What does this mean? ( question about financial aid and grants) Please help!?

Question

i'm trying to apply for a grant on my college (my first year) and one of the requirements says this

"have family income at or below 100% of the federally-established poverty level"

what does that mean? Please help me. Thanks.

Answer 1

The eligibility for certain federal educational grants and certain financial aid repayment plans are based on the Department of Health and Human Service's definition of the "poverty guidelines".

Every year, the Census Bureau establishes a "poverty threshold", an estimate of the minimum necessary household income to provide food and shelter for a family (obviously, the amount would depend on the number of members in that family).

The poverty threshold numbers are complex and have many variations, so the Department of Health and Human Services publishes an annual simplified version of the threshold known as the "poverty guidelines". You may hear some people refer to this number as the "poverty line", but that's not the preferred name.

For the 2008 year, HHS (Health and Human Services) determined that the federal proverty guidelines look like this:

1 person household: $10,400

2 person household: $14,000

3 person household: $17,600

4 person household: $21,200

5 person household: $24,800

6 person household: $28,400

7 person household: $32,000

All of the above are slightly higher in Alaska and Hawaii.

You'll ask next if these amounts represent before-tax or after-tax income, and whether these are gross income amounts or net income amounts. The answer depends on the particular grant program that you're applying for.

Basically, however, the grant information is informing you that you will only qualify for this particular grant if your family earns a total annual income of less than the amounts that I've identified above.

Check with the financial aid office for more information. I hope that helped.

Edit: Different federal programs base eligibility on different standards that are related to the federal poverty guideline. This one is 100% of the guideline, meaning you can apply the guideline numbers directly. Another program might base eligibility on (say) 150% of the guideline. That would mean that you would qualify unless your income exceeded the guideline plus another 50% - or in other words - take the guideline and add half of the guideline to it.

Example: If the eligibility limit was 150% of the poverty guideline and the guideline was $10,400, then 150% of that $10,400 would be $10,400 plus $5,200 (which is half of $10,400) - for a total of $15,600. Under the example that I'm using of an eligibility limit of 150% of the poverty guideline, you would qualify for the program as long as you earned under $15,600 in income for that year.

Does that make sense?

On to your other question - same basic idea. You don't qualify for a Pell grant based on the federal poverty guidelines. You qualify for a Pell grant based on the Department of Education's calculation of your family EFC, which stands for Expected Family Contribution.

The Department of Education computes your EFC based on the answers that you provide on the FAFSA form - the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The EFC represents the Department's estimate of what your family should be able to contribute to the cost of your education this year. There is no way to "know" or otherwise "compute" your EFC without submitting a FAFSA to the Department of Education, and waiting for them to process it.

As I said, eligibility for the Pell Grant (and another grant, the FSEOG grant) are determined entirely by your EFC score. The amount of your Pell Grant is determined on a sliding scale, based on the EFC. If your EFC is more than 4041, you won't qualify at all. If your EFC is LESS than 4041, you'll qualify for differing amounts, depending on the actual EFC number. The minimum is $400 and the maximum is $4731.

So - long story short - you would qualify for THIS second grant that you're asking about if your EFC score is between 0 and 8082. Why? Because the eligibility is based on 200% of the Pell Limit. Like the Pell, this grant seems to be awarded on a sliding scale - the closer your EFC is to zero, the higher the award that you would receive.

I hope that explains it!

Answer 2

There are organizations that help people do exactly that,  and for FREE!!

They assist people get into ANY college.... even at a different one they are hosted by.

  

The first link is a description of the program and what they can help you with.  The second link is a list of programs in the US.  Find your state and the closest college to your current location.  Call them and they will be able to tell you if they have a satellite office in your community, if they don't they might be able to tell you the closest one that does.