Your initial financial aid award is based on full-time enrollment each academic year.
Undergraduate full-time status: 24 credits per year
Graduate full-time status: 18 credits per year
What You Need to Know
If you enroll less than full-time, or withdraw from courses, your aid may be reduced.
If dropping a class during the add/drop period, your aid will be adjusted based on your updated enrollment.
If withdrawing after aid has been disbursed (paid), aid for that term is usually not adjusted. However, your total enrollment for the year may still affect future semesters.
Enrollment across the full year matters. Aid is reviewed based on your total credits for fall + spring. If you do not reach full-time enrollment for the year, your aid may be reduced.
Summer aid may be adjusted if your overall yearly enrollment is below full-time.
The Schedule of Reductions (SOR) requires the amount of any Direct Loan a student may borrow for an academic year—including Direct Subsidized Loans, Direct Unsubsidized Loans, and Graduate PLUS Loans—to be reduced in direct proportion to the degree to which the student is not enrolled on a full-time basis. Eligibility is determined based on the student's enrollment status at the time SCSU determines loan eligibility, and reductions are rounded to the nearest whole percentage point.
SCSU will reduce a student's annual loan eligibility in direct proportion to their less-than-full-time enrollment.
No reduction is required if a student drops credits after a loan has been disbursed for the current term. However, if an over-award occurs, SCSU may choose to correct the over-award during the current term rather than waiting until a future term.
Future term loan disbursements will be reviewed and adjusted as necessary based on the student's total enrollment for the academic year.
The Schedule of Reductions is calculated using the student's annual loan eligibility and enrollment status. All other federal eligibility requirements must still be met before a loan can be disbursed.
Important Notes
- Students enrolled less than half-time are not eligible to receive federal Direct Loans.
- Existing Return of Title IV (R2T4) regulations continue to apply to students who withdraw from coursework.
- For single-term loans (for example, a transfer student attending SCSU for only one semester), existing federal annual loan limit proration rules under 34 CFR 685.203(m)(1)(i) continue to apply.
- A student may not receive more than the reduced SOR annual loan limit for the loan period, regardless of how disbursements are distributed across terms. If rounding results in a disbursement exceeding the allowable SOR amount, the final disbursement will be adjusted to ensure the student does not exceed the permitted annual loan limit.
- SCSU reserves the right to recalculate loan eligibility if enrollment changes before a scheduled disbursement and such changes affect federal loan eligibility under the Schedule of Reductions requirements.
Note: Actual loan eligibility is also subject to federal annual loan limits, dependency status, grade level, cost of attendance, and other Title IV eligibility requirements.
Estimate Your Aid Impact
You can estimate how enrollment changes may affect your aid using this planning tool:
Quick Tips
Plan your full academic year, not just one term
Talk with your advisor before withdrawing from a course
Check your aid status if your enrollment changes
You register for 15 credits in fall and 15 credits in spring (30 total) as an undergraduate. You withdraw from 6 credits in the fall and complete 9 credits.
- Because you are still on track for 24 credits for the year, your fall aid is not adjusted.
- If you enroll in fewer than 15 credits in spring, your spring aid may be reduced.
You register for 9 credits in fall and 9 credits in spring (18 total) as a graduate student. You withdraw from a spring class after aid has been disbursed, leaving you at 6 credits.
- Your spring aid will not be adjusted.
- If you enroll in summer, your summer aid may be reduced based on your total enrollment.