The Regulations of the Commissioner of Education permit a college to include required noncredit or remedial study in determining whether a student satisfies the requirements for full-time or part-time study.

As stated in the regulation, “. . . noncredit or remedial courses may . . . be considered as contributing toward full-time or part-time study on an hour-for-hour equivalent basis, if the student effort required is the same as would be required for a credit-bearing course. . . and if required or approved by the school, in a plan of study prefiled by the student with the school, as an integral part of the student’s program.”

The regulation also specifies certain limits on remedial study: “Effective for academic terms beginning after January 1, 1978, a student carrying a full-time program that includes noncredit remedial courses shall carry at least six semester hours a semester, except that in the first semester of study, such a student need carry only three semester hours. Effective for academic terms beginning on or after July 1, 1984, a student carrying a part-time program that includes noncredit remedial courses shall carry at least three semester hours a semester. A combination of such credit and remedial work shall equal the minimum student effort requirement for full-time study or part-time study, respectively, in nonremedial programs.”

The reference in the regulation to the “first semester of study” means your first semester of college-level study, not the first semester at a particular institution.

Note: Although the regulation permits you to take up to half the minimum full-time or part-time course load in noncredit remedial study each semester, at a certain point, satisfactory academic progress requirements—which specify that you earn a certain number of credits with a minimum grade point average each time you receive State student financial aid--will limit the number of noncredit remedial courses you can take and still meet those earned credit requirements. That is because remedial courses do not carry credit toward a degree and do not count in your grade point average.