Jul 26, 2011 2 min read

Westmoreland County Community College is reminding first-time and non-renewal Pennsylvania State Grant applicants planning to attend WCCC that PHEAA has extended the State Grant deadline from May 1 to August 1.

Applicants must be attending WCCC and must satisfy all eligibility requirements including being enrolled on at least a part-time basis to qualify. The State Grant deadline for renewal applicants remains May 1.

?PHEAA anticipates the deadline extension will increase community college State Grant recipients by 35 percent to approximately 33,000 students statewide. The maximum State Grant award in 2011-12 for community college recipients will be $2,313, or a 23 percent increase from 2010-11 levels.

“First-time and non-renewal community college students now have until August 1 to file the FAFSA to be considered as on-time in the State Grant application process,” said Gary Means, WCCC director of Financial Aid.

“We would like to see as many students as possible benefit from this opportunity by completing the application process by August 1. Last year, more than 1,100 WCCC students received State Grant assistance.”

First-time and non-renewal WCCC State Grant applicants who had received a reject notification because they filed after the original May 1 deadline will be contacted with updated eligibility information. PHEAA is encouraging students to review their State Grant application by logging into PHEAA.org to ensure that their application is complete, especially those who thought that they missed the deadline and did not follow through with completing their applications.

To determine eligibility for a State Grant, applicants must complete and submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and a State Grant Form (SGF) which collects additional data elements not requested on the federal application. The SGF is only required for first-time State Grant applicants. Applicants can access the FAFSA at either PHEAA.org/FAFSA or fafsa.gov. First-time applicants can access the SGF directly from the FAFSA on the Web, allowing them to complete the entire process from one site.

Students who have already submitted their FAFSA but not their SGF will need to visit Account Access through the Secure Sign-In at PHEAA.org to complete their State Grant Form.

Questions may be directed to the WCCC Financial Aid Office at 1-800-262-2103, ext. 4063 or Debbie Kukic at kukicd@wccc.edu.