How do I change the footnote symbols (asterisk, daggers) to numbers?

Question

I simply want my footnotes to use numbers rather than symbols (which for some reason is the default behaviour for an article. I would also like the horizontal line to extend the width of the page. How do I do this?

\documentclass[a4paper,oneside,12pt]{article}

\usepackage[english]{babel} % formatting rules for the English language
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} % proper formatting for accented characters and non-standard characters such as pipelines
\usepackage[top=33mm, bottom=38mm, left=26mm, right=20mm]{geometry} % page layout
\usepackage{lmodern} % font formatting
\usepackage{float} % allow floating environments such as figures
\usepackage{amsmath} % math eqn formatting
\usepackage{amssymb} % math fonts

\begin{document}

\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\arabic{footnote}} % this doesn't even fix it

\title{\bf{PROJECT}}
\author{NAME.\footnote{Student}}
\date{\today}

\maketitle

\vfill

\begin{abstract}
Abstract here
\end{abstract}

\clearpage
\tableofcontents
\cleardoublepage

\end{document}

Answer 1

Footnotes to the title or authors are treated differently than those in the body, because they're usually meant for acknowledgments or data relative to the author. You can redefine \maketitle not to do that and use the standard \footnote mechanism.

For the footnote rule to use the whole text width, another command must be redefined.

\documentclass[a4paper,oneside,12pt]{article}

\usepackage[
  top=33mm,
  bottom=38mm,
  left=26mm,
  right=20mm
]{geometry}

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} 
\usepackage[english]{babel} 
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}

\makeatletter % access to internal commands
%% redefine \maketitle to use the normal \footnote mechanism
\renewcommand\maketitle{\par
  \begingroup
    \if@twocolumn
      \ifnum \col@number=\@ne
        \@maketitle
      \else
        \twocolumn[\@maketitle]%
      \fi
    \else
      \newpage
      \global\@topnum\z@   % Prevents figures from going at top of page.
      \@maketitle
    \fi
    \thispagestyle{plain}\@thanks
  \endgroup
  \global\let\maketitle\relax
  \global\let\@maketitle\relax
  \global\let\@author\@empty
  \global\let\@date\@empty
  \global\let\@title\@empty
  \global\let\title\relax
  \global\let\author\relax
  \global\let\date\relax
  \global\let\and\relax
}

%% redefine \footnoterule for using the whole text width
\renewcommand\footnoterule{%
  \kern-3\p@\hrule\@width\columnwidth\kern 2.6\p@
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}


\title{PROJECT}
\author{NAME\footnote{Student}}
\date{\today}

\maketitle

\vfill

\begin{abstract}
Abstract here
\end{abstract}

\clearpage
\tableofcontents
\cleardoublepage

\end{document}

Please, note that \bf has been deprecated (together with all the two letter font changing commands such as \it or \tt) for about twenty years. Use \textbf instead, if you really want a boldface title.