Federal Pell Grants are awarded to undergraduate students who have financial need (based on income and family size or their Student Aid Index -SAI) and have not previously earned a bachelor’s, graduate, or professional degree.

Federal Pell Grants do not have to be repaid and may be available to students for up to the equivalent of six academic years of full time study (or 12 full-time semesters).

To be considered for a Pell Grant you must submit a completed  Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA^®) form. The maximum amount of a Pell Grant can change yearly. If you are eligible for Pell you will see an amount posted on your CUNYfirst Financial Aid Package.

Does the Pell Grant Cover my Full Tuition?

No. The Federal Pell Grant by itself is not sufficient to fully cover tuition at Brooklyn College. Please speak with the Financial Aid Office, Scholarship Office and Bursar to discuss other forms of aid or payment options that may be available to you to assist in covering your tuition.

How Do I Know if I’m Getting Pell?

Pell eligibility is determined by your FAFSA application for the corresponding year, your SAP (Satisfactory Academic Progress) status, and your enrollment. If your FAFSA confirmation indicated that you are Pell eligible but you do not see it on your aid package in CUNYfirst speak with a representative to learn why. There can be a number of reasons why it might not be there, some may be technical and others may be due to additional eligibility requirements not being met.

If you see Pell on your aid package in CUNYfirst but you’re not seeing it reflect as “Pending Aid” here are a few tips:

1. Check your To-Do List on your CUNYfirst Student Service Center. If your FAFSA requires more information/documents to be submitted to the school, it will stop all federal aid from authorizing and disbursing.
2. Make sure you are enrolled for the semester or else your pending aid will not reflect. Enrollment is required for the pending aid to show. Note that it can take 1-2 days from when you enroll until pending aid shows.
3. If you completed everything on your to do list and are enrolled but still do not see your pending aid reflect, please follow up with the Office of Financial aid. There may be other issues preventing the pending aid process from running and Office of Financial Aid staff can review your account to determine the cause.

What is Pell Lifetime Eligibility Usage (LEU)?

Pell Lifetime Eligibility Usage (LEU) is the sum of the percentages of your Federal Pell Grant scheduled awards that you received for each award year. The amount of Federal Pell Grant funds a student may receive over their lifetime is limited by federal law to be the equivalent of six years (of fulltime enrollment Fall/Spring attendance) of Pell Grant funding.

Click here to learn how LEU is calculated.

Log in to your Federal Student Aid Account Dashboard to view your Federal Pell Grant Lifetime Eligibility Used.

How Much Pell can I use per academic year?

A student can use up to 150% of their Pell allowance each academic year. This can be a confusing concept so please review the article Understanding the 150% Annual Pell Limit .

Summer Pell

Summer 2025

Students attending in the Summer 2025 semester (either or both sessions), should file a FAFSA form for the 2025-2026 academic year. This allows students to be considered for Pell either from the 2024-2025 academic year or from the 2025-2026 academic year. If a student has Pell eligibility from both aid years than the Pell grant for Summer will reflect which aid year is more beneficial.

This may seem confusing, and this is why we advise that you speak with the Financial Aid Office if you have questions regarding your Pell eligibility for Summer 2025.

Winter Session

There is no specific Pell Grant award for the Winter Sessions. Students’ enrollment in the Winter Session are included with the Spring Enrollment to calculate how much Pell you can receive for Spring. For example if you take 3 credits in the winter and 9 credits in the spring that will combine to 12 credits for determining Pell grant eligibility. Students must either pay out of pocket for winter intersession classes or have enough excess spring aid to cover their combined balances.

How Do Withdrawals Affect my Federal Pell Grant?

Winter and Summer

Any and all withdrawals in the Winter Session and Summer Session 1 will not be counted towards your enrollment. It is highly advised that you speak with the Financial Aid office first before proceeding with withdrawing during the Winter Session and Summer Session 1.

Partial withdrawals during the Summer Session 2, Fall, and Spring semesters should not affect your Pell award amount unless they are occurring within the first two weeks of the session or semester. If you are doing any and all withdrawals within the first two weeks of Summer Session 2, Fall,  or Spring please consult with financial aid first to discuss how this may affect your federal aid.

Fall and Spring

If you are planning on doing a total withdrawal in any session or semester it is highly advisable that you speak with the financial aid office before doing so. Total withdrawals can affect the total amount of federal aid that you can receive for that session or semester. Even if the aid disbursed in full it can be reduced to reflect the amount of time you attended in the session or semester which can result in owing a balance to Brooklyn College.

Withdrawing can also have a long term affect on meeting Satisfactory Academic Progress which can cause you to lose aid eligibility.

Prior Year Income Adjustment and Pell Eligibility

If you had an income adjustment appeal approved in the previous academic year, and you became eligible for a Pell grant as a result, it is important to note that your income adjustment does not roll over to the following academic year. Therefore, you may not be eligible in the current year if the income on your new FAFSA doesn’t reflect what was considered in the adjustment. This can happen because the FAFSA uses income information that is at least two-years old. To be considered for Pell again you would need to go through the process again for your new FAFSA application to determine eligibility. Note however that an income adjustment appeal, even when approved, does not guarantee that you will be Pell eligible or that the same amount will be available.

I Need More Help

Read the article “How to Calculate your Federal Pell Grant” for more details about calculating the federal Pell grant.

Financial Aid TV “What is a Pell Grant” Video

Federal Student Aid Portal – Pell Grant

Financial Aid Office Services

Brooklyn College – Student Federal Pell Grant Estimator (you must have a BC WebCentral Account to use this estimator – for admitted BC students)

CUNY Net Price Calculator (can be used by prospective and current students)

Fall/Spring Enrollment

If you attend a semester for at least 12 credits (full time status) and receive a Federal Pell Grant for the semester you would use 50% of your Pell allowance for the academic year.

Example 1 – Pell used for 2 Terms

So for example, Jane is enrolled for 12 credits in the Fall semester and 12 credits in the Spring 2025 semester. This would mean that Jane used 100% of their Pell allowance for the 2024/25 academic year.

A Note About Summer

The Summer semester is a “crossover” period. What this means is that summer can sometimes be associated with the aid year that is ending or with the aid year that is beginning. Therefore it is possible for a student to receive two summer Pell grants within a single aid year provided that have not exceeded the 150% Pell annual limit. The examples below illustrate this further.

Summer/Fall/Spring Enrollment

While the typical enrollment for a student is to attend the Fall and Spring semesters, let’s throw in Summer with a “Front End” Pell award so we can go further into what the 150% Pell allowance is. Summer “Front End” Pell can be used as the first Pell payment for the start of the academic year when a student is enrolled in the summer preceding the fall semester.

Example 2- Pell used over 3 Terms

Jane is enrolled for 7 credits in Summer, 12 credits in Fall , and 10 credits in Spring.

Jane used a total of 120.5% of their Pell allowance for the academic/aid year by utilizing “Front End” Pell in Summer and with their enrollment/Pell awards in Fall and Spring.

Summer/Fall/Spring/Summer Enrollment

You can also utilize remaining Pell eligibility for the Summer semester that normally starts the following academic year (follows the spring semester). This is referred to as “Back End” Pell, an example using that below:

Example 3- Pell used over 4 Terms

Jane has enrolled for 6 credits in Summer, 12 credits in Fall, 8 credits in Spring, and 9 credits in the following Summer.

This would mean that Jane utilized 146% of their Pell allowance in the 2024/25 academic year. By enrolling for Summer at the start of the academic year (“Front End”) and Summer at the end of the academic year (“Back End”) they were able to utilize both Front End Pell for the preceding Summer and Back End Pell for the following Summer.

Summer/Fall/Spring/Summer Enrollment – More than 150% Pell Enrollment

In all the scenarios above we have a student that was able to utilize their Pell allowance in an academic year. Now let’s discuss a situation where their enrollment would cause them to exceed the 150% annual Pell limit and its implications.

Example 4- Pell used over 4 Terms – Exceeding 150% Pell Enrollment Percentages

Jane is enrolled for 6 credits in the preceding Summer (“Front End”), 12 credits in Fall , 12 credits in Spring, and 9 credits in the following Summer (“Back End”).

In this scenario Jane has a total of 162.5% in the academic/aid year. What this means is that Jane would still get a Back End Pell award in Summer following the spring term but it would be based on only the remaining 25% of eligibility that Jane has i.e. 6 credits because they cannot exceed 150% in an academic/aid year.

Recommended Practices for Students Attending Summer

In all cases we recommend that students file the FAFSA for the next academic year because depending on the eligibility you may be eligible to receive a higher amount of Pell for Summer using “Front End” instead of the remaining “Back End” eligibility.