Here’s one case when it’s OK to give your homework to your parents. With deadlines approaching, some Northwestern students are passing up the chance to juggle numbers to just have their parents compile the information instead.

Three forms are needed to apply for university aid: the NU Aid Application, the College Scholarship Service Profile, and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Students need their federal income tax returns and W-2s, along with their parents’.

All forms for the full 2005-06 school year were posted on the Office of Financial Aid Web site in January and are due on May 2.

Natalie Menick, a Weinberg freshman, said her father fills out the application paperwork because he already knows the family’s financial information.

“They’re the ones that make the money, have the accounts and know all the information,” Menick said.

If Menick filled out the forms herself, she would have to ask her parents for every little bit of financial information, she said. Plus, she said, her dad would probably take the time to do a better job.

Menick provides her necessary financial information, but she does not help in any other significant way.

“I get him into the accounts that he needs, I sign things, I have my W-2 forms and I give them to him,” she said, adding that she could be doing more, but as a student it’s intimidating to fill out important forms on her own.

“Financial aid is really important and it’s not something you really want to mess up on,” Menick said. “My dad is spending a lot of time on this stuff, but a lot of it was the tax forms that he was going to do anyway.”

Students have other priorities like schoolwork that give them less time to work on financial aid applications.

Weinberg junior Josh Gregersen completed his forms freshman year, but his father has been doing it since. Gregersen said he does not have enough time to devote to the task, while his father has nights and weekends open to help.

Gregersen said he turned in the NU Aid Application a month late last year, so his family was not guaranteed to receive its normal package of aid.

“I don’t know why we need three forms, it seem kind of redundant,” he said. He added that it would help if universities could create one aggregate financial aid application to simplify the process.

Both Menick and Gregersen believe that the university has done a good job of supporting students throughout the entire process.

For example the university is good at letting students know about upcoming deadlines through e-mail.

“There is enough support,” Gregersen said. “They sent an e-mail with links to the different forms that you have to fill out, and they made it clear when the deadlines are for each part of the application.”

And students can see the financial aid information the university is missing on the CAESAR Web site.

“(CAESAR) works well because there are so many particulars — I have to do a list of about 12 things,” Gregersen said. “It’s an efficient way of seeing what’s received.”

Reach Ashima Singal at [email protected].