Academic Load and Enrollment Requirements

All academic credit is stated in semester credit hours. Full- and part-time student status is determined by the number of credit hours in which a student is enrolled during any given term. In credit hours, the academic load for undergraduate semester students is as follows:

Full-time

Twelve or more credit hours

Part-time

Nine to eleven credit hours: three quarter-time

Six to eight credit hours: half-time

One to five credit hours: less than half-time

Notes: (1) International students must maintain full-time student status to remain in compliance with U.S. visa regulations.

(2) Course extensions (including capstone extensions and thesis extensions) are not counted among a student’s “hours enrolled.” For this reason, students who are enrolled only in the completion of a thesis or capstone experience are considered less than half-time students.

(3) Missouri students expecting to qualify for Missouri State Grant funds are required by the state to be enrolled in a minimum of 12 hours per semester both at the time the funds are requested and at the time the funds are received.

Academic Overload

Any full-time traditional student who wishes to take up to 18 hours may do so without seeking any additional approvals. Students wishing to take 19-24 credit hours must petition for academic course overload. Note: Any student that exceeds the number of hours included in the block tuition rate will incur additional tuition charges.

Honors Overload

With administrative authorization, full-time traditional students with cumulative grade point averages above 3.5 may take courses up to 24 credit hours of undergraduate coursework at no extra charge as long as the traditional student matriculated prior to the 2021-2022 academic year. Students that matriculate during the 2021-2022 or any future academic years will not be eligible for the honors overload. In addition, the honors benefit shall apply to early access graduate courses.