Cougar Pell Promise & Cougar Pell Elevated

Complete the online BYU scholarship application by the December 15 deadline.

• If selected for financial aid verification, you must complete it within 30 days of your initial notification to establish eligibility. If you do not complete verification, you will lose eligibility for all eight semesters.
• If you are leaving on a mission or military service and selected for financial aid verification, you must complete verification before leaving on your mission or military service to establish eligibility. You must complete verification even if you have not attended BYU before your service. If verification is not completed, you will lose eligibility for all eight semesters.
• If you are starting at BYU during the winter semester, you must be a mid-year high school graduate. You must complete the scholarship application by August 1 and the FAFSA by July 20.
• Starting with the 2024-25 academic year, the federal government changed how Pell Grants are calculated. Due to these changes, students who are initial applicants for the CPP/CPE must qualify for more than the "Minimum Pell Grant" on the FAFSA to be eligible.

NOTE: CPP/CPE eligibility for incoming students is based on federal financial aid formulas in effect at the time awards are made. If federal eligibility methodology, such as Pell Grant calculations, change in the future, BYU reserves the right to adjust CPP/CPE initial awarding criteria accordingly.

• Apply and be admitted to BYU during your senior year of high school, even if you leave on your mission or military service directly out of high school before attending BYU.
• Complete the online BYU scholarship application by the published scholarship deadline.
• Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by January 20 and be certified as Pell-eligible for more than the "Minimum Pell Grant."
• If you are leaving on a mission or military service and selected for financial aid verification, you must complete it before leaving on your mission or military service to establish eligibility. You must complete verification even if you have not attended BYU before your service. If verification is not completed, you will lose eligibility for all eight semesters.
• Complete your Mission Deferment form to defer your CPP or CPE.

• Complete the online BYU scholarship application each year by the continuing student scholarship deadline.
• Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year by January 20. Please note the following:
  
  • If you are first awarded before the 2024-2025 academic year, you must be eligible for a Pell Grant when first granted the CPP. You can still maintain the CPP in the following years, even if you are not eligible for the Pell Grant.
  • If you are first awarded beginning with the 2024-2025 academic year, you must be eligible for more than the "Minimum Pell Grant" when first granted the CPP or CPE. You can still maintain the CPP or CPE in the following years even if you are not eligible for more than the "Minimum Pell Grant."
• Maintain a 2.00 cumulative BYU GPA.
• Enroll in 12 credit hours each semester. CPP and CPE do not cover spring/summer terms.

• After initial qualification, semesters of eligibility may be deferred for full-time missionary or active-duty military service.
• Eligibility is forfeited for semesters with fewer than 12 credit hours of enrollment and non-enrollment, except for approved deferments. Each fall or winter semester without full-time enrollment or an approved deferment is deducted from the eight-semester limit.
• CPP and CPE will not cover tuition charges incurred for withdrawing from a semester or term.
• Maximum coverage is capped at the value of LDS tuition. However, eligible recipients do not need to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and can receive CPP or CPE up to the value of LDS tuition.
• CPP and CPE only apply to undergraduate tuition. Once a recipient graduates or starts a program that charges graduate-level tuition amounts, the program ceases.
• Other free aid includes institutional, federal, and third-party scholarships, grants, and benefits. The total amount of other free aid is considered before adding the CPP/CPE. As these funds are received or withdrawn, CPP and CPE adjust up or down.
• A semester will still count as one of the eight semesters of CPP/CPE even if the funds are not used because tuition is covered by other free aid.
• For CPP/CPE purposes, scholarship amounts offered and not claimed are the values used in the calculation.
• Student loans and 529-plan payments do not affect the coverage calculations for CPP/CPE recipients.
• You will be notified of the CPP/CPE on the same day as your admission decision. You can monitor and track your CPP/CPE every semester through a customized dashboard.
• Awarding of CPP/CPE is based on your FAFSA information.

Your CPP will cover expenses in one of two ways:

1. If the total amount of your other free aid is less than the amount of LDS tuition, your CPP will be the amount of LDS tuition - other free aid.

Example:

Assumption: Amount of tuition is $3,500 (amounts listed are for example purposes only. They do not reflect actual tuition costs or financial aid amounts).

OR

2. If the total amount of your other free aid is more than the amount of LDS tuition, you will not receive CPP for that semester since your tuition has already been covered.

Example:

Assumption: Amount of tuition is $3,500 (amounts listed are for example purposes only. They do not reflect actual tuition costs or financial aid amounts).

Your scholarship will cover expenses in one of two ways:

1. If the total amount of your other free aid is equal to or less than the amount of LDS tuition, your Cougar Pell Elevated Scholarship will be the amount of LDS tuition.

Example:

Assumption: Amount of tuition is $3,500 (amounts listed are for example purposes only. They do not reflect actual tuition costs or financial aid amounts).

OR

2. If the total amount of your other free aid is greater than the amount of LDS tuition, your Cougar Pell Elevated Scholarship will cover the difference of twice the amount of LDS tuition minus your other free aid.

Example:

Assumption: Amount of tuition is $3,500 (amounts listed are for example purposes only. They do not reflect actual tuition costs or financial aid amounts).