When you qualify you are actually qualifying for the following program year. So if you qualified today you'd be qualifying for the 03/09 - 02/10 program year. As an added bonus/courtesy they also give you the status for the remainder of the current program year.

The exception to the above is status matches or other unnatural qualifications. Those may be only for the shorter term, depending on when in the year the status is granted and the circumstances surrounding it.