Hello MACRAO colleagues,
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend!
I have a question about graduate/PhD level programs and full time classification.
Our Graduate School is looking to change the full time classification for PhD students nearing the end of their program:
After successful completion of the Qualifying and Candidacy Examinations, PhD students can register for a minimum of one credit hour for up to six semesters to be considered a full-time student.
They are expecting that PhD students, prior to completion of the Qualifying and Candidacy Examinations, would remain under current full time classifications.
Our Financial Aid director found this:
From the FSA Handbook
A student’s workload may include any combination of courses, work, research, or special studies that your school considers sufficient to classify them as full time. This includes, for a term-based program that is not subscription-based, no more than one repetition of a previously passed course that is not due to the student failing other coursework. The regulations specify a minimum standard for undergraduate students but not for graduate students.
To be enrolled half time, a student must be taking at least half of the course load of a full-time student. Your school defines a full-time workload, but it must meet the minimum standards in the FSA regulations. The definition of full time for FSA purposes can differ from that used for other purposes at your school, such as the definition used by the registrar’s office. Your definition of a full-time workload for a program must be used for all students in that program and must be the same for all FSA-related purposes, including loan deferments. You can’t accommodate a student with a learning disability or other handicap by allowing a full-time enrollment status lower (for Title IV financial aid purposes) than the minimum standard (see the section earlier in the chapter on students with intellectual disabilities). Note that for students in Comprehensive Transition and Postsecondary (CTP) programs, the scope of activity that may be counted for full-time status is broader than it is for students in traditional programs. A school may choose to define half time as half of the minimum fulltime standard established in the regulations even if this is less than half the full-time standard established by the school. For example, if a school sets 14 semester hours as full time, it could use 6 semester hours (one-half of the regulatory full-time minimum of 12) as half time instead of 7.
https://fsapartners.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2023-2024/2023-2024_Federal_Student_Aid_Handbook/_knowledge-center_fsa-handbook_2023-2024_vol1_ch1-school-determined-requirements.pdf
IPED defines a full-time graduate student as a student enrolled for 9 or more semester credits or a student involved in thesis or dissertation preparation that is considered full-time by the institution.
Do any of you have experience with a standard definition of full time up to a certain point in the program, allowing dissertation and capstone/completion courses to be classified as full time with different (much lower) credit loads?
If you have seen this or do have experience, is there a way for Banner to identify the course or section somehow to make this happen automagically?
I would appreciate any insight, advice, experience any of you have with this!
Thanks!
Heather
HEATHER SKOCILICH
Registrar
