Graduate students may enroll in up to 20 credits per semester. The specific number of credits and choice of courses for which a student registers is a matter to be discussed by the student and the major advisor. If a student has extenuating circumstances that require the student to take more than 20 credits, the major advisor must send a written request to The Graduate School for approval. In addition to courses offered within specific subject areas, a student’s credit load may include GRAD 5950 Master's Thesis Research, GRAD 6950 Doctoral Dissertation Research, and other equivalent research courses defined by The Graduate School, as well as seminar and other “colloquium” courses that are not part of the plan of study.

Full-Time vs. Part-Time Status

A student may be classified as a full-time student in one of three ways:

1. enroll in nine or more credits (coursework or research);
2. enroll in six or more credits while holding a graduate assistantship; or
3. enroll in one of the following four special purpose three-credit courses: GRAD 5960 Full-Time Master's Research, GRAD 6960 Full-Time Doctoral Research, GRAD 5930 Full-Time Directed Studies (Master's Level), and GRAD 6930 Full-Time Directed Studies (Doctoral Level).

The former two courses may be taken by students who have completed all requirements for the respective degree except the research component and who have no other obligations at the University (i.e., no other coursework and no graduate assistantship). The latter two courses denote a full-time, off-campus directed project, such as an internship, field work, or other special activity.

Students holding graduate assistantships must register for six or more credits per semester. Such students are considered to be full-time students. Students in GRAD 5930 Full-Time Directed Studies (Master's Level) or GRAD 6930 Full-Time Directed Studies (Doctoral Level) may hold graduate assistantships if those assistantships are in direct support of their studies. Such an assistantship may not be a standard teaching assistantship.

A part-time course credit load is between 1 and 8.99 credits. To be classified as three-quarter time, the student’s credit load must be greater than six and less than nine credits per semester. To be classified as half time, the student’s credit load must be between 4.5 and 5.99 credits per semester. A credit load of fewer than 4.5 credits per semester is considered less than half time.  For various reasons, the University may need to provide the institutional consideration of a “part-time” credit load. These criteria apply to all registered students at the University. Note that the Non-Credit Registration courses (GRAD 5997 Continuous Registration (Certificate), GRAD 5998 Continuous Registration (Master's), GRAD 5999 Thesis Preparation, GRAD 6998 Continuous Registration (Doctoral), and GRAD 6999 Dissertation Preparation) do not count toward the credit load requirement for half-time, three-quarter-time, or full-time enrollment status. Degree and certificate seeking students who do not need to be certified by the University as holding at least half-time enrollment status may use these courses to maintain registration.