Full-time study for graduate students is usually defined as a minimum of 9 credit hours per term.

Please note that academic course load requirements are not the same as course load requirements for financial aid purposes.

For financial aid purposes, a graduate student must be enrolled in a minimum of 9 credit hours in a Fall, Spring, or Summer term to be considered full-time for financial aid purposes. Only the following exceptions are made:

• Master of Science in Nursing students are defined as full-time at 6 credit hours
• Doctor of Nursing Practice students are defined as full-time at 6 credit hours
• Doctor of Occupational Therapy students enrolled in Level II Fieldwork are defined as full-time at 8 credit hours
• Doctor of Psychology students in practicum are defined as full-time at 8 credit hours and are defined as half-time at 4 credit hours.
• Doctor of Psychology students in internship are considered full-time at 1 credit hour.
• Doctor of Physical Therapy students are defined as full-time at 8 credit hours and at 6 credit hours when one of the terms includes a Professional Practice course (DPT 881, 882, 983, or 984)
• Any doctoral student in dissertation is defined as full-time at 5 or more total credit hours, for a maximum of five terms. This can be 5 or more hours of dissertation, 3 hours of dissertation plus 2 hours or more of other graduate classes, or 1 hour of dissertation plus 4 or more hours of additional graduate classes.

Graduate student students enrolled in 5, 6, or 7 credit hours in a term are defined as half-time for financial aid purposes. The only exceptions are the graduate nursing programs as shown above and for doctoral students in dissertation.  Doctoral students in dissertation are considered half-time at 1 to 4 credit hours per term, for a maximum of five terms. Doctoral students working on their dissertation and carrying 1 to 4 credit hours in a term are half-time students for a maximum of five terms, after which they drop below half-time status. Any graduate student wishing to exceed these limits must have permission from their school chair or program director and from the Provost.

The maximum load for full-time graduate students is 12 credit hours in one term and 6 credit hours in a summer session, except for programs that require different loads. Please refer to the specific program for maximum credit hour load information.

• Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing students may take up to 15 credit hours per semester
• Psychology graduate students who are taking a practicum can carry a maximum of 14 hours per term.
• Doctor of Physical Therapy students may not exceed 10 credit hours in the summer term.