Pell Grant Restrictions


The Federal Pell Grant Program is not open to everyone in the United States. There are restrictions on the Pell Grant Program.

  1. You can not receive the grant for more than one school at a time. This is the condition of all financial aid as well.
  2. You cannot have a past Pell Grant Overpayment or Federal Stafford Loan in default.
  3. You must be in an undergrad program and you can’t already have a 4 year degree or higher.
  4. You can not be incarcerated in a state or federal penal institution.
  5. You must be in a degree seeking eligible program. This means that you can’t go and take underwater basket weaving and gym class and expect to get the Pell Grant.
  6. You must not already be receiving a full scholarship or already have your school paid for 100% by a scholarship.This usually means that if you were awarded a huge presidential scholarship and your college is already 100% paid for, you would not get the full Pell Grant because there would be no need for it according to the school.
  7. You must be fulfilling the school’s satisfactory academic progress policy.

The official governmental handbook is several hundred pages long so we could not list all of the Pell Grant Restrictions here, but these are the main restrictions on the grant program.