Grants

A Federal Pell Grant, unlike a loan, does not have to be repaid. Pell Grants are awarded usually only to undergraduate students who have not earned a bachelor’s or a professional degree. (In some cases, however, a student enrolled in a post-baccalaureate teacher certification program might receive a Pell Grant.) Pell Grants are considered a foundation of federal financial aid, to which aid from other federal and non-federal sources might be added.

• Award determined by need.
• Full Year Maximum is $6,895 for full-time enrollment (12 credits) as of 2022-2023 aid year.
• Full Year Maximum is $7,395 for full-time enrollment (12 credits) beginning with the 2023-2024 aid year.

Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOG) are for undergraduates with exceptional financial need. Pell Grant recipients with the lowest EFC will be the first to get FSEOG. Just like Pell Grants, FSEOG does not have to be paid back.

Through the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, Congress created the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program that provides grants of up to $4,000 per year to students who intend to teach in a public or private elementary or secondary school that serves students from low-income families. If, after reading all of the information about TEACH Grants on this page, you are interested in receiving funding through this program then complete the application and affidavit linked below.

Conditions

In exchange for receiving a TEACH Grant, you must agree to serve as a full-time teacher in a high-need field in a public or private elementary or secondary school that serves low-income students (see below for more information on high-need fields and schools serving low-income students). As a recipient of a TEACH Grant, you must teach for at least four academic years within eight calendar years of completing the program of study for which you received a TEACH Grant. IMPORTANT: If you fail to complete this service obligation, all amounts of the TEACH Grants that you received will be converted to a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan. You must then repay this loan to the U.S. Department of Education. You will be charged interest from the date the grants were disbursed.

Student Eligibility Requirements

To receive a TEACH Grant at PVAMU you must:

1. Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), although you do not have to demonstrate financial need.
2. Be a U.S. Citizen or eligible non-citizen.
3. Be pursuing your first bachelor’s degree,  or be pursuing a Master of Education degree as a graduate student
4. Be enrolled in coursework that is necessary to begin a career in teaching or plan to complete such coursework. Such coursework may include subject area courses (e.g., math courses for a student who intends to be a math teacher).
5. Meet certain academic achievement requirements (generally, scoring above the 75th percentile on a college admissions test or maintaining a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25).
6. Sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve (see below for more information on the TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve).

High-Need Field

High-need fields are the specific subject areas identified below:

1. Bilingual Education and English Language Acquisition.
2. Foreign Language.
3. Mathematics.
4. Reading Specialist.
5. Science.
6. Special Education.
7. Other identified teacher shortage areas as of the time you begin teaching in that field. These are teacher subject shortage areas (not geographic areas) that are listed in the Department of Education’s Annual Teacher Shortage Area Nationwide Listing at  https://tsa.ed.gov/.

Schools Serving Low-Income Students

Schools serving low-income students include any elementary or secondary school that is listed in the Department of Education’s Annual Directory of Designated Low-Income Schools for Teacher Cancellation Benefits at  Teacher Cancellation Low Income (TCLI).

TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve

Each year you receive a TEACH Grant, you must electronically sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve available at TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve. The TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve specifies the conditions under which the grant will be awarded, the teaching service requirements, and includes an acknowledgment by you that you understand that if you do not meet the teaching service requirements you must repay the grant as a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan, with interest accrued from the date the grant funds were disbursed. Specifically, the TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve will provide that –

• For each TEACH Grant-eligible program for which you received TEACH Grant funds, you must serve as a full-time teacher for a total of at least four academic years within eight calendar years after you completed or withdrew from the academic program for which you received the TEACH Grant.
• You must perform the teaching service as a highly-qualified teacher at a low-income school. The term highly-qualified teacher is defined in section 9101(23) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 or in section 602(10) of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.
• Your teaching service must be in a high-need field.
• You must comply with any other requirements that the Department of Education determines to be necessary.
• If you do not complete the required teaching service obligation, TEACH Grant funds you received will be converted to a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan that you must repay, with interest charged from the date of each TEACH Grant disbursement.

Additional Guidance and Implementing Regulations

The Department of Education will publish regulations to implement the TEACH Grant Program after providing an opportunity for public comment in accordance with legal requirements.

Documents

• TEACH Grant Application
• TEACH Grant Affidavit

The TEXAS Grant is a state grant program available to Texas residents who graduated from a Texas high school no earlier than fall 1998. Recipients must have also completed the recommended or advanced high school curriculum or its equivalent. Need must be established by filing the FAFSA.

If you received a TEXAS Grant Initial or Renewal during the prior school year, you are required to meet the following:

Initial Recipients: First-Year – Freshman

1. Your cumulative academic GPA is 2.0 or higher
2. Your completion ratio is 67% or higher

Renewal Recipients: Sophomore Year and Beyond

1. Your cumulative academic GPA is 2.5 or higher
2. You have earned at least 24 credit hours during the previous school year
3. Your overall cumulative attempted hours is not greater than 150

TEXAS Grant Hardship Provision Policy

The State of Texas requires that students who receive the Texas Grant must meet and maintain all of the above renewal requirements:

• Satisfactory Academic Progress (Initial Year Recipients)
• Enrolled in at least 9 credit hours per semester of award
• Cumulative GPA of 2.5
• Complete/Pass 24 credit hours in an academic year
• Attempted less than 150 credit hours

However, in the event of a hardship, a student can appeal their Texas Grant eligibility. Such conditions should include:

1. Severe illness or other debilitating condition that may affect the student’s academic performance.
2. Indication that the student is responsible for the care of sick, injured, or needy person and that provision has impacted the student’s academic performance.
3. Death of the family member that may have affected the student’s academic performance.
4. The requirement of fewer than nine hours to complete one’s degree plan.

Hardship Appeal

Students must complete the Texas Grant Hardship Appeal form and must provide a statement explaining the circumstance(s) that support the school year that the student lost eligibility and describe why Texas Grant eligibility requirements were not met. The student must also submit any supporting documentation that they would like to be considered. Appeals based solely on financial and/or emotional needs without the appropriate documentation will not be approved.

• Hardship forms will be reviewed by financial aid department committee members.
• Approved hardships are awarded the Texas Grant for the upcoming year.

TPEG is for undergraduates with exceptional financial need. Pell Grant recipients with the lowest EFCs will be the first to get the Texas Public Education Grant. Just like Pell Grants and FSEOG, TPEG does not have to be paid back.

The PVAMU Panther Program guarantees that all participating students are provided with tuition support grants up to $2,000 for undergraduate students whose family income is $30,000 or less. Under the Panther Promise, tuition and mandatory fees will be paid (up to a student’s demonstrated need) through a combination of federal, state, and institutional funds. These funds include, but not limited to, Pell Grant, Federal SEOG grant, Texas Grant, Texas Public Educational Grant (TPEG), Institutional scholarships, and federal/state work study.

PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS:

• 1st time Freshman, seeking first undergraduate degree
• Complete FAFSA/TASFA by priority deadline (March 15^th)
• Household AGI of $30,000 or less
• Must demonstrate unmet financial need
• Enroll in 12 credit hours within their program of study
• Meet Satisfactory Academic Progress
• Renewable for 4 years (consecutive); must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 for continued eligibility

Texas Transfer Grant
The purpose of the Texas Transfer Grant Program is to provide need-based grants to enable eligible undergraduate students to transfer from two-year institutions of higher education to four-year institutions of higher education in the state of Texas. This grant is renewable for up to 2 years from the start of the semester enrolled in the baccalaureate program. However, recipients are no longer eligible once he/she has attempted 135 semester credit hours.

**You may not receive this grant while simultaneously receiving the Towards EXcellence, Access, and Success Grant (TEXAS Grant)

Program Eligibility:
To receive an award a student must:

• complete the  FAFSA (PVAMU’s school code is 003630);
• have a student aid index (SAI) that does not exceed $6,464 (as determined by the FAFSA)
• be a Texas resident;
• be registered with Selective Service, or be exempt (see Selective Service Statement);
• have applied for any available financial aid assistance;
• show financial need in the semester which the grant is offered;
• be enrolled full-time in the semester in which the grant is offered;
• be enrolled in a baccalaureate degree program at an eligible institution, no later than the end of the 12th month after the calendar month the student earned an associate degree
• meet satisfactory academic progress (SAP) requirements as determined by the institution’s financial aid office,
• have been awarded an associates degree by a public junior college, public state college, or public technical institute, and credit hours earned toward completion of the associate degree must:
  • include completion of the core curriculum or an abbreviated core curriculum related to a specific approved field of study curriculum transferable to one or more general academic teaching institution;
  • have completed the associate degree with at least a 2.5 grade point average; and
  • have completed the associate degree prior to enrolling in a baccalaureate degree program at the institution offering the Transfer Grant.