Federal Grants

Pell Grants are awarded to undergraduate matriculated students who have not earned a bachelor’s degree. The amount of your Federal Pell Grant depends on your cost of attendance, Student Aid Index (SAI) as per the information you provided on your FAFSA, enrollment status and the number of semesters you attend including summer in an academic year.

Eligibility for FAFSA/ Pell Grant

Award amounts can change yearly. Therefore, the Federal Pell Grant minimum award amount for 2024-2025 is $740.  The maximum Federal Pell Grant award is $7,395 for the 2024–25 award year (July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025).

The formula calculates the SAI by taking into account:

• Your total family income and benefits
• Tax-filing status
• The number of dependents on your tax return
• Certain type of family’s assets
• The formula recognizes that only a portion of your and your family’s income and assets may be considered available for educationally related expenses

Remember these funds are available for the equivalent 12 full time semesters or 600%. See the section on Lifetime Federal Grant Eligibility.

Application Form

The FAFSA is the application that is used for federal government grants.

As a reminder, the FAFSA Simplification Act changed the process for determining the amount of a student’s Scheduled Pell Grant award.

FSEOG is a federally funded grant program for undergraduate degree. If you demonstrate exceptional financial need based on the information that is provided on FAFSA, CUNY may award you a FSEOG Grant from the limited funds available.

The TEACH Grant Program provides grants up to $4,000 a year to students who are completing or plan to complete course work needed to begin a career in teaching.

• For any 2019–20 or TEACH Grant first disbursed on or after Oct. 1, 2019, and before Oct. 1, 2020, the maximum award of $4,000 is reduced by 5.9 percent ($236), resulting in a maximum award of $3,764.
• For any 2020–21 TEACH Grant first disbursed on or after Oct. 1, 2020, and before Oct. 1, 2021, the maximum award of $4,000 is reduced by 5.7 percent ($228), resulting in a maximum award of $3,772.

As a condition for receiving a TEACH Grant, you must sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve in which you agree to (among other requirements) teach:

• in a high-need field;
• at an elementary school, secondary school, or educational service agency that serves students from low-income families; and
• for at least four complete academic years within eight years after completing (or ceasing enrollment in) the course of study for which you received the grant.

Note: If you do not meet the requirements of your service obligation, all TEACH Grants you received will be converted to Direct Unsubsidized Loans. You must repay these loans in full, with interest charged from the date of each TEACH Grant disbursement.

US Department of Higher Education has a process that provides an opportunity for certain TEACH Grant recipients whose TEACH Grants were converted to Direct Unsubsidized Loans to request reconsideration of the conversions. You will be able to request a reconsideration if you met or are meeting the TEACH Grant service requirements within the eight-year service obligation period, but had your grants converted to loans because you did not comply with the annual certification requirement. Once we complete our process work, we plan to update this page with instructions on how to apply for reconsideration of your converted TEACH Grants.

To be eligible for a TEACH Grant, you must do the following:

• Meet the basic eligibility criteria for the federal student aid programs.
• Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
• At CUNY be enrolled as an eligible senior level (4th year) undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, or graduate student at a school that participates in the TEACH Grant Program.
• Be enrolled in a TEACH-Grant-eligible program.
• Meet certain academic achievement requirements (generally, scoring above the 75th percentile on one or more portions of a college admissions test or maintaining a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25). For specific information about the academic requirements, talk to the financial aid office at your college or career school.
• Receive TEACH Grant counseling that explains the terms and conditions of the TEACH Grant service obligation. You must complete counseling each year that you receive a TEACH Grant.
• Sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve.

Teach Grant Eligible Program

A TEACH-Grant-eligible program is a program of study that is designed to prepare you to teach as a highly qualified teacher in a high-need field and that leads to a bachelor’s or master’s degree, or is a post-baccalaureate program.  A post-baccalaureate program is not TEACH-Grant-eligible if it is offered by a school that also offers a bachelor’s degree in education.

Schools that participate in the TEACH Grant Program determine which of the programs they offer are TEACH-Grant-eligible. A program that is TEACH-Grant-eligible at one school might not be TEACH-Grant-eligible at another school. Additionally, even if a program meets the eligibility requirements to be a TEACH-Grant-eligible program, it may not be designated as TEACH-Grant-eligible by the school. Contact the financial aid office at the school you are attending (or that you plan to attend) to find out which programs at that school are eligible.

High-need fields:

• bilingual education and English language acquisition,
• foreign language,
• mathematics,
• reading specialist,
• science, and
• special education, as well as
• any other field that has been identified as high-need by the federal government, a state government, or a local education agency, and that is included in the annual Teacher Shortage Area Nationwide Listing (Nationwide List).

If you plan to teach in a high-need field that is included in the Nationwide List, that field must be listed for the state where you teach either at the time you begin your qualifying teaching service or at the time you received a TEACH Grant.