The U. S. Department of Education defines a standard academic year as 30 weeks of instruction.

• Full-time status for an academic year, undergraduate-level program, must have a minimum of 24 credit hours.
• Half-time status would then be defined as 12 credit hours over the same period of instruction (30 weeks).

In order for students to qualify for half-time status they are required to register for at least 6 credits of Excelsior College courses that start on the same date/term. An exception to this policy is for students taking accelerated courses. An accelerated course is defined as one that is comprised of less than 15 weeks of instruction. This exception allows students to register for a minimum of 3 credits in an 8-week accelerated course in one term, and still be eligible to receive federal student financial aid if they register for at least one additional 3-credit course in the next consecutive 8-week term. May and July are not consecutive terms because they fall in different academic years. The academic year at Excelsior College is July 1 to June 30.

The following chart will be used to define full-time and half-time status for the many different Periods of Enrollment (POE) or terms that Excelsior College offers undergraduate students:
 

Exception to this policy: The New York State Tuition Assistance Program (TAP).
Excelsior College is written into New York State regulations to administer the TAP awards twice a year for the accumulation of credits a student earns over a 6 month period from July 1 to December 31 and January 1 to June 30 each year. A student must earn a minimum of 12 credits to be considered full-time in one or both of these time periods to be eligible for a TAP grant.

The U. S. Department of Education defines a standard academic year as 30 weeks of instruction. However, because full-time status for an academic year in a graduate-level program is not defined by the Department of Education, it needs to be defined by the college.

Excelsior College has defined full-time status for an academic year, graduate-level program, as a minimum of 12 credit hours for 30 weeks of instruction.

Half-time status is defined as 6 credit hours over the same period of instruction (30 weeks).

In order for students to qualify for half-time status they are required to register for at least 3 credits of Excelsior College courses that start on the same date/term. Any course load less than 3 credits in a period of enrollment (POE) will be considered less than half–time and the student would not be eligible for federal student financial aid. 

Note: See Maximum Credit Hour Policy - Undergraduate and Graduate for limitations on maximum credit load.

The following chart will be used to define full-time and half-time status for the different periods of enrollment or terms that Excelsior College offers graduate students: