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Originally Posted by Loko
Okay so I decided that commuting from Missisauga is way too hard to do with 5 courses per semester for fall/winter. So I decided for my second year I want to take 4 second year courses over the spring/summer session for 2013. That means I want to take 3 second year courses courses per semester for the fall/winter 2013-2014 session. That would bring my total units to 30 and lighten up my work load per semester (2, 2 (spring/summer), 3, 3 (Fall/winter) = 10). I plan to do this every year and I'm pretty sure I would graduate the same time as everyone else in my program (Commerce).
My concern is will I be considered full time or part time for fall/winter? I know it's full time if you take 4 courses over spring/summer. I take OSAP so if I AM a part time student over fall/winter 2013-2014 then will my OSAP amount be affected negatively? (They WILL not judge me for being part time and pay me the same amount per course as they would if i were a full time student). Also will my degree say something that would be percieved as negative because I am part time student?
It says on OSAP website that 60% full course load means you are a full time student. So that means 18 units for fall/winter should be alright. I read somewhere though that McMaster needs 24 units to be a full time - does this number mean OSAP too?
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For OSAP, they consider 60% "full", so 18 units should be fine...I'm not sure if they will decrease the amount you get for the fall/winter term though, since your total costs for that term are decreasing. That's something you should ask SFAS.
The University considers you a full-time student if you have at least 24 units per fall/winter term, so they will consider you as a part-time student. Being part time may make you ineligible for certain services such as campus health, but I'm not 100% sure about that.
The MSU considers you full-time if you have at least 18 units over the fall/winter term, so you will still get your bus pass and be an MSU member.
I don't think your degree will say anything different. Your transcript will indicate that you're part-time, though.
The other thing to consider is what you want to do after you graduate. Some grad/professional schools require a full course load during the fall/winter term for a certain number of years. In some cases they make an exception, but since literally thousands of people commute and manage a full course load, simply saying that you couldn't do a full course load while commuting isn't going to make any difference. Definitely look into where you want to go next, and make sure that becoming a part-time student won't kill your chances of getting in.
The last thing is, it's possible that not all of your required courses will be offered during the summer. I have no idea how many required courses vs electives you have in commerce, but coming from a program with nearly no electives, it can be a problem if you have a lot of required courses not offered in the summer. Also, say there are 3 courses not offered in the summer that you need to take first term, but then another course is a prereq for term 2 courses that you need to take. It can really mess up your scheduling, but it depends on your program so make sure you look into that too.
