Pell Grant Enrollment Intensity and Cost of Attendance

Enrollment intensity is the percentage of full-time enrollment at which a student is enrolled, rounded to the nearest whole percent. For example, if full-time enrollment is 12 credit hours and the student is enrolled in 7 hours, the enrollment intensity would be 7 ÷ 12 × 100% = 58.3% (round to 58%).

In a term-based program, academic progress is always measured in credit hours (or an equivalent measure in a direct assessment program), and the student’s annual award depends on their enrollment intensity. Your school’s standards for full-time enrollment must meet the minimum regulatory requirements, which are discussed in further detail in Volume 1, Chapter 1 of the FSA Handbook.

For federal student aid purposes, full-time enrollment for programs offered in standard terms is defined by the institution and, for undergraduate students, must comprise at least 12 credit hours. Below is a chart of enrollment intensity relative to full time, assuming the school defines it as 12 credit hours for financial aid purposes. Enrollment intensity only applies to Pell Grant eligibility. All other Title IV programs still use the categorical measures of enrollment status.

Note: Enrollment intensity cannot exceed 100% for purposes of Pell Grant proration.

If the student is enrolled less than half time, it will also affect the cost components that are used in the student’s budget (see Volume 3, Chapter 2). Note that schools do not have the discretion to refuse to pay an eligible part-time student, including during a summer term or intersession.

Full-time enrollment for programs offered in nonstandard terms is determined by multiplying the number of weeks in each term by the number of credit hours in an academic year, then dividing the result by the number of weeks in an academic year. The full-time enrollment number is then used as the denominator for determining enrollment intensity.

For example, College X has a program that consists of four 8-week terms. College X defines the academic year as 40 quarter hours and 32 weeks of instructional time. College X determines that full-time enrollment is 10 credit hours per term [(8 weeks per term * 40 credit hours)/32 weeks of instruction)]. Below is a chart of enrollment intensity, relative to 10 credit hours per term as full-time.

Note: Full-time enrollment for programs offered in nonstandard terms may differ from program to program and even from term to term, as it is based on the number of weeks in each term, the number of credit hours in an academic year, and the number of weeks in an academic year.

Students enrolled in clock-hour or non-term-based programs are considered to be enrolled full-time for Pell Grant purposes. See Chapter 4 of this volume for additional discussion of enrollment intesity for clock-hour and nonterm-based programs.

The enrollment intensity of a student attending more than one school under a consortium agreement is based on all the courses taken that apply to the degree or certificate at the home school. The disbursing school may have to make some adjustments if the coursework at the other school is measured in different units.

Below are examples of calculating enrollment intensity for students enrolled in regular coursework at their home institution and coursework offered at another institution through a consortium agreement. The examples describe how to calculate enrollment intensity when the units of enrollment are different (i.e., semester hours at the home school and quarter hours at the consortium institution).

Students enrolled in programs of correspondence study are considered to be enrolled no more than half time (the equivalent of 50% enrollment intensity), even if they are enrolled in enough coursework to be full time. However, if the correspondence study is combined with regular coursework, the student’s enrollment intensity might be more than half time (see section below for additional information).

A student enrolled only in a non-term correspondence program always has their award calculated based on 50% enrollment intensity. For a student enrolled in a term-based correspondence program, your school must determine whether the student is enrolled half time (six or more credit-hours in a term) or less than half time (fewer than six credit-hours in a term). Special rules are used to determine the student’s enrollment intensity when the student is enrolled in a combination of regular and correspondence coursework.

If a student is enrolled in a non-correspondence study program, but correspondence coursework is combined with regular coursework, the correspondence courses must meet the following criteria to be considered in determining the student’s enrollment intensity:

This chart assumes that the school defines full-time enrollment as 12 credit hours per term, and half-time enrollment as six credit hours per term.

As you can see in the second and third rows of the table, the number of correspondence hours counted in the total course load was adjusted so that the correspondence hours never exceeded the regular hours taken. Note that in the last row of the table, the student is eligible for payment based on half-time (50% enrollment intensity) in correspondence courses, because not all the correspondence work can be counted toward enrollment intensity.

For students enrolled in direct assessment programs and students with intellectual disabilities enrolled in comprehensive transition and postsecondary (CTP) programs, enrollment intensity can be calculated using credit hour “equivalencies” rather than credit hours.

For direct assessment programs, schools must develop a methodology, consistent with the requirements of the school’s accrediting agency or state, to reasonably equate each class or competency in the direct assessment program to either credit hour or clock hour equivalencies. For more information, see Volume 2, Chapter 2 of the FSA Handbook.

Enrollment intensity for students with intellectual disabilities enrolled in CTP programs may also be determined using credit hour equivalencies. These equivalent credits, earned from audited courses and other normally noncredit activities undertaken as part of a program for students with disabilities, may be awarded for purposes of determining enrollment intensity. For more detail, see Volume 1, Chapter 1 of the FSA Handbook.

In a cooperative education program, your school assesses the work to be performed by the student and determines the equivalent academic course load. The student’s enrollment intensity is based on the equivalent academic course load.

Because the academic calendar for a program determines which Pell formula you use, you need to review the conditions for the use of each formula if the calendar for the program changes. This is particularly true if you are using Formulas 1 and 2, which have the most restrictive conditions.

If a student’s enrollment intensity changes during the year, your school may have to recalculate the student’s Pell Grant payment based on the new enrollment intensity. We’ll discuss when a school is required to recalculate a student’s Pell Grant payment due to a change in enrollment intensity in Chapter 7 of this volume.

The types of costs included in the Pell Grant budget are the same as those for the other federal student aid programs; however, Pell Grant costs are always based on the costs for a full-time student for a full academic year.

For Pell, costs for programs or enrollment periods longer or shorter than an academic year must be prorated so that they are the costs for one full academic year. This is true for both parts of the academic year definition: if either the number of weeks or the number of clock/credit hours differs from the academic year standard, the costs must be prorated to determine the full-time, full-year Pell budget.

The need to prorate Pell costs is most likely to occur in these situations:

There are two ways to prorate Pell costs, as shown in the following examples. Examples 3 and 4 are based on a program that is shorter than an academic year. Example 5 shows how costs are prorated when they are charged for a program that is longer than an academic year. Note that prorating the COA usually does not affect the amount of Pell Grant the student receives. However, you’re required to report the full-time, full-year Pell budget when reporting disbursements to the Common Origination and Disbursement System (COD).

If a student has a co-op job for the first term, the tuition and fees for that period can be prorated over the full academic year for the program (which must include at least 24 semester/trimester hours, 36 quarter credit hours, or 900 clock hours, as well as 30 weeks of instructional time, or, for clock-hour programs, 26 weeks). This prorated amount is then added to the other COA components to arrive at the total cost for a full-time student for a full academic year.

For the rest of the year, your school can either use the COA with the projected amount or can recalculate the student’s tuition and fees at the end of the first term to determine a new COA for the remaining payment periods. This decision must be consistent with your school’s overall policy on recalculating for changes in a student’s costs. Note that the COA can also include employment-related expenses.

A student receiving a Pell Grant for attendance at two schools through a consortium agreement may have costs from both schools at the same time. The student’s COA is calculated in the same way as for a student taking classes at only one school. The student’s charges for tuition and fees and books and supplies at the consortium schools must be combined into a single charge for a full academic year for purposes of the Pell calculation.

The school paying the student may choose to use actual charges for the student, which would simply be the sum of the actual charges at each school. Of course, if the student isn’t attending full-time, your school will have to prorate these tuition and fees and books and supplies charges so that they are the correct amounts for a full-time, full-year student.

If the disbursing school uses average charges, then the average full-time charges at each of the schools must be prorated and combined. If the student is taking a full-time load at each school, the full-time tuition and fees charges for an academic year at each school can be averaged to determine the tuition and fee cost. However, if the student is taking an unequal course load, the disbursing school must prorate the charges based on the number of hours the student is taking at each school.