Moving your aid when you transfer
This article helps a student moving to a new college line up grants at the new school before the first term there. Each source of money handles a transfer differently, and knowing which is which saves weeks of waiting.
What stays and what follows
Each college builds its own aid offer, so the grants on your current offer end when you leave. College grants and scholarships from the old school stay with that school. The new college decides its own awards from scratch.
What follows you is your federal record. Pell lifetime use carries over, and the new college reviews your progress, often counting accepted transfer credits as both attempted and completed. A grant overpayment or a progress problem at the old school can follow you as well.
Setting up the new offer
Add the new college's school code to your current FAFSA on studentaid.gov, and to next year's form if you transfer in the fall. The new college then receives your record and can send an offer once you are admitted. If you transfer mid-year, tell the old college so it cancels any payments scheduled after you leave.
Pell for the rest of the award year is paid by the new college, which checks how much of the year's Pell you have already used. Send the new aid office your final transcript and any documents it requests promptly. A missing item can delay the first payment past the start of term.
Pell lifetime use carries over, and the new college reviews your progress, often counting accepted transfer credits as both attempted and completed.
State and transfer awards
A state grant may continue if the new college is in the same state and takes part in the program, but the state agency decides. Moving to another state usually ends it, and the new state sets its own residency rules. Call the state agency to confirm.
Many colleges hold scholarships for transfer students, with their own applications and dates. Some are set aside for members of Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society at two-year colleges. Ask the new college's admissions and aid offices which awards exist and whether you need to apply separately.
If you hold a private scholarship, tell the sponsor about the move and ask how to send the money to the new school.
Steps to take this week
- Add the new college's school code to your FAFSA
- Tell the old college the date you are leaving
- Ask the state agency whether your grant continues
- Ask the new college about transfer scholarships
Who decides
The new college's financial aid office
Grants stay with the old college, so add the new school to your FAFSA early and ask each source of money what follows you.
