Course Load
The normal full-time undergraduate course load is 15 to 17 credit hours per semester. Any undergraduate student who is carrying 12 or more credit hours is classified as a full-time student. A student may not register for more than 18 credit hours in any one semester without the permission of the advisor and the department chair or program coordinator. There is an additional tuition charge for credits over 18. It is strongly recommended that a student employed more than 20 hours per week only take courses on a part-time basis. Students are prohibited from taking more than 22 credits in a single semester.
A semester hour represents credit earned for one hour of class or two hours of laboratory work during each week of one semester for 15 weeks. Thus, a student who does satisfactory work in a class that meets three times a week for one semester receives three credits for that class. In certain courses, three or more periods of laboratory, clinical, fieldwork, or internship are equivalent to one lecture period. Although the format is different, online courses carry the same level of expectation regarding class requirements.