93K/yr? Yikes!

kelsmom
Fri, 19 Apr 2024 12:54:34 +0000

For most students, this probably won’t make a difference. It looks like UMiami has beefed up its financial aid compliance efforts. Federal regulations do require that financial aid not be used for courses that don’t count directly toward the degree (this is a huge headache for community colleges). Federal aid is based on full time enrollment, which is typically 12 credits. For a school like UMiami, the impact is minimal … if there is a 3 credit class that doesn’t count toward a degree, but the student is taking 16 credits, 13 credits count toward the degree … that’s full time, so there is no impact on aid (because the tuition is the same for 12 or 16 credits). Where it comes into play is if a student wants to extend their stay to take classes that would give them a minor or a second major. This would result in a lack of financial aid for the extra courses. schools have an automated system that will flag students whose enrollment puts them in a situation where aid is impacted. But I would caution that any student at UMiami should consult an academic advisor to find out what effect it will have on their aid (if any) if they are taking courses outside of those strictly required for their major.

I suppose that it could impact students who pay by the credit hour, if it requires adjusting cost of attendance based on actual attendance. However, I don’t think that’s the case, since COA is allowed to be set at a particular credit assumption (which is usually 12 at state schools) & there are no regulations requiring adjustments to COA based on any enrollment over the minimum level of full time enrollment.