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Instructions for Submitting Financial Aid Forms Electronically

Financial Aid

Instructions for Submitting Financial Aid Forms Electronically

Step One: Download all forms which you are required to submit to the financial aid office. To download a form, right click and select "Save Target As." These forms are in Adobe PDF format; if you do not have the most recent version of Adobe Reader, you can download it for free at http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.
Note: you will need Adobe Reader 8.0, not an alternative PDF reading program, to digitally sign financial aid forms. You MUST download the forms; signatures WILL NOT WORK in your web browser.
Step Two: Read and complete all necessary financial aid forms. Save or print a copy of the completed forms for your own records.
Step Three: Digitally sign the financial aid forms.  Start by double clicking the “signature” text box.
  • On the first screen, select the third option, “Create a self-signed digital ID for use with Acrobat.” Click “Next.”
  • On the second screen, select the second option, “New PKCS#12 digital ID file.” Click “Next.”
  • On the third screen, type your full name in the “Name” field. For “Organization Name” you can type “Claremont McKenna College.” Type the email address that you will submit this form through in the “Email Address” field. Select the country or region where you live. Leave the “Enable Unicode Support” box unchecked. For “Key Algorithm,” select “1024-bit RSA.” For “Use digital ID for,” select “Digital Signatures and Data Encryption.” Click “Next.”
Note: To ensure privacy and authenticity, all submitted forms must be signed using a Claremont McKenna email address—NO EXCEPTIONS. IF you are a new student or applicant and have not been assigned a CMC email address, you must use the same email that was submitted to the Admissions office with your application—NO EXCEPTIONS.  
  • On the fourth screen, select a location to save your digital ID signature file on your computer using the “Browse” button. You may use one signature for all of your financial aid forms. Type and confirm a password for your Digital ID signature. Be sure to make note of this password, because you will need it to sign all financial aid forms. Click “Finish.”
NOTE: Once you have created a Digital ID Signature file, you may use this same signature file for all future signatures. To do this, on Step One select “Browse for an existing digital ID file” instead of “Create a self-signed digital ID for use with Acrobat” and select the Digital ID signature that you have created.
Step Four: Submit all necessary financial aid forms. You can do this via email by either clicking on the “Submit via Email” or emailing the form to the financial aid mail box, finaid@claremontmckenna.edu.
Note: To ensure privacy and authenticity, all submitted forms must come from a Claremont McKenna email address—NO EXCEPTIONS. IF you are a new student or applicant and have not been assigned a CMC email address, you must use the same email that was submitted to the Admissions office with your application—NO EXCEPTIONS. Your email signature MUST match the email address you use to submit the form.