FAFSA, and shooting yourself in the foot.

[Drakemoore]

I personally don't have any college credit yet, I'm working on a plan / studying for CLEP.

However there's something I searched for on this forum and I couldn't find. I figured I'd start a discussion for it.


FAFSA's policy seems to be that you have 6 years worth of funding via the Pell Grant, or until you have a Bachelor's degree, whichever comes first. However the other stipulation is that you cannot exceed more than 50% worth of credit beyond your degree program. For example, if you are using the Pell Grant to pay for an Associates, you cannot exceed 90 credits, because a typical AA degree is 60. Likewise, it's an 180 credit limit for a Bachelors. This is called a SAP (Satisfactory Academic Progress) and all schools that use FAFSA have to abide by it I believe.

The part where this becomes a bit of a problem is the fact that if you read the policy at most colleges, it counts 'all' credit sources. It specifically mentions it at most of the CCs in Florida at least that any credit by exam such as CLEP, DSST and other sources is counted towards this 90/180 limit, regardless if the credits are used for your degree or not. That also means that anyone banking credits via ACE / CLEP / DSST / ETC on their own dime, may be hurting themselves if they're amassing a lot of credit that may not be used for their degree or if they change their minds and go for something else.

What's more, is the fact that I contacted several reps at FAFSA to confirm this and none of them knew what the 90 / 180 credit limit was to begin with and told me it doesn't apply, just 6 years or until Bachelors. However, the CCs state it pretty clearly.:confused:

Edit:

I checked a few more schools and it mentioned credit by exam / prior learning was excluded from financial aid eligibility. So now I'm really confused.

[Devanna]

This sounds like something you would have to take up with a school's financial aid office. Maybe it's up to the school whether or not they count CBEs?

[cookderosa]

your credit by exam won't count for using federal aid toward your enrollment, meaning if you complete an exam it doesn't "count" toward your 6 credit minimum, so my suggestion is simply not submitting your exam credit transcript to your school until you're finished taking classes or are in your last semester.

I'm unfamiliar with the % situation you talk about, however, just enroll in the BA program from the start and go from there.

Good luck as you get started!