Financial Aid About two minutes No email required 2026-27 and 2027-28 federal rules

See what financial aid you’re missing

Pell Grants go up to $7,395 a year for 2026-27. See your Pell estimate and the rest of your aid stack in 2 minutes.

Financial aid quiz · 2026-27 and 2027-28

See your aid stack in about two minutes

A few quick questions. We stack up the grants, Work-Study and federal loans your answers point to.

Pell
State
Work-Study
Loans

Runs the federal Student Aid Index formula for your start date
No name, email or phone number
Every figure links to its government source

Federal SAI formula · No name, email or phone · Every figure sourced

1 of 3 · You and schoolQuestion 1 of 9

What education have you completed?

Why we ask: Pell is for students without a bachelor’s degree, and your federal loan limit depends on your year in school.

A planning estimate, not a FAFSA or an aid application. Comparing schools afterwards is optional.

Review the methodology behind this result

Results are shown before email capture or partner handoff. The estimate uses source-backed rules and public data so you can evaluate the result before taking the next step.

Full calculator methodology See formula sources, assumptions, limitations, and update cadence. Editorial standards Review how we source, fact-check, and disclose partner relationships.

Why checking your aid matters more than you think

Every year, students who would qualify for a Federal Pell Grant never file the FAFSA, and the grant money they could have had goes unclaimed. The National College Attainment Network tracks how many students file, state by state.

The gap is not about access. The FAFSA is free at StudentAid.gov. The gap is about assumption: students who believe they won’t qualify and never check.

This quiz gives you a fast estimate of your aid, using the same factors the FAFSA uses: your education so far, when you plan to start, your dependency status, household income and size, and the state you live in.

It is not a substitute for the FAFSA. Only the official application determines your exact Student Aid Index (SAI) and award amounts. But it takes under two minutes and tells you whether filing is worth your time.

What this quiz tells you vs. what the FAFSA tells you

This quiz runs the federal Student Aid Index formula on an income range and counts no savings, then stacks your estimated Pell Grant, your state’s grant, campus grants and Work-Study, and your federal loan limits. The FAFSA calculates your exact SAI from your tax return, your assets and your household. Think of this quiz as a screening tool: it shows you the programs worth investigating before you gather documents and file.

Federal aid programs at a glance

The FAFSA opens access to multiple federal programs, each with different eligibility rules and award amounts. The largest is the Federal Pell Grant: up to $7,395 per year for the 2026-27 award year to students with an SAI below $14,790.

Pell Grants are awarded on a sliding scale (a lower SAI means a larger grant) and do not need to be repaid.

Beyond Pell, the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) awards $100 to $4,000 per year to students with exceptional financial need, prioritizing those with the lowest SAI scores. Federal Work-Study provides part-time jobs to students who demonstrate need; there is no set minimum or maximum, and each school sets the amount.

For military-connected students, GI Bill and Tuition Assistance benefits stack on top of federal grants. Filing the FAFSA does not reduce your military education benefits.

Independent Student Advantage

If you are 24 or older by December 31 of the award year, married, or have dependents, you file the FAFSA as an independent student. Only your own income is assessed, not your parents’. For 2026-27, an adjusted gross income at or below 175% of the federal poverty guideline for your household (225% for single parents) qualifies for the maximum Pell Grant of $7,395.

How to use your results

After completing the quiz, you will see your estimated Pell Grant first, then the rest of your aid stack: state and campus grants and Work-Study as possible layers, and the federal loans you can borrow. These estimates use the U.S. Department of Education’s published rules for the award year your start date falls in: 2026-27, or 2027-28 if you start on or after July 1, 2027.

Your next step is straightforward: file the FAFSA at StudentAid.gov (the 2026-27 form reads your 2024 tax return; the 2027-28 form reads 2025) to lock in your exact SAI and award amounts.

If you want a more specific estimate before comparing programs, use our Student Aid Index calculator to run the federal-formula version with your own numbers.

Calculate your Student Aid Index

Use your quiz answers as a starting point for a more specific SAI estimate

Open SAI calculator