By Desirée Taylor
NJ Today
The new school year brought new rules for Pell Grant recipients that are expected to impact hundreds of thousands of college students across the country. Among the changes, students must have a high school diploma or GED to quality for the federal aid program. And family income eligibility requirements have been lowered from $32,000 to $23,000. But the change that is expected to impact the most students is there is now a cap on the number of semesters a student can receive Pell Grants at 12, down from 18.
“About 63,000 students across the country may be impacted by that change,” said Jacob Farbman, director of communications for the New Jersey Council of County Colleges.
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It’s not clear exactly how many New Jersey students have been effected. But of the 200,000 students across the state who take college level courses at community colleges, typically 81,000 of them receive Pell Grants. That’s up from about 40,000 back in the 2007-2008 school year.
The changes come as community college students in New Jersey face an average 3 percent increase in tuition this year. This coupled with changes to the Pell Grant have some students scrambling to find other options to pay for college. Eric Weems, Union County College’s Director of Financial Aid, said student loans are going be a viable option for students. But he admits they’re not as attractive because unlike loans, the Pell Grant does not have to be repaid.