Keeping Your Aid

After applying for and receving aid, it is important to know how to keep your aid. Access the information below to know how much Pell eligbility you have left, how to appeal if you become disqualified, understand the impact of withdrawing from classes on your aid eligiblity, how to appeal your dependency status or student budget, and how to develop effective budgeting skills.

The amount of Federal Pell Grant funds students may receive over their lifetime is limited by federal law to be the equivalent of six years of Pell Grant funding. Since the amount of a scheduled Pell Grant award students can receive each award year is equal to 100%, the six-year equivalent is 600%. Once you have reached the 600% limit, you are not eligible for any additional Pell funding - there are no exceptions or appeals. Also, once you have earned a Bachelor’s Degree, you are no longer eligible for a Pell Grant even if you haven’t received the entire 600% eligibility.

The Federal Department of Education keeps track of every student's LEU by adding together the percentages of their Pell Grant scheduled awards that were received for each award year from every school. Follow this link to determine how much Pell you have used and how much you have remaining - you'll need to log in using your FSA ID.

Remember! If you want to "save" some of your remaining Pell eligiblity for when you transfer to a four-year school, you have the ability to decline your Pell Grant while continuing to receive other types of aid, such as the Work Study, Cal Grant and/or the Californai College Promsie Grant. Just complete the Request to Cancel Aid form, founds under the Additional Forms section on our forms webpage.
Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) is a federal regulation that requires financial aid applicants to be evaluated on a qualitative standard (cumulative GPA of 2.0 or better) and quantitative standards (completion rate/pace of 67% or greeater and maximum time frame) every year. All periods of enrollment at Southwestern College and transferable units from other colleges (determined from official transcripts on file at SWC) will be included as part of the SAP review. Also, students who are disqualified have the right to appeal.

Follow this link for information on all the standards, requirements, and appeal options for SAP.
Title IV financial aid funds are awarded with the assumption that the student will attend school for the entire term for which the aid was awarded. Therefore, if a student withdraws, they may no longer be eligible for the full amount of Title IV funds originally scheduled to receive or may be eligible for a post withdrawal disbursement.

Southwestern College is required to recalculate financial aid eligibility if the students reduces units, completely withdrawas. or stops attending prior to the end of the semester. Funds subject to a Return to Title IV (R2T4) calculation include Federal Direct Student Loans, Pell Grants, and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOG). Institutional scholarship funds and Federal Work Study are not subject to these calculations.

Follow this link to understand the impact that withdrawing from classes has on your aid eligiblity.

Let's get started.