Enrollment Information for Psychology Department Graduate Students

December 27, 2006

During your time as a graduate student in Psychology, you should sign up for enough credit hours to assure that you are enrolled full-time. (Most of our programs, which are research intensive, expect enrollment of approximately 15 credit hours per quarter in order to progress through the requirements and complete work within a 5 year period of funding.)We also want to assure that you do not exceed 260 hours total. If your total hours exceed 260, the state pays OSU no subsidy for you. That subsidy ordinarily would help to offset the cost to the department of your tuition. Without that help, we cannot afford to cover tuition for you.

We’re constantly striving to control our department operating costs while at the same time provide the highest level of support possible to our faculty, staff and graduate students. We, along with all other academic departments across campus, were forced to take a hard look at grad student fee waivers, particularly those for whom we’re receiving no subsidy from the state.

To assist you and eliminate confusion, the department has developed a plan forenrollment for the various categories of graduate students.

For summer quarters

If you are an international student: You do not need to enroll during the summer. Please review the info at – click international students -- immigration regulations – reporting a vacation quarter. You must report if you are not registered for the 4th quarter after being employed for 3 quarters.

If you are a fellowship student (NIMH, NSF, APA, Presidential, etc.): You are required to enroll for 15 CH during any quarter in which you hold the fellowship.

If you are taking Psych 852 or any other required classes during Summer: You are required to enroll for 12 CH if you have passed candidacy or 7 CH if you have not passed candidacy.

If you have ongoing student loan disbursements or other special needs:

Please contact our grad program coordinator, Cartha Sexton, to discuss.

Anyone else is not required to enroll for summer quarter. To keep your health insurance in effect during the summer quarters you must notify Fees and Deposits that you want off-term insurance. Go to and click on Off-term insurance.

For the regular academic year (AU – WI – SP)

Plan to enroll as follows:

At the completion of Spring Quarter of your first year, your Accumulated Earned Hours (EH) should be 45.

We realize that required classes may cause you to be over 45 but adjustments can/should be made in subsequent years.

At the completion of Spring Quarter of your second year, your Accumulated Earned Hours (EH) should be 99.

At the completion of Spring Quarter of your third year, your Accumulated Earned Hours (EH) should be 153.

At the completion of Spring Quarter of your fourth year, your Accumulated Earned Hours (EH) should be 205.

At the completion of Spring Quarter of your fifth year, your Accumulated Earned Hours (EH) should be 257.

In your graduation quarter you will be issued a 3 CH resident waiver to bring your Accumulated Earned Hours (EH) to 260.

As an example,

If you entered in: / Your Accumulated Earned Hours
at end of Spring should be:
2005 / 45
2004 / 99
2003 / 153
2002 / 205
2001 / 257

We recognize that many students are in the program longer than 5 years and the department has developed a plan to address this. If you have not graduated by the completion of your fifth year and if you will be employed by the department to teach or work on a research project, it will be necessary to reclassify you as a lecturer (or research assistant in some positions) in order for you to keep your paid position in the department. When that time comes, an individual meeting will be held with those affected to explain the changes in your appointment. Feedback from those affected in the first three years of implementation has been quite positive and overall it was a smooth transition for those students.

You will re-enroll as a student for 3 CH in the quarter that you graduate and the department will provide you with a waiver for the resident portion of your fees. To re-enroll you will need to contact the GraduateSchool at 292-6031 to register.

We also recognize that some students graduate in less than five years. To maximize the instructional subsidy that we receive from the state to support your education, the department will ask you to make adjustments to your credit hours. If you think you’ll be graduating in less than five years, please contact Cartha to work out a schedule.

For those students who have already been in the department for a number of years, Cartha will work with you to make the necessary adjustments in your Accumulated Earned Hours.

Ohio Residency: Remember too that all students (except international) are requested to apply for state residency at the earliest possible date.

To verify your residency status please check your online registration panels. It is your responsibility to check your official status with the University to be certain that you are a resident. A “R” on the panel indicates Resident; an “N” indicates Non-Resident.

The residency form can be found at Deadlines:

AU Quarter – July 1

WI Quarter – October 15

SP Quarter – January 15

SU Quarter – April 15

If you have any problems or questions about residency status, please check with Cartha.

Student Loans: Once you’ve completed your five years of enrollment as outlined above, you will very likely not be permitted to receive further quarterly disbursements. Students have dealt with this by planning ahead, particularly in their fourth and fifth years and have received higher disbursements, banked them, and then had the necessary funds to carry them through subsequent years. Deferral on the repayment of a student loan beyond the fifth year can typically be dealt with by a general letter of explanation to the lending institution from your advisor.

Questions? Contact Cartha at or 292-4112