Frequently Asked Questions

In general, you are eligible for federal and/or state aid if you meet the following requirements:

• You have a high school diploma or GED certificate.
• You are enrolled as a regular student in an eligible program at PJC.
• You are a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen.
• You show that you have financial need.
• You are making satisfactory academic progress in your course of study.
• You are not in default on a Perkins Loan (or National Direct Student Loan [NDSL]), Guaranteed Student Loan, or PLUS/SLS Loan.
• You don't owe for an overpayment on a Pell Grant or a Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant.
• You are registered with Selective Service, if you are required to do so for State funds.

An award letter will be emailed to your DragonMail listing the type of aid and the estimated amount of your award.

No money will be disbursed until your financial aid file is complete. All required documents will be listed in your PJC Financial Aid Portal if you are selected for verification.

All awarded aid must be accepted in your Financial Aid Portal before it can be applied to your account! If you haven't accepted your awards, please log into the Financial Aid Portal and do so!

PJC Financial Aid Portal

Financial aid funds will generally be paid to you each semester. Your tuition, and related college expenses will be credited to your account first. Then, grant funds and scholarships will be applied against the expenses. (Loans are disbursed in two halves each semester, one after the Official Reporting Date and one after the end of the drop period.)

Any remaining balance of federal or state aid will be paid to you in the form of cash disbursement within approximately 30 days. The exception is Work-Study Program funds which are paid to you monthly as they are earned.

That depends on when you started classes. Please visit our Important Dates page for more information.

Effective January 1, 1987, all scholarships and grants are subject to taxation under the Tax Reform Act. The Tax Reform Act allows exemptions for degree candidates in the amount received for tuition, required fees, required books, supplies, and equipment. The student will be responsible for justifying and documenting the allowable expenses to be excluded.

Accurate records of scholarships and grants received and receipts for books, supplies, tuition, and required fees should be kept by each student to file with income tax returns. Information about the 1098-T for students can be found here:

PJC 1098-T Information

Questions and requests should be directed to the IRS or a private tax consultant.

No! However, you will need to make sure of a couple of things:

1. The other school needs to be on your FAFSA.

2. If you've already received aid from the first school, you'll need to make sure your remaining aid is canceled at the school you are leaving.

A student may be denied financial assistance for several reasons: insufficient need, shortage of financial aid funds, incomplete application, or failure to maintain satisfactory progress.

If you are told you are not eligible, come by the Financial Aid Office to check on other resources available.

Federal and state financial aid requires students to maintain SAP as defined by PJC to remain eligible to receive funds:

• You must successfully complete 67% of your hours attempted overall and in the last academic year attended.

• You must complete your attempted classes with an average 2.0 minimum GPA overall and in the last academic year attended.

• You must complete your degree program or certificate within 150% of the minimum required attempted hours to graduate. (Graduation or completion of a certificate will reset this count.)

In order to correct this, you’ll need to do one of two things:

1. If you had an extenuating circumstance that caused you to be unsuccessful, such as the death of a family member, serious injury or hospitalization, etc., you can Appeal your suspension.

2. Successfully complete at least 6 credit hours of classes out-of-pocket (67% completion rate and greater than 2.0 GPA), and then file for Reinstatement.

PJC's School Code is 003601

When you complete a FAFSA, the Department of Education processes it and sends the information to colleges you selected while completing the application. The notification email from the Department of Education does not indicate you have been awarded aid at PJC!

After your information is delivered to PJC, we can begin processing your FAFSA to determine your award. This process may take 7-10 business days (or more at the start of a semester).

The total amounts listed are for a two semester attendance period. You'll receive half of the amount for each semester.

Note: If you attend in all three periods (Fall/Spring/Summer), you may be eligible for additional aid. Contact the Financial Aid office if you have any questions.

If you are not attending at a full-time pace, it will lower the Pell amount you are eligible to receive. This adjustment happens if:

• You accepted aid as soon as it was awarded (at full-time amounts), and then the system updated with your actual number of credit hours.
• You reduced the amount of classes below a full-time rate, and the system updated to reflect that.

Pell Grants are paid out as a percentage of your maximum award according to the following information (current for 2025-26 FAFSA year):

Yes. Unlike Pell aid, which is a grant program, student loans must be repaid by the student!

For Federal Direct Student Loans, after you graduate, leave school, or drop below half-time enrollment, you have a six-month grace period before you must begin making payments.

Please note that loans in this deferment period may still be generating interest!

Forbearance is a temporary postponement of payments.

An example of this is the delayed repayment period while you are actively attending college. 

A loan servicer is a company that handles the billing and other services on your Federal Student Loan.

If you are having problems making payments on your loans, contact your loan servicer for repayment plans, student loan forgiveness, and more options.

If you don't pay your loan back according to the terms outlined in your Master Promissory Note (MPN), you can be placed in a default status by your loan servicer.

Students with loans in a default status are not eligible for additional federal financial aid at any institution until the default status is removed!

Defaulting on your loan will result in negative affects to your credit report. Additionally, the IRS can withhold tax refunds and require employers to garnish your wages in order to apply them to your outstanding loan balance.

Defaults can only be corrected by the loan servicer. The most common method for clearing a default status is to resume making payments on the loan through negotiated repayment plans.

You can find your loan servicer's contact information by reviewing your Master Promissory Note or by coontacting the Department of Education's Helpline at 1-800-433-3243.

We use the document for two purposes:

1. The VA requires us to enter some of the personal information from the Veteran's DD-214 into their systems as we register you for the first time.
2. Many DEA-eligible students are also eligible for Texas benefits, so we use the DD-214 to screen for Hazlewood-eligible students!

If you or your Veteran have concerns about submitting the DD-214, please reach out to us so we can discuss your situation.

Unfortunately, we can only review official transcripts to transfer credits. If we can't verify that the document is unedited, it can't be official, which is why we require transcripts to be sent directly from their institutions.

Even if you don't think that your Service Transcript will help, we are required to review your transcripts for prior credit, so we have to have them on hand.

No. Legacy is only available for dependents of Veterans.

VA and Hazlewood students receive an informational hold on your account for a couple of reasons:

1. We cannot apply benefits to classes that don't help you graduate on your current degree plan. The hold makes you reach out to your advisors to make sure your classes apply to your degree.
2. The hold is an alert for your advisors so they know to arrange your classes in ways that maximize your benefits!

All VA benefits pay for the preceding month. For example, attendance in September will be paid out on the first business day of October.

Most VA programs require you to check in with the VA monthly and will stop payment of housing allowances if a student has not checked in for two months. Make sure you're checking in by text or at Ask.VA.gov!

You don't - Hazlewood is a tuition-waiver program, so there is no housing allowance associated with the program.

The most common cause of this problem: we don't have your benefit request for the new semester. All students using benefits are required to submit a new request each semester (by law - it's a VA and State requirement).

Please contact the Veterans Services desk.

The most common cause of this problem: we don't have your benefit request and Hazlewood Application for the new semester. All students using benefits are required to submit a new request each semester (by law - it's a VA and State requirement).

The second most common cause of this: Hazlewood benefits don't cover all possible fees. Lab fees, Course Material fees, and Toolkits are not covered, so you still have to pay for them.