The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Has anyone had any success going part-time status or reduced credit load for their last semester at college when they only needed a few credits to graduate? Or is SMART very strict about enforcing the full-time status?

Barring rare potential exceptions of which I'm unaware, SMART wants you enrolled "full time."

Also that way they can ensure ABD PhD's rack of 10's of thousands of dollars of additional debt on "Thesis Research" credits well beyond what they actually need to graduate...

Sisyphus wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 06, 2020 8:14 pm

Barring rare potential exceptions of which I'm unaware, SMART wants you enrolled "full time."

Also that way they can ensure ABD PhD's rack of 10's of thousands of dollars of additional debt on "Thesis Research" credits well beyond what they actually need to graduate...

If only, you'd think if that was the case, they wouldn't care then that I'm doing a reduced-course load status, because that's still full tuition at my school.

Yeah, this is unfortunate. I only have 8 credits I need for my last semester as well and they denied my <12 credit request. I'm going to end up taking a random class outside of my major to reach 12 credits. I already have a term where I took 2 PE classes to reach 12 credits. It feels like a waste of time and money in my opinion.

grduatingscholar wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 06, 2020 8:10 pm

Has anyone had any success going part-time status or reduced credit load for their last semester at college when they only needed a few credits to graduate? Or is SMART very strict about enforcing the full-time status?

I recommend checking your school policy. My university allows students to go under full time their last semester if they do not have any class left to take. If your school has the same policy, I think presenting that to SMART would lean them towards letting you take it.