Financial Aid Information

A student must meet all three of the following requirements:

• Minimum grade point average (GPA) requirement:
  All financial aid students must have a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA to be eligible for financial aid for the following semester/term; AND
• Minimum completion factor requirement:
  All financial aid students must successfully complete a minimum of 67% of all credit hours attempted, whether or not financial aid was received for those attempted credits.  Successful credit hours completed include all transfer credits accepted and all grades recorded on the transcript of 4.0 through .67.  When calculating the completion factor the following designations are considered attempted but not successfully completed:  Incompletes (I), 0.0 grade (E), withdrawals (W), and repeated courses (R).  Note:  Students cannot receive financial aid for audited (AU) classes and these credits are not included in attempted hours.  AND
• Maximum time to complete Degree (150% Rule):
  All financial aid students cannot attempt more than 150% of the official North Central Michigan College academic program requirements or 90 credit hours (whichever is lower).  Aid eligibility concludes after this time frame, pending mitigating circumstances.  Attempted credit hours include credits transferred from another college; incompletes; 0.0 grade (E); withdrawals; and repeated courses.   All of these designations of attempted credit hours are included in the 150% Rule calculation and will impact how quickly the student reaches their maximum credits allowed for their academic program requirements.

Students who have exceeded the maximum attempted hours (150% Rule) to complete their degree, have changed their program of study, or wish to pursue a second degree program must submit an appeal.  Note:  North Central Michigan College students may only earn one of the following degrees:  Associate of Arts (AA), Associate of Science (AS), or Associate of General Studies (AGS).

Students who have exceeded the maximum attempted hours (150% Rule) to complete their degree, have changed their program of study, or wish to pursue a second degree program must submit an appeal.  Note:  North Central Michigan College students may only earn one of the following degrees:  Associate of Arts (AA), Associate of Science (AS), or Associate of General Studies (AGS).

In the event a student has a grade change after official grades have been posted to their transcript, the financial aid office should be notified by the student so a recalculation of satisfactory academic progress can be calculated and reevaluated for eligibility.

Financial aid recipients who are not meeting the academic progress policy eligibility requirement will be notified of their status by letter or email.

All developmental courses are included in the satisfactory academic policy calculations for GPA and completion rate.

1. A student may repeat a previously passed course once and receive financial aid for it. The student must appeal for consideration of this condition.
2. A student may repeat a failed or withdrawn course until it is passed.
3. Aid will be re-calculated based on the student’s adjusted enrollment status regardless of whether the student received aid for previous course enrollments.
4. Repeated courses are considered attempted but not successfully completed.

All of the above apply as long as the student is meeting the three eligibility requirements listed above under “Eligibility Requirements."

With the exception of the 150% Rule, a student may be reinstated after the student has taken, without funding from the financial aid office, enough credit hours to meet the GPA and completion rate requirements and informed the financial aid office. Classes taken at institutions other than North Central are not considered for reinstatement purposes.

Financial Aid Probation Status is assigned to a student who fails to make satisfactory academic progress, is terminated, has appealed, and then has had eligibility for aid reinstated for one semester/term.  Specific conditions (e.g., reduced course load) may apply to the student’s probation period.  The student’s responsibilities during the Probation semester/term include following the academic plan developed with an advisor and ensuring successful completion of courses to meet the GPA and completion factor requirements.

A termination appeal can only be considered if it is an extraordinary event that prevented the student from achieving satisfactory academic progress. A student whose financial aid has been terminated may appeal in writing to the Director of Financial Aid. The written appeal must:

1. Explain any mitigating, extenuating or special circumstances. Examples include but are not limited to: injury, illness, or death of immediate family member.
2. Tell why the student failed to make satisfactory academic progress.
3. Describe what has changed in the student’s situation that will allow the student to demonstrate satisfactory academic progress at the next evaluation.
4. Contain an academic plan, developed with an advisor.
5. Include appropriate documentation. Acceptable documentation includes letters from a physician, attorney, social service agency, parole officer, or an obituary notice, divorce decree and/or academic records. 

Appeals can result in a) denial of reinstatement and students must then follow the “Reinstatement after Ineligibility” conditions to regain eligibility, or b) Probation Status with reinstatement of the student’s financial aid for one semester/term. The result of an appeal will be communicated to the student and recorded in the student’s financial aid file. A student may file a satisfactory academic progress appeal multiple times.  However, a student cannot use the same situation more than once.

See the Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal Form.

FAFSA Verification is the process of reviewing a student’s FAFSA for accuracy. In this review, the financial aid staff compares the student’s FAFSA with information provided on the required verification documents. The information that is verified includes income, household size and if requested, high school completion status.  If differences are found, North Central Michigan College will correct the FAFSA and re-submit it to the U.S. Department of Education for reprocessing. North Central Michigan College will then recalculate the financial aid awards using the corrected FAFSA.

Note: Students selected for verification cannot receive any federal aid, including student loans until they have completed the verification process.

Many students selected for verification are chosen randomly by the U.S. Department of Education. However, you are more likely to be selected for verification if the information you provided on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) was inconsistent, if the FAFSA you submitted was incomplete, or if your FAFSA contained estimated information. The verification process ensures that eligible students receive all the financial aid to which they are entitled and prevents ineligible students from receiving financial aid to which they are not entitled.

If your FAFSA is selected for verification, you will be notified by North Central to your student My Mail account. The email will be titled “Additional FAFSA Information Required."  The email will contain a “TO DO LIST:” that lists the documents required to complete FAFSA Verification. This verification document list is also available at My Financial Aidunder the Students tab in the My North Central section of the Student Portal.  Once we receive all the required documents, we will complete your FAFSA Verification review. If any differences are found between the information you provided on your FAFSA and your verification paperwork, we will correct your FAFSA and re-submit it to the U.S. Department of Education for reprocessing. It is important to regularly check your My Mail account and My Financial Aid for accurate verification updates and comments.

Generally, a verification worksheet and documentation of Federal tax information are required. The specific listing of required verification documents will be included in the email that you receive from North Central Michigan College. The verification worksheets that are required will be listed in the “Additional FAFSA Information Required” email that we send to your My Mail account and those worksheets are available at the top of this webpage.

Verification documents can be submitted using any of the following options, including taking a picture with a smartphone and emailing the picture.  If you are submitting a picture, please ensure the entire document is captured and in focus.

• Electronic Upload:  Find instructions for electronically uploading and sending your verification documents in the Student Portal.  You will need to log in with your Portal username and password.

• Mail:  North Central Michigan College 

  Attn: Financial Aid Office 

  1515 Howard St.

  Petoskey, MI 49770

• Email:  New regulations from the U.S. Department of Education state that emailing documents is not a secure method of delivery. All emailed documents must be encrypted for security and any emailed documents received by Financial Aid not encrypted are sent at the student’s risk.

While there is not a fixed deadline, verification must be submitted in the academic year in which the student is continuously enrolled. However, it is in the student's best interest to complete FAFSA Verification as soon as possible. We encourage those selected for FAFSA Verification to submit their documentation within 20 days after notification of your verification selection.  Our verification process can take approximately two weeks to complete from the receipt of all required documentation.  This means financial aid may not be awarded for approximately two weeks after we receive all of the required verification paperwork.

Note: If a student or their parents have a unique income tax situation including divorce, death, tax-related identity theft, 401k rollover, or amended tax return, please notify our financial aid office.  We will explain how to provide the required documentation in these unique situations.

Yes, you can elect to NOT complete the FAFSA Verification process. However, making this decision means that you forfeit access to all federal aid including student loans.  All financial aid in these categories will be placed on hold.

Should this decision be reversed at a later time in the same academic year, then the verification review process would proceed. Once the verification review is successfully completed, all aid for which the student is still eligible would be reinstated.

Contact the Financial Aid Office by email at FinancialAid@ncmich.edu or by phone at 231-348-6605.