Students seeking federal aid, grants or work-study programs for the 2012-2013 academic year need to complete the application by Thursday.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid — FAFSA — determines student eligibility for financial aid, and many state and local schools review the application as well when allotting aid.

Applications are accepted after Thursday, but March 1 is the priority, highly-recommended deadline to provide adequate processing time, U. Oklahoma Financial Aid Services Director Caryn Pacheco said.

Students who previously have filled out the form can save time by downloading information from previous years and updating necessary information, Pacheco said.

“It was easy to use, and I didn’t have any trouble doing it,” OU sophomore Ryan Neeley said. “Because it already had my information from last year, it took me about 30 minutes max to finish.”

For first-timers filling out the five-part application, students must be a U.S. citizen with a Social Security number and working toward a higher education degree with good standing.

STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS

Students need to enter their first and last name exactly as it appears and include a valid Social Security number, according to the application.

A common mistake students make is not entering the correct Social Security number, which the government uses to determine citizen status and previous aid, Pacheco said. A wrong number could result in delays in aid.

SCHOOL SELECTION

Students should enter the names of all schools they want to receive their financial information for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Applicants can add up to 10 schools and should list them in preferential order, according to the application. People applying to more than 10 schools can submit the application and add more later.

The government assigns schools a federal code, but students can search for the school by name and state if they do not know the code.

DEPENDENCY DETERMINATION

Students who have not yet completed a bachelor’s degree are considered dependent and will have to submit their parents’ financial data as well their own, according to the application.

However, those who have finished a degree or are not claimed as dependents are independent and should only include their financial information.

In this section, applicants also list if they have any dependents and how many people are in their household.

PARENT DEMOGRAPHICS

If students are considered a dependent student from the previous section, they will need to fill out information about their parents, according to the application.

Information includes marital status, anniversaries, birthdays, Social Security numbers and contact information.

Students age 23 or older are not required to provide information about their parents.

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

To fill out financial information, there are a few shortcuts using federal tax data, Pacheco said.

The Internal Revenue Service provides an online database in which applicants can access previous tax information and transfer it to the application, she said.

Students are strongly encouraged to use this method because it is fastest and most accurate.

To do this, an individual must have filed taxes electronically within at least one to two weeks of the application time or have mailed taxes within at least six to eight weeks.

If students indicate they have filed the previous year’s taxes already, the website will guide students through retrieving the tax information.

SUBMISSION

After submitting the application, the government will send students an aid report, which summarizes the data, according to the application. This will also include your Expected Family Contribution, which determines if students are eligible for aid.

Schools listed on the application also will receive a copy of the report and compose financial aid packages for students explaining for what aid students are qualified.