Grants
The Federal Pell Grant is a non-repayable grant to help students pay for their post-secondary education. Eligibility depends upon financial need as determined by a contractor for the federal government utilizing a formula devised and approved by Congress.
The amount of Federal Pell Grant funds a student may receive over his or her lifetime is limited by federal law to be the equivalent of six years of Federal Pell Grant funding (12 full-time semesters). The Federal Department of Education keeps track of your Lifetime Eligibility Used by adding together the percentages of your Federal Pell Grant offers that you received for each academic year. You can determine how much Federal Pell Grant you have used and what you have remaining at https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/grants/pell/calculate-eligibility. If you have reached your Lifetime Eligibility for the Federal Pell Grant, you may still have loan options available to pay for classes.
You may not receive Federal Pell Grant funds from two schools for the same semester. If this happens, one of the schools will be required to cancel your offer, which may leave you with an outstanding balance.
Year-round Pell allows students to receive up to 150 percent of a regular grant amount over the course of the academic year so that they can continue taking classes in the summer and finish their degrees faster than they would otherwise. Students may now receive a full Federal Pell Grant offer for the summer semester even if they received the full Federal Pell Grant offer during the fall and spring semesters. Students must be otherwise eligible to receive Federal Pell Grant funds for the payment period, enroll in at least half-time (6 credit hours) during the summer term, and must maintain satisfactory academic progress.
The Tennessee Student Assistance Award is a non-repayable grant to assist undergraduate students in financing post-secondary education. Any graduate of a Tennessee high school who is enrolled or will be enrolled as an undergraduate student at a Tennessee post-secondary institution is eligible to apply.
The Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant is a non-repayable grant to help undergraduate students with exceptional financial need. Priority is given to Federal Pell Grant recipients.
The Federal Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant is a non-repayable grant offered to students whose parent or guardian died as a result of military service in Iraq or Afghanistan. To find out more information about this grant, please go to https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/grants/iraq-afghanistan-service.