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For Parents : Financial Information
 
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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