Enrollment Requirements and Full-Time and Part-Time Status

Enrollment Requirements and Full-Time and Part-Time Status
Full-time or part-time status is based simply on the student’s course load, or the total number of credit hours for which a student is enrolled in a particular semester, regardless of course type, course content, or course grading basis. Full-time status for a graduate student is enrollment for 9 or more credit hours in a fall or spring semester, and enrollment for 3 or more credit hours in summer. Part-time status for a graduate student is enrollment for less than 9 credit hours in a fall or spring semester, and enrollment for less than 3 credit hours in summer.  Students are not required to register in summer unless employed in a student academic position in summer (TA, Teaching Assistant or a GRA, Graduate Research Assistant, for example), or receiving fellowship funds that require enrollment in summer, or earning a degree in summer. 

A student employed for any number of hours per week in a student academic position such as a TA or GRA, for example, and a student receiving fellowship funding, must enroll full-time for 9 credit hours minimum if employed or funded in a fall or spring semester. A student must enroll for 3 credit hours if employed or funded in summer, and/or if summer enrollment is a requirement stated in a student’s funding offer letter.

A student who intends to graduate in summer must enroll full-time in summer for 3 credit hours minimum in an appropriate course that fulfills the requirements for the degree they intend to earn. Appropriate courses include doctoral Dissertation, master’s Thesis, master’s Report, or an organized course that counts toward the no thesis/no-report master’s degree requirements. An organized course is a class with meeting days and times.

An international student with an F-1 visa must enroll full-time, though with some exceptions. An international doctoral candidate without student academic employment or without a fellowship stipend who is taking Dissertation in fall or spring can enroll for less than 9 credit hours if they enroll in the Dissertation course by the 12th class day of a fall or spring semester. (Full-time enrollment in summer is 3 hours, and the Dissertation course is not offered for less than 3 credit hours.) In their final fall or spring semester, an international student without student academic employment or without a fellowship stipend who does not need to take 9 hours to complete their degree requirements can enroll part-time, and must apply for Less-Than Full Course via myIO.

An international student who is authorized to use Curricular Practical Training, CPT, to work as an intern in summer must enroll in the required Graduate Research Internship course, ECE x97M, listed on their ECE CPT form in that same summer or in the subsequent fall semester. Most students interning in summer choose to defer taking the ECE x97M course until the subsequent fall semester. A student using CPT to work as an intern in fall or spring must take the required ECE x97M course in that same fall or spring semester. A student who works as an intern in summer and fall usually takes two internship courses in fall, one in fulfillment of summer CPT requirements and one in fulfillment of fall CPT requirements.