Last Wednesday, University Registrar Mark Hewitt announced via email that a change in policy will require students who plan to enroll in over 23 credits worth of courses to pay an additional fee.

"Starting with Fall term 2013, students who are approved to enroll in more than the 22 credit maximum will be charged additional tuition for any credits beyond 23. The additional charge will be at the per credit rate," the email read.

According to Hewitt, for the 2013-2014 academic year, the price per credit for students who entered after spring 2012 will be $1,387, while the price for those who entered before spring 2012 will be $1,375.

"The tuition model the University uses is based on students taking an average of four courses [or] 16 credits," said Hewitt in an interview with the Justice. "I believe the feeling was that students who were taking additional courses beyond the 22-that is the maximum you can get without petition-should pay some additional tuition because they're actually accessing additional services."

"[I]n 1996, we did charge for overloads, and that was for any number of credits beyond 22. Then I believe it was in 2003 or 2002, the policy was changed as part of the packaging around residency and so on ... [I]t was determined not to charge for overloads. Now recently because of looking more closely at the budget and how things are working, the decision was made that we really should reinstitute that."

According to Hewitt, during the fall 2012 semester, 48 students requested to exceed the credit limit of 22. "I do recall that when there was a tuition charge involved that there were many, many fewer students who chose to do an overload. There was typically no more than 10," said Hewitt.

"It's mainly juniors and seniors, occasionally sophomores. The current pattern is we'll see students who are trying to accelerate and graduate in [less than eight semesters]. They'll try to take additional courses," said Hewitt.

In the 2002-2003 University Curriculum Committee report, a proposal was revised to change the academic residency requirement to eight semesters, with a minimum of seven under specific circumstances. The report stated that under the plan, "a student could graduate by studying at Brandeis for eight semesters; or seven semesters plus the equivalent of four additional courses from AP, IB, etc.; or six semesters at Brandeis, one abroad, and one from a combination of AP, IB, etc.; or six semesters at Brandeis and two abroad." The UCC unanimously approved the proposal, and it was forwarded to the faculty meeting for legislative approval.

Currently, according to the University website, students who enter as first-years are required to complete a minimum of seven full-time semesters at Brandeis during fall or spring semesters, approved fall or spring study abroad programs or approved Justice Brandeis Semester programs, while transfer students must complete a minimum of four full-time semesters.

Students who enter as first-years must complete 128 credits worth of courses at Brandeis, meaning that an average of 16 credits must be completed during each spring or fall semester for a student who wishes to stay for eight semesters, not including summer or outside courses, and an average of about 18.3 credits for those who wish to graduate in seven semesters and do not have IB or AP credits from high school.
Transfer students must complete a minimum of 64 of the 128 credits from Brandeis fall or spring semesters. Therefore, the average number of credits per semester for a transfer student to graduate as anticipated is also 16.

These averages all fall below the maximum number of credits per semester, and therefore the number of credits at which the University will begin to charge per overload credit. Making seven the minimum number of semesters for a student entering as a first-year allows for a student to complete courses at a pace that does not require overloading. However, allowing students to graduate in seven semesters rather than eight leaves an opportunity for students to graduate earlier. Some students consider taking an overload of courses in order to complete their major and minor requirements so that they can graduate early.

In addition, as the minimum number of courses a student may take per semester is three, if a student takes only three courses for more than four semesters, students might have to exceed five courses and take an overload of courses during later semesters in order to graduate on time.

According to Hewitt, for students who graduated between August 2011 and May 2012, the average of total credits accumulated per student was 136, or 17 credits per semester for those who spent eight semesters on campus.

In addition to those who are looking to graduate early or need to include courses in their schedules as seniors, other students who request overloads are "[s]tudents who are doing really well and want to challenge themselves, they have multiple majors, they're trying to be pre-med and something else at the same time, or they're looking at engineering schools. Students who are doing the 3-2 Columbia program often do overloads," said Hewitt.

Surrounding schools in the Greater Boston area share similar policies in terms of the maximum number of courses a student can take. However, each university differs in terms of whether or not it charges for exceeding the maximum number of credits.

According to the Boston University website, "[a]dditional tuition will be charged for all credits in excess of 18, except to students with a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher, or students in their senior year who have accumulated at least 88 credits. Additional tuition will be charged to all students for credits in excess of 20." At BU, the credit system is similar to Brandeis' in that 18 credits is equivalent to approximately 4.5 courses. According to a representative from the BU Registrar, the additional charge is per credit, and is about $1,400 at the school of Arts and Sciences. However, students still have the ability to petition the fee.

Schools such as Boston College and Tufts University currently uphold policies that do not require students to pay an additional fee for overloads. According to a representative from Tufts Student Services, the maximum amount of credits is 5.5, which is equivalent to 5.5 courses. According to the Boston College website, "Students are eligible to overload if they have earned at least a 3.0 overall cumulative GPA or a 3.0 GPA in the semester immediately prior to the one for which the overload is sought, in which case they may register online for a sixth course of three credits or more and a maximum of 24 credits."

Hewitt sees value in the new policy, but acknowledge the disadvantages. "In some sense I think it's important that there be some equity so that students who really are taking advantage of more services should pay some more to fund those services," said Hewitt. "At the same time on a personal level, it's nice to see students taking advantage of things, because that's why you're here ... I can see both good and bad here."