I can say from experience that the Federal Pell Grant is helpful. Although there is no denying that the sum of money I received from such grant is not enough to pay the entirety of my schooling expenditures, I am truly appreciative of the fact that it was able to ease out my financial burden especially so because I come from a low-income household.

At the same time, being a recipient of the Pell Grant made be eligible for other student financial aid package as well, meaning I was able to add to it other federal and non-federal scholarships thereby allowing me to save on cost even more. Another neat aspect of this federal student aid program is that they do not require repayment in cash; instead it requires its beneficiaries to maintain satisfactory progress in academics and stay out of legal trouble to remain in the program.

The Federal Pell Grant is intended for students who come from low-income households such as myself and those who are living independently with meager earnings. Also, the grant is only made available to United States citizens or those considered as eligible non-citizens. In addition, applicants should be a high school graduate or holder of a GED certificate and have not earned a bachelor’s or professional degree yet.

The first step in applying for the Pell Grant is by completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form on or after July 1 of each year. Nowadays, students already have the option of completing the said form via the Internet and that was exactly what I did. I recommend the latter, aside from being convenient, application turnaround is much faster. The form can be found on www.fafsa.ed.gov, and it can be filled out on the website itself. Filling out the form was relatively easy since the instructions were fairly self-explanatory. The FAFSA consists of multiple questions, at least 130 if I remember correctly, and these were about my assets and that of my family, income, as well as dependency. From what I understand, these factors are evaluated by the Department of Education and entered into a formula which determines Expected Family Contribution (EFC). The result of which decides how much I can get to use for one reward year.

My request for federal student aid was evaluated and in five days time I got my Student Aid Report (SAR) and request approval notice through email. The school then provided me a written document which detailed how much I got from the Pell Grant program, as well as the process and schedule of disbursement.