Federal Grants

• Fill out and submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
• You must complete the FAFSA form every year you’re in school in order to remain eligible for federal aid (including Pell Grants), state aid (Cal Grants), and institutional need-based aid.  

By default, Cal Lutheran will automatically accept the full amount of Pell Grant that you are eligible for each year. If, however, you do not want to utilize the full amount, you have options:

• Students may decline all or any portion of a Pell Grant award that has not yet been disbursed. In this case, students must provide schools with signed, written statements that they are declining all or some portion of the Pell Grant award and confirming that they understand that the funds may not be available once the award year ends.
• Students may return Pell Grant funds in the same award year in which the funds were disbursed. Students must provide schools with signed, written statements confirming that they are returning the grant funds and that they understand that the funds may not be available once the award year ends. Students must return Pell Grant funds directly to the schools.

• The maximum time frame during which a student is eligible to receive a Pell Grant is 12 semesters. Due to this limit, some students may not want to accept their Pell Grant funds every award year. For instance, the student may believe they will be eligible for a higher Pell award in a subsequent year or they may plan to transfer to a higher-cost school in a future year. As such, the student may request to either decline or return their Pell Grant within the active award year.

Expanded Pell Grant Eligibility

• The FAFSA Simplification Act will expand the Federal Pell Grant to more students and is estimated to increase Pell Grant recipients by nearly 15%.
• Incarcerated students will regain the ability to receive a Pell Grant.
• Pell Grant lifetime eligibility will be restored to students whose school closed while they were enrolled, or were subject to a false certification, identity theft, or a borrower defense loan discharge.

Enrollment Intensity Adjustments for Pell Grants

• For students who are not enrolled full-time, a student’s Scheduled Pell Grant award will be multiplied by the student’s Enrollment Intensity percentage to determine their Annual Pell Grant Award.
• Enrollment intensity is the percentage of full-time enrollment at which a student is enrolled, rounded to the nearest whole percent. For example, if full-time enrollment is 12 or more credit hours and the student is enrolled in 7 credits, the enrollment intensity would be (7 ÷ 12) × 100% = 58%. The student’s Scheduled Pell Grant award is then multiplied by the student’s Enrollment Intensity percentage to determine their Annual Pell Grant Award.

Maximum and Minimum Pell Grant Determination

• Maximum and Minimum Pell Grant eligibility will now be determined based on tax filing requirements, family size and composition (i.e., single parent or non-single parent), poverty guidelines, and state of residence.

Year-Round Pell Grant

• Previously, a Pell Grant-eligible student must have been enrolled at least half-time in a payment period during which they received more than 100% of their scheduled award.
• Beginning with the 2024-2025 award year, half-time enrollment is no longer required.

Additional FAFSA Simplification Information