{"id":7476,"date":"2012-05-14T16:27:37","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T20:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=7476"},"modified":"2014-03-14T15:27:24","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T19:27:24","slug":"why-its-harder-for-college-students-to-get-financial-aid-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/05\/14\/why-its-harder-for-college-students-to-get-financial-aid-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Why It\u2019s Harder for College Students to Get Financial Aid This Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Sarah Gonzalez \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Florida International University senior Courtney Johnson works 20 hours a week as a secretary on campus. This summer she's taken out $2,700 in loans to pay for summer tuition. She only took out $600 in loans for the full 2011-2012 fall and spring semesters.<\/p><\/div>\n

College students \u00a0who need to go to summer school have few\u00a0choices for grants and scholarships.<\/p>\n

And their options just shrank.<\/p>\n

The federal government is no longer giving out a need-based Pell Grant<\/a> to help students pay for summer tuition.<\/p>\n

And the replacement is more loans.<\/p>\n

Senior Courtney Johnson has taken summer courses at Florida International University for the past two years.<\/p>\n

She received the federal summer Pell Grant each time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s covered most of her summer tuition.<\/p>\n\n

But this summer she’s taking out $2,700 in student loans. That just happens to be about the amount of a full summer Pell Grant.<\/p>\n

“And then I still have to buy my own textbooks and I still had to pay $350 out of my own pocket because they didn\u2019t offer enough loans,” she said.<\/p>\n

A lot of students max out their student loan options during the fall and spring semesters.<\/p>\n

So a few years ago, the federal government started offering a $2,750 Pell Grant for the summer semester in addition to the same amount in the fall and the spring.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Florida colleges and universities handed out nearly twice as much in Pell Grants the first year of the summer program.<\/p>\n

At the University of Florida awards increased from $26 million to $46 million that year.<\/p>\n

\n

“The classes are shorter so you’re paying more money for a shorter period of time.”<\/p>\n

-Courtney Johnson, senior at FIU<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n

At the University of North Florida, Pell Grant distributions increased from $8 million to $16 million.<\/p>\n

Much of the increase came from students taking summer classes and getting the financial aid for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did see a bump in summer enrollment,\u201d said Rene Garcia, enrollment director at Miami-Dade College.<\/p>\n

But now that the summer grant is gone, Gracia says fewer students are likely to take summer courses.<\/p>\n

“I am anticipating that there will be an impact on summer enrollment,” Garcia said. \u201dIt\u2019s still a little early to get a good sense, but I can see a pattern that we are returning to our pre-summer Pell numbers.”<\/p>\n

Summer school is usually divided into two terms at many Florida colleges and universities. Most won\u2019t have their final summer enrollment numbers until after the start of the second summer term.<\/p>\n

But student Courtney Johnson says her campus looks emptier than usual for summer school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis semester there\u2019s barely any people on campus,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s weird because [the first summer term] is usually really fuller because everyone wants to get school over by June.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Was the Summer Pell Grant Cut?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fewer students means less state funding for colleges and less tuition money coming in.<\/p>\n

But Garcia says cutting summer financial aid will also delay graduations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sarah Gonzalez \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Rene Garcia is Director of Enrollment at Miami-Dade College. He's anticipating summer enrollment will be down this year since the federal government has cut financial aid for summer tuition.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cLately there has been so much emphasis on accelerating the process of earning a degree and making it easier for students to accelerate and complete their credentials,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThis obviously runs counter to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eliminating the summer Pell Grant has allowed the federal government to keep the fall and spring Pell Grant at current levels, says Anissa Agne, financial aid director at the University of North Florida.<\/p>\n

She says some Florida schools do have summer grants of\u00a0their own to offer students.\u00a0At UNF there is a need-based summer grant for up to $1200.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve tried to utilize our institutional grants for our students to be able to take summer school and be able to pay for some of those summer classes,” Agne said. \u201cBecause we realize many of the returning students will not have Pell Grant available.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that still won’t make up for the millions of dollars students are losing out on in summer assistance.<\/p>\n

Changes to the Fall and Spring Pell Grant<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although the fall and spring Pell Grant will remain at a maximum of $5,500 for the 2012-2013 school year, fewer students will receive the award from now on.<\/p>\n

That’s because the federal government has lowered the amount of income a family can make in order to qualify.<\/p>\n

When Agne started working in financial aid, the most a family could earn was $18,000 in order to qualify for the Pell Grant.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it has gone up each year to allow families to make more money and still receive a full Pell Grant, which made more students eligible,\u201d Agne said.<\/p>\n

This school year, a family of four could make up to $32,000 for a student to receive the maximum award.<\/p>\n

Next school year, that same family of four can only make $23,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first time we see a drop in the 17 years I have been in financial aid,\u201d Agne said.<\/p>\n

The Summer Semester Hurts Student Pockets More<\/strong><\/p>\n

The summer Pell Grant was only in effect for two years.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration decided not to continue funding the program because it was costing more than they planned on.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

More students were signing up for summer aid than officials had anticipated.<\/p>\n

And Courtney Johnson may know why.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sarah Gonzalez \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Students at FIU say the campus feels emptier than usual for summer school. Senior Courtney Johnson think having no summer Pell Grant may discourage students from enrolling.<\/p><\/div>\n

She says if there is any semester students would want financial aid<\/a>, it\u2019s the summer semester.<\/p>\n

Summer tuition costs the same as fall and spring tuition, but Johnson says taking summer courses is more of a waste of money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe classes are shorter so you’re paying more money for a shorter period of time,\u201d she said. \u201cYou’re getting less out of your money.”<\/p>\n

The fall and spring semesters are about 5 months long. The summer semester is about 6 weeks.<\/p>\n

The classes do tend to be longer periods, \u201cbut it\u2019s rushed,\u201d Johnson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to get a lot of stuff done in a little period of time so I feel like I\u2019m not really learning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

College students \u00a0who need to go to summer school have few\u00a0choices for grants and scholarships. And their options just shrank. The federal government is no longer giving out a need-based Pell Grant to help students pay for summer tuition. And the replacement is more loans. Senior Courtney Johnson has taken summer courses at Florida International […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":7480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1012,1013,1104,1065,1045,1037,1087,1141,1124],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7476"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7490,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7476\/revisions\/7490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}