ITP Help/F.A.Q. | Advisement / 2ndyears

Here are a few important things to keep in mind as you plan your final year at ITP, and in particular, your final term during which you will undertake your thesis class.

ITP requires a minimum of 60 credits (including the thesis) to complete the degree requirement.
While most students take 16 credits each semester, it is possible to take the maximum of 18 credits in a semester, and/or additional summer classes. Ultimately, a shift in credits in earlier semesters can reduce the number of credits students need to complete in the last semester to fulfill the minimum of 60 credits.
While ITP is a full-time program, students may attend part-time in the last semester if that's all that is needed to fulfill the required 60 credits. (This also applies to international students under the F-1 student visa).
If you are eligible to attend part-time in your last semester, here is what you should keep in mind:
- as long as you are registered for your final thesis, you MUST see Gordie during advisement to also register for full-time equivalency status if you need this status to defer loans, maintain compliance with your student visa, etc.
- your student loans may be impacted -- see John Brown in Student Affairs for more information.
- if you are an ITP scholarship recipient, you can still receive your scholarship as long as the tuition amount is larger than the scholarship amount. If not, then you will only receive the scholarship up to the tuition amount. Again, see John Brown in Student Affairs to see how you may be impacted.
We ask that you declare your intention to go part-time at advisement and accurately reflect the credits you expect to take in the ITP registration system. In addition to potential loss of registration fees that comes with dropping classes once the semester is underway, full-time equivalency letters are only offered to students who declare their part-time status at advisement. This is to prevent shopping for classes with a full-time load and then drop down to a part-time schedule after the first years have given up on the class.
Students may choose to continue attending full-time to earn above and beyond the 60 credits if they wish but there are implications to this -- see below:
- registration -- as a second year student you have priority over first year students only until you are enrolled in your 62nd credit -- once you go over 62 credits for those classes over 62 credits you lose priority and you go behind the first year class.
- financial aid processing will be delayed -- your financial aid is processed based on your status as a full-time or part-time student -- generally this happens in the first days of the semester -- but be advised that ITP students in the final semester of study who qualify to finish on a part-time basis but opt to enroll in full-time study will experience a three-week delay in seeing their aid packages processed. This can mean that refund checks are delayed, etc. This is not a penalty -- you must understand that the Financial Aid office cannot effectively complete their processing of your aid package if they are not clear as to your final status for the term -- ITP students who qualify for part-time in the final term, sign up for full-time, and then drop down to part-time again during the first weeks of the drop+add period create a lot of confusion -- therefore the only reasonable way to deal with this group is to process the entire group only AFTER drop and add is over. Know this as you move forward.
There is no third year of study at ITP without specific permission of the Chair. In rare cases where this is permitted, as stated above, there is NO priority for classes above 62 points. Nor is there is any chance of scholarships continuing into a third year. For other financial aid implications please see John Brown in Student Affairs.

Page last modified on March 21, 2007, at 06:32 PM