Summer 2024 PA State Grant Application Deadline is Approaching!
The deadline to submit the Summer application is August 15.
2024-25 PA State Grant Reconsideration Deadline
PA State Grant student reconsideration deadline has been extended from April 1, 2025 to May 1, 2025. Students will have until May 1, 2025 to complete outstanding items in their GrantUs account. Students should review both their Action Items section as well as their Supplemental Forms section to ensure no items are currently outstanding.
2025-26 PA State Grant Update
Fall 2025 & Spring 2026 PA State Grants awarded by PHEAA as of June 27 have been added to student records in LionPATH.
If you have a 2025-26 award showing in your record at PHEAA and it is not showing in LionPath, we must wait for an electronic file from PHEAA to load the award. We cannot add an award manually. Don’t worry, electronic files are sent to us regularly and quickly added to student records in LionPATH.
PA State Grants
The Pennsylvania State Grant is paid in part or in whole by the Commonwealth and is administered by the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) to undergraduate Pennsylvania residents who demonstrate high financial need. Grants are considered “gift aid”, meaning they don't need to be re-paid. You do not need to accept the grant in LionPATH. The grant will disburse once the funds are sent to Penn State from PHEAA.
PA State grant award notices from PHEAA should be considered estimates. Even after a student has received a State grant award notice, PHEAA requires a college to conduct additional eligibility checks.
Deadlines
To meet the PA State Grant deadline, PHEAA looks at the student’s FAFSA submission date. The FAFSA contains a direct link to the state grant form. Federal Student Aid (FSA) will transmit your FAFSA data to PHEAA's new GrantUs system. Due to funding, late applications will not be considered.
Fall and Spring Application Deadline | Summer Application Deadline |
|---|---|
May 1 | August 15 |
May 1 | August 15 |
Awards Not Final
PHEAA is still processing a large volume of awarding for 2024-25 and is not yet accepting updates for the 2025-26 award year.
PA State Grant awards are not final until we have sent an update to PHEAA with the following student information:
Completed credits. You may have an award from PHEAA but may not be eligible if you are deficient in credits (based on half-time or full-time grant) from a previous year in which you received a grant.
Enrollment information. Are you enrolled fulltime or halftime for Fall? Finalize your Fall schedule as soon as you can to avoid changes to your award amounts.
Campus location. Grant amounts will vary based on campus location as some campuses have a lower cost of attendance. This is taken into account in final award amounts.
Disbursement
A Fall disbursement file will not be sent from PHEAA until after we are able to provide student updates (earned credits for SAP, enrollment, and campus location) and the PA State Budget has passed.
Account Access
Portal for accessing information about the PA State Grant or special programs administered by PHEAA for Summer 2025 and 2025-26. For 2024-25, students will continue to use GrantUS.
Graduating Senior Exception
9-11 Credit Form
If you are graduating or are in your next-to-last semester, enrolled for 9 to 11 credits, and receiving the PA State Grant, you may be eligible for a full-time grant (you must have remaining grant eligibility).
This is an exception intended to permit continued eligibility to students who normally enroll full-time, but only need to complete 9 to 11 credits during one of the terms of their final year of study. This exception is not applicable to part-time students.
If you would like to be considered for this PA State Grant exception, please complete the form for the appropriate semester: