<p>I’ve been trying to look up info on this, but everything I’ve found is pretty vague and not helpful at all…</p>
<p>Anyways, I finished an Associate’s Degree from a community college in Missouri which was funded by the pell grant via ward of the court status. I am now planning to attend the Oregon Institute of Technology to finish out a bachelor’s degree but I’m not sure whether the grant will continue paying my tuition.</p>
<p>Around the time I would be starting, I will have been a resident in Oregon for around 7-8 months which will hopefully be enough to qualify me for in-state tuition but if not, does the Pell Grant pay out-of-state amounts? The other thing is that I will be turning 21 this month; does the aid continue past that until I finish my bachelor’s or some other cut-off age?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Oh and is there any way I could qualify for in-state tuition after only 4 months of residency? Apparently I’m missing the math credit required for transfer admissions to OIT and was planning to take it at a community college this summer but would really like to avoid paying the $816 tuition for one class out of pocket…</p>
<p>I’m not quite clear from the wording of your post, but are you considered independent for FAFSA purposes? ([FAFSA</a> - Free Application for Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/before015.htm]FAFSA”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/before015.htm)) Generally, dependent students’ “in state” schools are where their parents live. </p>
<p>Can you wait a year before starting in order to establish residency? Can you chose another Missouri university?</p>
<p>A Pell grant will cover your first bachelors degree, as long as you make satisfactory academic progress. For the 2010-2011 school year it is a maximum of $5,550. However, it looks like the total cost of attendance for non residents is $ 29,307 ([Oregon</a> Institute of Technology | Cost Estimate](<a href=“http://www.oit.edu/prospective-students/admissions/freshmen/cost]Oregon”>http://www.oit.edu/prospective-students/admissions/freshmen/cost)). You cannot count on a state university to provide institutional aid for out of state students. Even with federal loans out of state tuition might be too much.</p>
<p>*
A Pell grant will cover your first bachelors degree,*</p>
<p>A Pell grant will not “cover” your first bachelors degree in most cases - especially if you’re going out of state. As stated, the max you get is $5550 per year. That doesn’t even cover tuition at many, many school - much less the other school costs.</p>
<p>As stated above, Oregon Inst of Tech costs about $30k per year, so obviously you won’t have enough money to pay for that. </p>
<p>You need to finish your degree at a state school within your state.</p>
<p>The reason I want to get started as soon as possible is I’ve already had to waste one semester due to lack of availability, and another from moving and I don’t want it to stretch out forever. Then going back to the pell grant, I’m still not sure if being over 21 and having a year and a half off will still qualify me for it.</p>
<p>It would be great if I could get the math class through the same college in Missouri, but I’m not sure if that’d even be possible. I’ll look into trying to get it done through another MO college though. </p>
<p><a href=“1”>quote</a> Establishment of a domicile and predominant physical presence in Oregon for a period of 12 months or more prior to the beginning of the term for which residency is sought.
[/quote]
Looks like it would be in your best interest to wait until the next semester to start school. It probably would have been a good idea to check on the residency issues for Oregon before moving, unless you absolutely had to. It looks like OIT will cost from $19-30K per year on campus (for an Oregon resident). Mizzou would have been $20K in state.</p>
<p>If you are not yet in Oregon, you now know that you cannot be considered a resident until you have lived there a year. You may want to spend the first term that you are there taking the math course you will need at a community college. Even with OOS rates, it is cheaper to go to the comm college most all of the time, over a 4 year state school. You can work to save some money for your transition to OIT during that period of time. </p>
<p>No guarantees, but many community colleges are not picky about state residency. I know here that they don’t check a thing if you have a local address even though the rules are that you are supposed to be here a year. So you might be able to get that course at in state rates. I don’t know if PELL pays out for under 12 credits either, but you might want to check if it does.</p>
<p>There is no age limit on Pell, so no worries there. Pell is a scaled credit and doesn’t require a minimum number of credits unless you’re receiving a second Pell grant within an academic year (which does require at least half-time enrollment) - doesn’t seem to apply here.</p>
<p>I was aware of the residency requirements prior to moving, but figured it would be best to move as soon as possible to get them out of the way sooner. Mizzou for me wasn’t really a valid option as my grades weren’t the best (nothing was challenging for me in high school so I didn’t bother applying myself. terrible excuse, I know) and though I probably still could’ve gotten in with them, it just wasn’t specialized enough in the field I’m interested in (plus I wanted to move to Oregon) to validate the costs. In going to OIT, I’ll have a degree from a very solid name in the tech field, on top of being much much closer to the industry hub. </p>
<p>The math class is 4 credit hours and I believe I saw somewhere that pell grant funding has a 6 credit hour minimum, so that won’t be available. But I will see if I can land in-state residency to a community college here and get that out of the way this summer or in the fall, hopefully lining everything up for OIT in the spring.</p>
<p>I am not aware of any minimums for the PELL. It is prorated with 12 hours needed for the full amount. With 4 credits, you should get 1/3 of what you would get for full time. Check with the college, however.</p>
<p>^ It’s only the relatively new “second Pell” that requires a minimum of half-time hours…not to worry about unless you use up your full Pell allotment and then want to take summer classes too.</p>