Only 9 credits- how can I get full financial aid?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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I'm not sure if this is an issue for anyone else- I'm attending Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland. I noticed that the 4 semesters of nursing course work is only 9 credits each semester (10 for the last semester). Most of my financial aid is based on full time enrollment (12 credits). Are there exceptions for the nursing program since it's so rigorous, or should I find an easy online class to take to supplement my 9 credits and bump me over to full time? Anyone else encounter this "problem"?

Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

That is why I took Welding and scuba. Easy fluff fun filler classes worth credits. Stuff I always wanted to do too.

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Nope, no exceptions for nursing school. I did not take on extra classes. Just don't have the time for it. Even though my nursing classes are only 9 or 10 credits, I am doing waaaaaayyyyyyyy more work in nursing school than I ever did in Pre-reqs or for my prior degree when I took 12-15 credits at a time. Not taking on anything more than my nursing classes. Lecture, clinicals,labs, care plans, teaching plans, checkoffs, no way can I take on anything more even if its an easy class. So I just figured out a way to manage with less aid.

Also, for those of you that have a significant amount of college credits, be careful about taking on unneccessary classes to maintain your full time status. Make sure you know what the credit max is for your school. A couple of folks in my program are now running into that problem. They are at the max for credit hours for financial aid and are now realizing that they took all these unneccessary classes and won't be covered for their last year of nursing school. So speak with an advisor. But as others have said, nope, no special exception for nursing school. Which is interesting because like I said, I do way more work for the 9 or 10 credit hours than I ever did taking 12 credits

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Specializes in Public Health.

Thats weird because at my school you CAN get a waiver for more financial aid. Grants at least. My school is fairly inexpensive so I have been getting by with only the pell grant and still getting $1000-1800 back each semester plus a $800 book grant for each year.....i know this is not the norm, but at my school if you're in the nursing program you can file a waiver to be considered full time for financial aid purposes

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