My D24 has been accepted to some really great schools in the past week or so - super exciting - and we’re comparing financial aid awards. This is my first kid in college, so forgive me if this is a stupid question.
Is it typical for a student to be offered a Pell grant at some schools but not others? In our case, 5 of her 6 accepted schools listed a Pell grant, but there was 1 school that didn’t give her a Pell grant (of course, her first choice!)
Any guidance is much appreciated! Thank you!
@kelsmom can clarify, but it’s my understanding the Pell is an entitlement grant. If you are eligible, you should be getting this everywhere.
Thank you for the quick reply! I was thinking the same thing.
@kelsmom will clarify.
The only schools where you wouldn’t get a Pell grant are non-Title IV schools (don’t accept federal funding), which are often religious. One example is Hillsdale College.
The schools don’t actually have the FAFSA information yet (well, they’re starting to get it), so FA packages that you’ve seen so far from CSS schools are making estimates about pell and other federal stuff. My kid has gotten several FA packages from CSS schools; most of them have an estimated pell, but at least one of them doesn’t show one. I’m assuming once they get the actual FAFSA info they’ll sub in the pell for some of the institutional grant money (i.e. I’m not expecting they’d give him the pell on top of what the FA package already shows him getting)
This is very helpful and makes sense. Four of her schools are CSS. Of these, U Rochester is the only school that didn’t award her a Pell grant. It just left me confused. But this makes sense with all the FAFSA issues this year. She’ll just keep checking her portals! Thank you!
U Rochester will definitely pick up the Pell grant when they get the FAFSA!
That is my expectation as well. One of D24’s most generous packages just lists “Grants” in one line of the aid letter rather than breaking the grants out into different types (institutional, estimated pell, estimated SEOG, and state grants), but I am pretty sure that is just because they don’t have her processed FAFSA yet. The Another school itemized the grants including a line for estimated pell, but I think in both cases, the total award (and calculated need) is not going change though the itemization of each grant might shift.