The Pell Grant Amount
Understanding the minimum, and maximum Pell Grant amounts is crucial if you want to gain a proper perspective on what the Pell Grant can do for you in terms of providing financial aid towards your college education. The good news is that the maximum Pell Grant amount keeps going up each year, and is scheduled to do so all the way up through 2012. It should actually continue to be expanded now that president Obama has approved billions in additional funding for education in America, and if you are currently interested in getting a Pell Grant there has never been a better time to do so in history.
Getting down to brass tax, the maximum Pell Grant amount for the 2010-11 school year is at 5,500 dollars, or 2,750 dollars per semester. This is an increase of 150 dollars from the previous year, which enabled students to acquire roughly 5,350 dollars on annual basis. The minimum award for the 2010-11 school year if you are going to school as a full-time student is at 1,176 dollars. The absolute minimum you can receive if you are able to get any sort of aid from the Pell Grant at all is set at 659 dollars annually, and this is for students who are attending class less-than-halftime.
The actual Pell Grant amount you can receive is dependent upon a few major factors. The most crucial factor is your EFC, as the closer you are to zero the better your chances are of receiving the full amount of aid from the Pell. The other factors that play a role are the cost of attendance of going to your college, and your enrollment status. The higher the cost of attendance is, the better your chances are at receiving a larger amount from the Pell. As far as enrollment status goes, full-time students receive more Pell Grant money than three-quarter-time students, and so on, and so on. In the end your school has the final say over how much you receive from the Pell, but you should get at least some aid as long as you are eligible and meet the appropriate Pell Grant qualifications.
