Time Definitions

These are the definitions of Full Time, ¾ Time, Half Time and Part Time and how to utilize them for reporting. These can be selected in two places on student profiles:

1. Academics tab > Enrollment Type (this location setting populates reports)
2. Financial tab > Contract Type

Definitions

Department of Education
The DOE considers a student who attends 24 hours or more Full Time and a student that attends 23.9 hours or less Part Time. The DOE only considers Full Time and Part Time, if you set a student to ¾ or Half, the reports will consider the student to be Full Time.

IRS
The IRS Instructions state: "Check this box if the student was at least a Half Time student during any academic period that began in [year]. A Half Time student is a student enrolled for at least half the Full Time academic workload for the course of study the student is pursuing. Your institution's standard for a Half Time student work load must equal or exceed the standards established by the Department of Education under the Higher Education Act."


Reports

1098-T
Your school's definition of Part Time may differ slightly, and Part Time is the one selection that will automatically un-check Box 8. When the above definitions indicate that Box 8 in the student's 1098-T report needs to be checked, Smart recommends the following:

1. Print a query report of all Part Time students
2. Change their Enrollment Types to one of the other selections
3. Run electronic filing and 1098-T forms
4. Change the students back to Part Time

IPEDS
For IPEDS, SMART will allow you to choose if Full Time includes ¾ or ¾ and Half Time students as well.