conditions.	Regardless	of	whether	coursework	is	generally	offered	using	terms,	schools	always	have	the	option	of	treating
a	program	as	a	non-term	program	for	Title	IV	purposes.	See	Volume	3,	Chapter	1	for	detailed	guidance	on	standard	term,
nonstandard	term,	and	non-term	programs.
When	calculating	Pell	Grants,	you	must	generally	use	the	same	formula	for	all	years	in	a	student9s	program.	In	most
cases,	a	program9s	academic	calendar	determines	the	formula	that	must	be	used	to	calculate	Pell	Grant	awards,	and	that
formula	is	then	used	for	all	years	of	the	program.	However,	for	programs	offered	in	standard	terms	a	school	has	the	option
of	choosing	between	different	Pell	formulas,	as	explained	later	in	this	chapter.	For	such	programs,	a	school	normally
chooses	one	of	the	allowable	formulas	and	uses	that	same	formula	for	the	duration	of	the	program,	but	in	rare	cases	a
school	may	have	reason	to	change	from	the	originally	selected	formula	to	a	different	allowable	formula.	Any	such	change
in	Pell	formulas	for	standard-term	programs	can	only	be	made	at	the	beginning	of	a	new	award	year.
Pell	Grant	Payments	by	Payment	Period
Pell	Grants	must	be	spread	out	in	disbursements	over	the	course	of	a	program	of	study	to	help	meet	the	student9s	costs	in
each	payment	period.	The	payment	period	affects	when	Pell	funds	are	disbursed	and	the	exact	amount	to	be	disbursed.
See	
Volume	3,	Chapter	1	for	further	discussion	and	definitions	of	payment	periods.
A	student	who	doesn9t	enroll	in	one	of	the	payment	periods	of	a	program	won9t	receive	the	portion	of	their	award	for	that
payment	period.	If	the	student9s	enrollment	intensity	changes	in	the	next	payment	period,	the	annual	award	will	change
and	the	disbursement	amount	for	the	payment	period	will	be	different.
Your	school	must	apply	its	federal	student	aid	full-time	enrollment	standards	consistently	to	all	students	enrolled	in	the
same	program	of	study	for	all	Title	IV	purposes.	However,	your	school9s	academic	standard	may	differ	from	the	enrollment
standard	used	by	the	financial	aid	office	for	Title	IV	purposes.	For	example,	your	school's	academic	policy	may	define	full
time	as	six	hours	during	the	summer,	but	the	financial	aid	office	uses	12	hours	as	the	full-time	standard	for	all	terms,
including	the	summer	term.	For	more	on	enrollment	status,	see	Volume	1,	Chapter	1.
Basic	Pell	Grant	formulas
34	CFR	690.63	3	Pell	Grant	formulas
{"producer": "GPL Ghostscript 10.00.0", "creator": "wkhtmltopdf 0.12.6", "creationdate": "D:20250418114032Z00'00'", "moddate": "D:20250418114032Z00'00'", "source": "data/raw/The_Federal_Pell_Grant_Program.pdf", "total_pages": 65, "page": 12, "page_label": "13", "loader_type": "pdf", "load_timestamp": "2025-07-05T11:43:14.399958"}