Disbursement and Refund
Your Federal Pell Grant will be paid out in two disbursements per semester. The first disbursement will be 25% of your scheduled semester award. The second disbursement will pay the remaining 75% of your scheduled award. If there is money left over after your tuition and fees have been paid, you will receive a refund on the dates indicated below.
2021-2022 Pell Grant Refund Schedule
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1st Refund
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2nd Refund
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Fall 2021 Semester
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08-20-21
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10-01-21
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Spring 2022 Semester
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01-21-22
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03-04-22
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The dates posted in the above table are the earliest dates you will receive any funds in hand. These dates are not the dates you will see when the funds appear in your student account. Financial aid is posted to your account 5-7 days before any refunds are issued. Remember this time lag when you are doing your financial planning.
All financial aid related items on the “To Do List” in your CUNYfirst Student Center must be resolved and your class registration must be complete at least 4 weeks before the start of classes to receive the 1st Pell refund on the above date.
The amount of your refund will depend on your total semester Pell Grant and other financial aid you may be receiving minus your total charges. Since Pell recipients are scheduled for 2 disbursements per term, enrollment will be re-assessed for each disbursement. Your class enrollment as of the seventh day of the semester will determine the final payable enrollment for a Federal Pell Grant.
If you receive a Pell Grant refund before classes begin, but change your enrollment before the end of the first week of classes, the amount of Pell available to refund to you may change. You could be asked to return some or all of the payment.
Financial aid is disbursed to your CUNYfirst account according to a weekly schedule. If you don’t receive a scheduled disbursement because your FAFSA was not processed in time or you registered late, your payments will be made as soon as possible after processing of your application is completed.
Receiving Your Refund
If you have chosen direct deposit as your preferred payment method, your Pell Grant refund will be available in your direct deposit account on the dates listed above. Learn more about enrolling in direct deposit in the CUNYfirst Student Financial Aid Guide.
If you did not select direct deposit for receiving your refunds, your Fall and Spring semester refund check(s) will be mailed to your home on the dates listed above.
Using the Pell Grant Award Chart
Calculate the amount of your Federal Pell Grant award amounts for the Summer 2020, Fall 2020 or Spring 2021 semesters by using the award schedule below and other information from your paper or electronic Student Aid Report (SAR). If you don’t have your SAR, you may access it online and download a copy at the FAFSA website. You will need your FSA ID to view and download your SAR.
To use this chart, you need to know your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and your enrollment status. You can determine your enrollment status from your class schedule and find your EFC on your SAR.
- Locate your EFC on your paper or electronic SAR.
- On the Pell Grant Award Schedule, look at the left-hand column labeled “EFC” and find the range of numbers containing your particular EFC.
- Look at the columns to the right labeled with the 4 different enrollment statuses. The appropriate PELL Grant award amounts for every EFC are printed for each enrollment status. Find the column for your enrollment status and move across the same row as your EFC until you find the award amount for your particular enrollment status.
- Full-time = 12 or more credits; 3/4 time = 9-11 credits; half-time = 6-8 credits; and less than 1/2 time = 1-5 credits.
2020-2021 Pell Grant Scheduled Award Chart (Summer 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021)
2021-2022 Pell Grant Scheduled Award Chart (Summer 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022)
BMCC students use Formula 1 to calculate the Pell Grant awards.
Attendance Requirements
Financial aid is awarded with the expectation that you will attend school for the entire period your financial aid was intended for. You must actually begin attendance in your classes to qualify to receive any payments. We will verify your enrollment and attendance with the Registrar and make adjustments to your scheduled award amounts. If you receive a financial aid payment for a class or classes you have never attended, you must return that payment immediately to the college. If you fail to receive payment for a course you are attending, an award recalculation will be made once your enrollment records are corrected.
Withdrawals and Overpayments
If you withdraw from all your classes before 60% of the semester has passed, the college will determine the portion of your federal awards you are entitled to receive based on an attendance formula set forth in federal regulations. If you have received, or the college has received on your behalf, more federal student aid than the formula allows, you will have to repay some or all of the aid. Learn more.
Post-withdrawal Disbursements
If you withdraw from your classes before you have received your Federal Pell Grant, you might receive a partial payment based on the number of days you attended classes before you withdrew.
Payments for Remedial Coursework
You may receive federal award payments (including Pell Grant, FSEOG, FWS, and Direct Loans) for no more than 30 hours of non-credit remedial course work. This restriction does not apply to English as a Second Language courses.
Lifetime Limit on Receipt of Federal Pell Grant
You may receive Federal Pell Grant for no more than the equivalent of 12 full-time undergraduate semesters.
Satisfactory Academic Progress
In accordance with Federal guidelines and University policy, you must be making satisfactory progress in your program of study in order to remain eligible for federal award programs. You will be measured for satisfactory progress once each year after the spring term. If you are found not to be making satisfactory progress, you will be placed on financial aid suspension. Students on financial aid suspension may regain that eligibility by filing a successful financial aid appeal. Visit the Federal Satisfactory Academic Progress page to learn more.
Summer Pell Grant Eligibility
You may receive up to 3 full-time semesters of Pell Grant in any award year. That means that you can receive a Pell Grant in the summer session without affecting your fall or spring Pell awards. Calculated summer Pell Grant estimates can be applied against tuition charges to your summer session bill. Learn more about utilizing Pell Grant in the summer sessions at the Pell Grant Frequently Asked Questions page.
