Q: Im a full time student right now and its my first year at college. I was given a federal pell grant.
A: The answer is definitely yes. You will be obligated to pay at least part of your Pell Grant back. It's a little complicated, but basically, if you withdraw from school with less than 60% of the semester already completed, you will be required to repay part of your Pell Grant. Your school's financial office will use a formula that computes what is known as the "unearned" portion of the Grant - and they will be required to return that 'unearned' portion to the Department of Education. In turn, your school is required to get a refund from you. If you want to roughly estimate the amount that you will be asked to repay, figure out how many days there are in this semester, then figure out how many days of the semester will have passed as of the day you submit your withdrawal paperwork (not the last day you went to class). If you divide the second number by the first, that's what percentage of the semester you attended. Suppose the semester was 100 days long and you withdrew on the 18th day. Easy calculation - you completed 18% of the semester. That's how much of your grant you "earned", and the rest - the 82% is unearned. If you received a $2000 Pell Grant, the unearned portion of that grant is 82% of $2000 which is $1640. Your school gets to make certain deductions for its expenses, but they'll be required to pay most of that $1640 back to the Department of Education, and when they do, the school will turn around and bill you for 50% or more of that amount. If you can not afford to pay it all at once, your school can make a payment agreement with you, but you must repay that money - or be making payments on a school-negotiated payment plan, before you can regain your eligibility to receive any future federal aid funds. I don't know why you're thinking about dropping out of college, but if it's just because you are having a hard time acclimating to college life and you are struggling in your classes and missing home - I would strongly encourage you to visit the counseling office, talk to your professors and choose some alternative other than giving up on school already. It takes many absolutely fine students a few semesters to get up to speed, and there is no shame in struggling out of the gate. If you give up now, you'll never overcome the jitters that are stressing you out. Trust me, there are programs at your school to help improve your study skills - and the school and your professors will work with you to help you get on track. Or you can drop out and repay a good part of your grant money. The information I'm giving you is absolutely accurate - by federal law, you must repay Pell Grant funds if you leave school before you have completed more than 60% of the semester. No one can waive this requirement for you. Good luck to you.