This study examines whether financial aid, specifically federal Pell grants, is associated with academic success for low-income community college students in California. Previous studies in this series of MPR Research Briefs have examined transfer patterns and the types of financial aid typically received by students in this sector. This report focused on low-income students, identified as such because they received need-based financial aid in their first year of enrollment. Almost all students at California community colleges who received financial aid got it from one of two sources: federal Pell grants and Board of Governors (BOG) fee waivers. This study is based on data files from the California Community College Chancellor's Office Management Information System (COMIS). The study examined data for two student cohorts. The first cohort was composed of those who first enrolled in a California community college in 2000-01 and had outcome variables three and six years later (in 2003 and 2006), and the second cohort was students who began in 2003-04 and had outcomes three years later (in 2006). This permits extensive examination of the characteristics of aid recipients for two time periods, as well as an analysis of the academic progress of a group of low-income students over a significant period of time. (Contains 5 tables and 1 chart.)