Pell grant?

[mikepro]

Can you use your Pell grant for any of these services SL/SDC etc etc? My employer has tuition reimbursement that can pay for my actual tuition so would like to use pell grant for these

[BrighterFuture88]

All is private pay-only, I believe.

[davewill]

Sometimes people will use a low cost school like their local community college or one of the Arizona CCs like https://www.nmjc.edu/ to use their Pell grant, which gives them leftover money to use in paying for alternative credit. However, since your employer reimburses, I'm not even sure you would qualify for a Pell grant.

If you work for a smaller company, you might try making a pitch to somebody in HR, explaining how much money they could save by paying for your alternative credit instead of reimbursing you $300-400 per credit at a traditional school. They might be willing to deal.

[dfrecore]

Sometimes people will use a low cost school like their local community college or one of the Arizona CCs like https://www.nmjc.edu/ to use their Pell grant, which gives them leftover money to use in paying for alternative credit. However, since your employer reimburses, I'm not even sure you would qualify for a Pell grant.

If you work for a smaller company, you might try making a pitch to somebody in HR, explaining how much money they could save by paying for your alternative credit instead of reimbursing you $300-400 per credit at a traditional school. They might be willing to deal.

You can get a Pell grant even if you have tuition reimbursement at your company:http://pell-grants.org/pell-grant-and-tu...-employer/

But, I agree with davewill, you should definitely try to see if your company will reimburse you for courses that will count towards your degree.  Give them the following:
1) something showing your school will take ACE/NCCRS credit (from their catalog)
2) a well-planned-out degree plan, showing all of the courses you want to take, the cost for each, and where they'll apply in your plan - and then add a couple of columns showing the same courses and how much they'd cost at a CC or 4yr school
3) a printout for each course you want to take alternatively from ACE/NCCRS, showing that it's ACE/NCCRS-recommended, and for how many credits
4) a list of each course provider and it's cost-structure (my husband's company would pay for courses if they were ACE and did not have a monthly fee - so SL and Study.com were out, but Sophia, Ed4Credit, Saylor, CLEP, DSST, etc. were fine)
5) A nice short letter asking them to consider granting you a waiver to their current policy, telling them how much time and money you will save (and save them)
6) Make it all as professional as possible

If that doesn't work, then at least you gave it your best shot.  Good luck!

[allvia]

Keep in mind you can only use a Pell Grant if you are enrolled in a school at least half time (and the grant is pro-rated) - so 1/2 time or 6 credits in a semester/term is half the awarded the Pell Grant $ amount.  You can still be eligible for a Pell Grant if your employer offers tuition reimbursement; however be aware that your employer won't reimburse you if your Pell Grant covers all your costs (as there would be nothing to reimburse).

For the Alt source credit providers we talk about here, such as Study.com, Straighterline, Saylor, ALEKS, CLEP, etc most employers will not cover those as tuition reimbursement.  However, just because most won't doesn't mean yours doesn't- you may have to approach them about it. Some employers do reimburse for professional development (meaning the course/program not have to be specifically college courses) and may cover subjects that apply to your job (eg: they may not cover US History and Comp I through SDC, but they may cover the costs of Cost Accounting and Hospitality Marketing)

[dfrecore]

Keep in mind you can only use a Pell Grant if you are enrolled in a school at least half time (and the grant is pro-rated) - so 1/2 time or 6 credits in a semester/term is half the awarded the Pell Grant $ amount.  You can still be eligible for a Pell Grant if your employer offers tuition reimbursement; however be aware that your employer won't reimburse you if your Pell Grant covers all your costs (as there would be nothing to reimburse).

For the Alt source credit providers we talk about here, such as Study.com, Straighterline, Saylor, ALEKS, CLEP, etc most employers will not cover those as tuition reimbursement.  However, just because most won't doesn't mean yours doesn't- you may have to approach them about it. Some employers do reimburse for professional development (meaning the course/program not have to be specifically college courses) and may cover subjects that apply to your job (eg: they may not cover US History and Comp I through SDC, but they may cover the costs of Cost Accounting and Hospitality Marketing)

This is good info.

Also, some companies may have internal training that will work as well.  My husband's company has all kinds of certs and training for free on their intranet, and many of THOSE are ACE-approved.  Be sure to check.

[cookderosa]

Can you use your Pell grant for any of these services SL/SDC etc etc? My employer has tuition reimbursement that can pay for my actual tuition so would like to use pell grant for these

Pell Grant and Tuition Reimbursement are different funding sources. If I understand your question, you're hoping to use a Pell to pay for your classes and then ALSO get your company to cut you a check? Double-dipping? That will be tough since any type of billing documents are going to show that your Pell Grant has been applied to your tuition.

Here's the thing, you need to figure out if you want to go fast or you want full funding - the one that is more important to you will determine the best strategy for you to use.

For instance, say you want FAST. In that case, you can do (roughly) the first 90 college credits (3 years) in 1 year and it will cost you about $3,000 cash. This was the approach I took with my degrees from Thomas Edison. Since CLEP is currently free, you could do that for much less money now as well, but people who quickly knock out credits are usually testing out.

Now, say you want FREE. In that case, you can do your entire degree using a Pell Grant by taking classes - but that will follow a traditional timeline. This was the approach my husband took with his degrees since he has had employer reimbursement twice. This requires an initial investment for your first semester,'s tuition but then if you're disciplined, every reimbursement should then be used to pay for the NEXT semester, which is what we did. That way you're fully funding at the start when tuition is due.