federal levels.
• Support federal, state and institutional efforts to encourage students to aspire to and plan for education beyond high school.

Manifest the highest level of integrity

• Commit to the highest level of ethical behavior and refrain from conflict of interest or the perception thereof.
• Deal with others honestly and fairly, abiding by our commitments and always acting in a manner that merits the trust and confidence others have placed in us.
• Protect the privacy of individual student financial records.
• Promote the free expression of ideas and opinions, and foster respect for diverse viewpoints within the profession.

Support student access and success.

• Commit to removing financial barriers for those who want to pursue postsecondary learning and support each student admitted to our institution.
• Without charge, assist students in applying for financial aid funds.
• Provide services and apply principles that do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, or economic status.
• Understand the need for financial education and commit to educate students and families on how to responsibly manage expenses and debt.

Comply with federal and state laws

• Adhere to all applicable laws and regulations governing federal, state, and institutional financial aid programs.
• Actively participate in ongoing professional development and continuing education programs to ensure ample understanding of statutes, regulations, and best practices governing the financial aid programs.
• Encourage colleagues to participate in the financial aid professional associations available to them at the state, regional, or national level and offer assistance to other aid professionals as needed.

Strive for transparency and clarity

• Provide our students and parents with the information they need to make good decisions about attending and paying for college.
• Educate students and families through quality information that is consumer-tested when possible. This includes (but is not limited to) transparency and full disclosure on award notices.
• Ensure equity by applying all need-analysis formulas consistently across the institution’s full population of student financial aid applicants.
• Inform institutions, students, and parents of any changes in financial aid programs that could affect their student aid eligibility.

Protect the privacy of financial aid applicants

Ensure that student and parent private information provided to the financial aid office by financial aid applicants is protected in accordance with all state and federal statutes and regulations, including FERPA and the Higher Education Act, Section 483(a)(3)(E) (20 U.S.C. 1090).

Protect the information on the FAFSA from inappropriate use by ensuring that this information is only used for the application, award, and administration of aid awarded under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, state aid, or aid awarded by eligible institutions.

• Note: The Higher Education Act does not allow us to share data from your FAFSA directly with certain outside agencies, even with your written permission.

*This was adopted in part from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators’ Statement of Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct for Financial Aid Professionals. The obligations in this Code of Conduct are in addition to any requirements imposed by state or federal laws, or Eastern Oregon University policies.