Summer Financial Aid

In order to be considered for summer aid, you must have completed the following for the 2011-12 academic year:

Your 2011-12 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Note that your FAFSA must not be incomplete and Federal Verification, if selected, must be finalized.
Review and, if needed, update your 2011-12 Penn College Financial Aid Application (FAA) available at SIS. After you log onto SIS, click on Financial Information and then Penn College Financial Aid Application (FAA).
Scheduling of Summer 2011 semester classes

You must also satisfy Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) for the 2010-11 academic year. We are revising our SAP policy. The new policy for federal aid and private alternative loans will require all students to have a graduation GPA ≥ 2.00. You must also have a minimum Pace of 67%. Pace is the ratio of cumulative credit hours earned to cumulative credits attempted in your current educational program. Contact us if you are planning summer classes and you don’t think you will have achieve SAP by the end of Spring Semester..

Summer Loans

To be eligible and receive billing credit for your Federal Direct Stafford or Federal Direct PLUS Loan funds, you must be scheduled for six or more credits for the summer semester. If you drop below six credits, you may become ineligible for all or part of the loan. Any refund resulting from a dropped class(es) will be returned to the U.S. Department of Education.

Summer loan applications are processed beginning in April. If you think you are eligible for a Federal Pell Grant, read this information. Once processed, you will receive an award letter indicating the amount of the loan and the term(s) for which it has been processed. When final action has been taken on the loan, you will receive a Loan Guaranty Notice and Disclosure Statement. That Statement will contain information about fees, loan term dates, and the anticipated disbursement date. Save the Statement for future reference. Loan funds will not be credited to your account until after you have officially scheduled for at least six credits.

Request a Federal Direct Stafford Student Summer Loan

Please complete and submit the Summer 2011 Federal Direct Stafford Loan Request Form to the Financial Aid Office. If you have not received a Federal Direct Stafford Loan in the past twelve (12) months, you must also complete Entrance Counseling and a new Federal Direct Loan Master Promissory Note (MPN). Please refer to our Loans page for additional information.

Request a Federal Direct Parent PLUS Summer Loan

Your parent borrower must complete the following steps.

Submit the Summer 2011 Federal Direct Parent PLUS Loan Request Form to the Financial Aid Office.
Submit a PLUS Loan Request with the U.S. Department of Education at studentloans.gov . Your parent clicks on the green 'Sign In' box to sign in using your parent's Federal PIN. Completing the PLUS Loan Request will initiate a credit check. (If your parent is denied, please refer to this additional information. If your parent is approved, your parent should continue to step 3 below.)
On the same website as in step 2, your parent borrower completes a Direct PLUS Master Promissory Note (MPN) Note: If your Parent has borrowed PLUS loan funds for you in the past 12 months step 3 is not necessary.

Federal Pell Grants

Students taking summer classes will receive Federal Pell Grants if they meet all eligibility requirements. The awarding process is somewhat complex due to a recent change in federal regulations. We will be happy to answer your questions about the process.

In general, students who have remaining eligibility from the 2010-11 award year will have their summer Pell Grant awarded from the 2010-11 award year, unless they are graduating in August or December of 2011 and they can receive a higher Pell award if their summer Pell Grant is awarded from the 2011-12 award year.
Students who have Pell-eligibility only from the 2011-12 award year will have their Pell Grant awarded from that year, although doing so will reduce or eliminate their Spring 2012 Pell Grant award. Those students who will attend all three semesters (Summer 2011, Fall 2011, and Spring 2012) can notify us in writing if they prefer not to have a Summer Pell Grant in order to conserve all of their 2011-12 Pell award for the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 Semesters.

Please note that Pell Grants must be awarded before any summer loans can be awarded.

PHEAA Grants

You may receive a PHEAA grant for summer if you are enrolled in six or more credits and meet other eligibility criteria. However, since receiving a summer PHEAA grant reduces the number of remaining semesters of PHEAA that you are entitled to receive, you may only want to use PHEAA for summer if you are planning to enroll full-time (12 credits or more), are graduating in August of 2011, or you will be part-time during the 2011-12 academic year. To discuss your options, contact the Financial Aid Office. You apply for the PHEAA Summer State Grant online via PHEAA's Account Access site. After logging in, click on 'Apply for the PA Summer State Grant'. The deadline is August 15.

PHEAA typically does not finalize Summer State Grant applications until the College receives PHEAA's Summer Disbursement Roster in June. Students must satisfy PHEAA's Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy and other criteria to be eligible.
Information about PHEAA Grants and distance education.

Note that any refunds from summer grants will not be refunded to students until July.

More information about grants.

For refund and billing questions, contact the Bursar’s Office/Student Accounts.