2018-2020 SCC Catalog > Financial Aid > Federal Return of Title IV Funds Policy > Length of Aid Eligibility

Length of Aid Eligibility

The amount of Federal Pell Grant funds you may receive over your lifetime is limited by a new federal law to be the equivalent of six years of Federal Pell Grant funding. Since the maximum amount of Federal Pell Grant funding you can receive each year is equal to 100%, the six-year equivalent is 600%.

Scheduled award: The maximum amount of Federal Pell Grant funding you can receive is calculated for an award year. An award year is a period from July 1 of one calendar year to June 30 of the next calendar year.

Your scheduled award:

• is partially determined by using your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) that is calculated from the information you (and your family) provided when you filed your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA);
• is the maximum amount you would be able to receive for the award year if you were enrolled full-time for the full school year; and
• represents 100% of your Federal Pell Grant eligibility for that award year.

Percent used: To determine how much of the maximum six years (600%) of Pell Grant you have used each year, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) compares the actual amount you received for the award year with your scheduled award amount for that award year. Of course, if you receive the full amount of your scheduled award, you will have used 100%. It’s possible that you might not receive your entire scheduled award for an award year. There are a number of reasons for this, the most common of which are that you are not enrolled for the full year or that you are not enrolled full-time, or both.

If you did not receive the full amount of your scheduled award, we calculate the percentage of the scheduled award that you did receive. For example, if your scheduled award for an award year is $5,000, but because you were enrolled for only one semester you received only $2,500, you would have received 50% of the scheduled award for that award year, or if you received only $3,750 for the award year because you were enrolled three-quarter-time and not full-time, you would have received 75% for that year.

Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU): ED keeps track of your LEU by adding together the percentages of your Federal Pell Grant scheduled awards that you received for each award year. You can log on to the National Student Loan Data System website https://nslds.ed.gov/nslds/nslds_SA/ and use your Federal Student Aid PIN number to view your LEU. The LEU will be found on the Financial Aid Review page.