Financial Aid - Pell Grant Lifetime Limits

In December 2011, President Obama signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 (Public Law 112-74). This law has significantly impacted the Federal Pell Grant Program. Beginning in Fall 2012, students are now limited to 12 semesters (or 600%) of Pell Grant eligibility during their lifetime.

This change affects all students regardless of when or where they received their first Pell Grant. Since this is a lifetime limit there are no grandfather clauses; it includes every semester a student has ever received a Pell Grant Award.

Students who have exceeded their lifetime limits have been alerted via email by the U.S. Department of Education during the processing of their FAFSA financial aid application. The percentages are based on the annual award at full-time enrollment status. For students with an annual award for the 2026-2027 academic year, attending 12 or more credits in each semester (Fall and Spring for example), the percentage of Pell grant used for the 2026-2027 academic year is 100%. If a student only attended 9 credits for each of the two semesters, the percentage of Pell grant used for the academic year would be 75%.

Effect on Students

Students should be conscious about the lifetime limit of their Pell Grant eligibility when changing majors and/or scheduling classes.

For the 2026-2027 financial aid awarding cycle, students who exceeded the lifetime limits or whose limits are greater than 450% have been identified in the College's database and will be notified by the College regarding their percentage of Pell eligibility.

Students are encouraged to check their Pell Grant Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU) by logging into their Studentaid.gov dashboard using their FSA ID.