Standard Semesters
A standard semester is 15-to-19 weeks in length with courses beginning the first week and ending the last week.
Daytime Undergraduate
- 12 or more credits is full-time
- 9-11 credits is 3/4-time
- 6-8 credits is 1/2-time
- 4-5 credits is less than 1/2-time
- 1-3 credits is 1/4-time or less
Professional Studies Program
Professional Studies Programs don't follow a standard semester format. BA Accounting, BA Business Administration, BA Health Care Administration, and BA Psychology are the programs offered through the Professional Studies Program.
Non-standard semester training time isn't measured like standard semester training time. VA converts undergraduate, non-standard credit to credit equivalents. VA makes the conversion, not Northwest Christian University. The conversion formula is: Credit x 18 / weeks = credit equivalents. The number of weeks is the number of days in the course divided by seven, rounding down a remainder of three days or less and rounding up a remainder of four days or more.
Using the conversion formula, a three-credit course is full-time if four weeks (13 credit equivalents, discard fractions), 3/4-time if five weeks (10 credit equivalents), 3/4-time if six weeks (i credit equivalents), and 1/2-time if seven weeks (7 credit equivalents).
Graduate Programs
Graduate programs don't follow a standard semester format. Graduate programs include M.Ed Masters of Education, MBA Masters of Business Administration, MA Community Counseling, and MA School Counseling. Courses are taken sequentially, and the programs usually are completed within five to seven semesters, depending on the program.
Course Applicability
Only credits that apply toward completion of the student's degree can be certified for VA purposes. If 12 credits are certified, all 12 must apply. If a student enrolls in 12 credits, but only nine satisfy a degree requirement, then the student is certified for nine credits.
There are two exceptions to the rule about course appliciability:
- The last semester before graduation, all credit taken can be certified if one or more of the credits satisfy a graduation requirement.
- If the university allows substitutions for program requirements, we will allow course substitutions if they are approved by the university and documented in the student's file.
Repeating Courses
Courses that are failed or for which the grade does not meet the minimum requirements for graduation may be certified for VA purposes if they are repeated. Courses that are successfully completed may not be certified for VA purposes if they are repeated. If students must take additional courses in order to raise their GPA to graduate, the courses must be courses that have not already been successfully completed by the student.
Advance Payment
Advance Pay may be paid if:
- The student requests advance pay, and
- There is more than 30 days between terms and interval pay won't be paid, and
- The student is enrolled at least half-time.
Advance pay requests should be submitted 30-to-120 days before the begin date. The check will be sent to the school, payable to the student. A separate Certification of Delivery (VA Form 22-1999V) will be sent to the school. Schools must handle advance pay checks securely and give the advance pay check to the student when he or she registers (or not more than 30 days before the beginning of school if registration is earlier).
An advance will pay the first and second month. The first month may be a partial month, with payment pro rated for the number of days attended that month. Advance pay for a student enrolled 9/28/08 through 6/1/09 would pay 9/28/08 through 10/31/08. Since VA normally pays after a month is completed, the student wouldn't receive another check until December, when payment for November is made.
Supplemental and Concurrent Enrollment
A student may take courses at more than one school that apply to his or her degree. The school that will grant the degree is the student's "parent" school. All other schools are "secondary" schools.
VA can pay benefits for courses taken at secondary schools. If the student is enrolled at the secondary school, VA will pay for the credit taken at the secondary. If the student is enrolled at the parent and the secondary school at the same time ("concurrent"), VA will pay for the combined credit, taking overlapping enrollment dates into account.
