| Financial
Aid after the first year:
It is helpful
to think about financial aid in terms of awards based on need
or based on merit. Merit awards are those scholarships offered
to the student without regard to financial need. Our Kalamazoo
Honors Scholarships, Competitive Scholarships, and Michigan Promise
are examples of merit based awards. These awards are generally
renewable as long as the student is making reasonable academic
progress. The Kalamazoo Honors Scholarship does not require a
minimum grade point average until the end of the second
year at which time the student must have a cumulative
GPA of 2.5. Students receiving only merit based awards and having
no interest in federal student loans will not need to re-apply
for financial aid.
Financial
aid based on "need" as determined by the FAFSA must
be applied for each year. This includes Kalamazoo College Grant,
Michigan Competitive Scholarships/Tuition Grant, Federal Work/Study,
Federal Grants (Pell/SEOG/ACG/SMART), Federal Perkins Loan and
Federal Direct Subsidized Stafford Loans. Although the Federal
Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan does not require financial
need, the student must file the FAFSA to have access to this loan
program. For a more complete description of the types of financial
aid offered at Kalamazoo College, please go to our website at
http://www.kzoo.edu/finaid/
and look for the heading of "Types of Financial Aid."
The Office
of Financial Aid sends a Renewal Packet to all enrolled
students who "applied" for financial aid the year before.
This is true even if the student did not end up qualifying for
need-based financial aid. The packet is mailed early in the Winter
Quarter (January). The packet contains information on how to complete
a Renewal FAFSA. The Renewal FAFSA is completed on line at FAFSA.ed.gov
and should be done by March 1st if the student has qualified for
the need-based Michigan Competitive Scholarship/Tuition Grant
in the previous year. It is far more important to be on-time in
filing the FAFSA then having final tax numbers. Estimating your
tax year income is an acceptable solution to meeting the recommended
filing date. Renewal packets are mailed to the student's home
address when the student is not on campus Winter Quarter due to
studying abroad or in a domestic off campus program. Parents of
such students should look for this mailing in early January and
open it on their student's behalf.
The Renewal
Packet will include a Kalamazoo College Addendum which is a simple,
institutional form that we wish to collect to help us obtain voluntary
student signatures and other information that eases the administrative
burdens of managing financial aid and the student's account in
the business office. The addendum also collects contact information
such as parent's work phone numbers and student cell phone numbers.
There is no financial reporting and parents do not sign the form,
therefore students can complete the addendum on their own.
You may recall
from your first year experience, that you filled out a CSS PROFILE
form or a K College Supplemental Financial Aid form. These additional
forms are seldom required of students after the first year. Our
staff will review the FAFSA renewal data and will request additional
information or ask the student to complete a supplemental form
if they find significant changes in the information that would
warrant another in depth review. We will contact the student if
this is the case.
We will make
every attempt to mail awards to those who applied on time. We
mail to the student campus mail box around Memorial Day.
If we cannot meet this date, awards will be mailed to the home
address after the end of the academic year.
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