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High school seniors left as much as $2.7 billion in free student aid on the table in the last academic year, according to a聽NerdWallet study. Part of that cash is missed聽because of errors聽students are making on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid forms. Here are some of the most common FAFSA mistakes, according to financial aid experts and the U.S. Department of Education.

1. Entering the wrong Social Security number

If you make a mistake with your Social Security number, the online FAFSA won鈥檛 allow you to make a change and you may have to submit a new application. You鈥檒l have to ask the financial aid office at the school you plan to attend whether to start the process over again with a new form.

2.聽Submitting a name that doesn鈥檛 match your legal name

If your name is legally Jonathan Smith according to your Social Security card, but you submit your name as John Smith on your FAFSA, it could delay your application. Since the FAFSA verifies your legal information with the Social Security Administration, you have to make sure the name you use to start the FAFSA is the legal name on your Social Security card.

3. Forgetting to include a school on your form

You can designate only 10 schools on your online FAFSA to receive your financial information. If you don鈥檛 include a school you鈥檝e applied to, it won鈥檛 receive your information. By adding another school to the list of 10, one of the previous schools will be removed, but you can choose which one to replace.

If you鈥檙e applying to more than 10 colleges you can make your information available to the additional ones after you receive your Student Aid Report by making a correction to your FAFSA. You can do this yourself through聽FAFSA.gov聽or by mailing a correction on your paper report. Or, you can have the additional colleges or Federal Student Aid Information Center add the schools聽to your FAFSA for you by contacting them聽directly.

4. Taking too long to file

The federal deadline to聽submit your FAFSA this year is June 30, so it may seem like you have plenty of time to file. But if you wait to submit your application until the last minute, you may miss out on certain grants and scholarships. Schools will have their own deadlines, some as early as February. Make sure to submit well before individual and state college deadlines 鈥� before schools run out of money to offer.

5. You qualify 鈥� but haven鈥檛 registered 鈥� for the Selective Service

Male students ages 18 to 25 must聽register for the聽Selective Service聽to be considered for federal financial aid.

6. Miscalculating dependency or household size

鈥淎 question I always get is, if the student is living off campus, are they counted in the household size 鈥� and of course they are,鈥� says Cora Manuel, assistant financial aid director at Saint Mary鈥檚 College of California. 鈥淚n theory, parents are still providing support and are responsible for educational expenses and things like that.鈥�

If anything changes with your dependency status 鈥� except a marital status change 鈥� you will need to update your application.

If the student filer is a parent, then he or she is considered an independent only if the student provides the majority of the financial support for the child. 鈥淚n some cases, that child is staying at home with the student鈥檚 parents,鈥� Manuel says. 鈥淲ith that situation, we have to work with the family, and the parents will have to report income and assets on the student鈥檚 FAFSA.鈥�

7. Failing to note that your divorced parent is remarried

If your parents are separated or divorced, you must report information on the one you live with more often or who provides more than 51% of support to you. If the parent who supports you is remarried, then your stepparent must provide information on the FAFSA as well.

8. Waiting until you file taxes to apply

You don鈥檛 have to wait until you or your parents file taxes; there鈥檚 an option on the form to choose 鈥渨ill file鈥� and estimate income using the previous year鈥檚 pay stubs.

Estimations or mistakes in income can be corrected later when you update your FAFSA with you or your parents鈥� current year tax information using the聽IRS Data Retrieval Tool聽to automatically transfer tax information. Your information should be available on the tool two weeks after you file, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

9. Not reporting untaxed income

鈥淪ome families have more untaxed income than they realize they do, like a retirement fund contribution,鈥� says Elizabeth McDuffie, executive director of the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority, the state agency in North Carolina responsible for financial aid for students preparing for college. 鈥淩etirement funds don鈥檛 count, but any contribution you make to that account does.鈥� McDuffie suggests taking advantage of the tools on the side of the online form that can give you additional information about what you should be reporting.

10. Forgetting to sign and submit

If you don鈥檛 sign your application, it won鈥檛 be submitted properly. Use the new聽Federal Student Aid ID聽to sign electronically or you can opt to print a page and submit regular signatures. Confirm your FAFSA was submitted by checking your status immediately after you file on the My FAFSA page of聽FAFSA.gov.

How to correct mistakes on your FAFSA

Most mistakes on a聽submitted FAFSA application can聽be corrected. You can make changes by logging in to the My FAFSA page of聽FASFA.gov聽and submitting changes under the category called Make FAFSA Corrections. You can also make changes electronically with the financial aid office at the school you plan to attend.

This article first appeared at NerdWallet.