COMMUNITY

Winterfest Winterfest for staff and faculty will take place Friday, December 15, at Chapin Auditorium from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. This event celebrates friendships and goodwill of the season. Donations are being collected for three charities—Holyoke Headstart (mittens and hats); Western Mass Food Bank (nonperishable foods); and Womanshelter Companeras (toiletry items and slippers for women and children).

Beat the Flu The Health Center is offering a flu immunization clinic for students, faculty, and staff December 8. Immunizations are given by appointment only on a first-come, first-served basis. You can schedule an appointment by calling the Health Center at x2121 (use option 2). The charge for the immunization is $10. You will be billed through the College.

January-Term Yoga During January Term (January 4–23), a yoga class will be offered Tuesday and Thursday from 9 to 10 am. No physical education credit will be given for these sessions. The fee is $25 for six classes. Register by December l3 in room 106 of Kendall Hall.

STUDENTS

Alumnae Fellowships for Seniors Graduating seniors are eligible to apply for Mount Holyoke Alumnae Fellowships, which are awarded for independent projects, graduate work, and professional school. Approximately twenty awards are given each year, with amounts ranging between $1,000 and $3,000, with one award of $7,500 given to the overall best candidate. Applications are available in room 101, Mary Woolley Hall, or by contacting Karen Griffin at x2653 or kgriffin@mtholyoke.edu. The application deadline is February 15.

Extensions/Incompletes Faculty legislation stipulates that “an instructor may report a student's work as incomplete only if the student has been given an excuse by the director of the Health Center or the dean of the College because of an emergency.” This means that instructors may not accept exams, or papers due in lieu of exams, after noon on Thursday, December 21, unless authorized by the director of the Health Center for medical reasons, or one of the academic deans in the dean of the College's office for unforeseen emergencies. All other course work must be turned in by the last day of classes. The deadline for students to request an extension because of incomplete work is Thursday, December 21, at noon.

Reapplication for Financial Assistance, Academic Year 2001–02

Domestic students who wish to receive financial assistance must reapply for assistance each year. The following forms are due in the Office of Financial Assistance by May 1. FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) should be filed with the Department of Education by March 1; PROFILE should also be filed with the College Scholarship Service (CSS) by March 1; Federal 2000 tax returns and W2 forms, including all schedules of parent- and student-signed tax returns are due by May 1; and the Frances Perkins financial aid application (for FP students only) is also due by May 1. Please note that international students are not required to reapply for financial assistance each year.

The following forms are required if applicable: the business/farm supplement; the noncustodial parent's statement; and the noncustodial parent 2000 signed federal tax return, including all schedules. Additional forms are required if the student or parent owns a business or farm, or if the student's parents are divorced, separated, or were never married. If this is indicated on the PROFILE, the College Scholarship Service will automatically send a business/farm supplement and/or noncustodial parent's statement.

Please note that the FAFSA and PROFILE forms take four to six weeks to be processed and sent electronically to Mount Holyoke. These forms should be filed by March 1 with their respective agencies to ensure receipt in the Office of Financial Assistance by the May 1 deadline. Most families do not have their federal income tax forms completed by March 1, so it is acceptable to use estimated figures when completing the FAFSA and PROFILE forms. MHC will verify actual figures when tax returns are submitted.

The Department of Education will send either a paper renewal FAFSA or a PIN number during December to a student's home address. Only those students who filed electronically last year will receive a PIN number; students who filed a paper application will receive a paper renewal FAFSA. A student can request her PIN code or file her FAFSA on the Web at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov. Students may file the 2001–2002 FAFSA beginning January 1. For more information on the FAFSA, call 1-800-433-3243.

The College Scholarship Service (CSS) will send the renewal PROFILE directly to the student's home address in early January. For more information on the PROFILE, call 1-800-778-6888. The renewal PROFILE form may be completed online at http://www.collegeboard.org. To file online, first register for the form, then choose “renewal application” for question #9.
All required documents must be received by the May 1. For those applications received after May 1 but before June 30, the student's aid package will reflect a $1,000 increase in student loan with a corresponding decrease of $1,000 in grant aid. Applications completed after June 30 will result in a $2,000 increase in student loan and a corresponding $2,000 decrease in grant aid. If an application remains incomplete after August 1, eligibility for institutional aid may not be available.
Students who have completed their aid application by May 1 will be mailed aid eligibility letters throughout May and June. If MHC requires additional information, students will be contacted. The deadline penalty does not apply to supplemental information that the College may request after file review has begun.

Students can expect an increase in their student loan each year. While the College is committed to providing assistance to students who demonstrate financial need, because a student is the direct beneficiary of her education, she is expected to assume additional responsibility for the cost of her education each year. Changes in the family contribution are not made arbitrarily. A student's family contribution may increase or decrease based on the information provided for that year. Adjustments in the family contribution typically result from increases or decreases in income, a change in the number of siblings in undergraduate institutions, or a change in the number of dependent family members living in the household.

For more information, email finaid.mtholyoke.edu, call x2291, or visit http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/finaid. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 5 pm (8:30 am to 4 pm during the summer). CSS supplemental forms can be downloaded from the financial assistance Web site.

PRESCHEDULED EXAMINATIONS DURING EXAM PERIOD DECEMBER 16Ð21, 2000

The above examinations are the only prescheduled ones. Be sure to note any that apply to you and meet those appointments at the scheduled time and place.

SELF-SCHEDULED EXAMINATIONS: Students must present ID cards at the Exam Center. Students who have lost their ID cards may obtain a replacement ID card for $15.00 at the One-Card office located on the ground floor of the Central Services Building.

PLEASE NOTE: There will be ONE examination center, HOOKER AUDITORIUM. Students should enter Hooker at the upper level by the doors nearest the amphitheater. Then follow signs to the appropriate exam distribution areas. Exams are to be taken in the designated classrooms. Open-book rooms will be posted. Examinations are two hours in length with an extra half-hour permitted. Please note that there is NO SMOKING during examinations.

Physically challenged students requiring assistance obtaining their examinations from Hooker should contact Blanca Ayala, x2025, to make arrangements prior to the beginning of the examination period.

HOOKER will have examinations for the following departments: Anthropology, Astronomy, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Economics, English, French, Geography & Geology, Greek History, Italian, Latin, Mathematics, Physics, Politics, Psychology, Religion, Russian, Spanish, Sociology

All examinations must be taken and returned to the center by 11:30 am on Thursday, December 21. Students must take prescheduled examinations at the scheduled time. They may take the other examinations whenever they wish as long as they complete each one during a single examination session. Students who choose to start an examination late during one of the examination sessions must return the examination by the end of that session, thereby shortening the available time for taking the examination.