Finding Your Perfect School Starts Here!
Step 1
Please answer the question below so that we can help you find your ideal school.
Department of Education Proposes Study on Pell Grants
By Catherine Groux
Posted July 11, 2012 08:03 AM
The DOE has proposed a five-year study on Pell Grants.As the cost of college continues to rise, government officials have sought to find ways to make earning an associate's or bachelor's degree more affordable. Recently, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) set its sights on Pell Grants in particular, proposing a five-year study on how improving student access to this form of financial aid can affect their employment opportunities and salaries, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.
The study, which is comprised of two separate experiments, will examine how small changes in Pell Grant eligibility criteria could affect students. In the first test, the DOE will allow students with bachelor's degrees to receive the grants, as long as they are unemployed or underemployed and go back to school to complete a vocational training program for up to one year. Currently, the grants are only given to undergraduates who do not have a bachelor's or professional degree.
In the second experiment, the DOE will decrease the minimum duration and intensity of the programs grant recipients must enroll in from 15 weeks with a minimum of 600 hours to eight weeks with a minimum of 150 hours.
Between the two experiments, the study will involve about 10,000 degree seekers.
Pell Grants can be extremely important forms of financial aid for some students, since, unlike loans, they do not need to be repaid. Currently, the maximum Pell Grant students can receive is $5,500, but the exact amount depends on financial need, the DOE's website states.
