Take the classes, get the assistance.

Your financial aid awards will be processed based on full-time enrollment at UCI, and your cost of attendance budget components, including the tuition and fees, will be based on full time enrollment. If you enroll in less than full-time, your aid will be adjusted.

Changes in Enrollment - Grants and Scholarships

Your financial aid is paid based on the number of units in which you are enrolled at UCI. At the end of the add/drop period, your finan­cial aid will be reviewed. If you decrease your enrollment, your aid will be adjusted, and you may be billed for any overpayment. Review the enrollment requirements in the chart for the percentage of eligibility by award type.

• Pell Grant
• Cal Grants
• Cal Grant Stipends
• Middle Class Scholarship
• TEACH Grant

For Fall, Winter and Spring quarters, the census date is the last day of the 6th week of classes.

Any courses added after the add/drop period are not considered for additional financial aid grants.

Did you receive a Pell Grant? At the end of the term, we will verify that you attended all of the courses for which you were paid Pell Grant funds. If you did not attend one or more courses, we will reduce your grant amount accordingly and you may be billed.

Changes in Enrollment - Direct Loans

Beginning with the 2026–2027 academic year, annual Federal Direct Student Loan amounts will be determined by the number of units in which you enroll. This new Department of Education policy is referred to as the Schedule of Reduction (SOR) for loans. If you enroll less than full time, your loan eligibility will be reduced based on the number of units you are enrolled.  For more details: paying-for-uci/loans/federal-direct-loans/schedule-of-reductions.

• If you are enrolled less-than-full time for the academic year at the time your loan is disbursed for a term, your loan amount will be reduced for that term. UC Irvine assumes all students will be enrolled full-time.
• If you drop to less-than-full time after your loan has disbursed for a term, your loan disbursement amounts for any subsequent term later in that same academic year will be adjusted, even if you drop or withdraw after that term’s add/drop or census dates.
• Adding additional units in future terms (i.e., enrolling in more than 12 units for a term) can restore some or all of the loan eligibility that was lost in a prior term for being enrolled less-than-full time. For example, if a student was enrolled in only 8 units in the Fall term, they could enroll in 16 units in the Winter term and 12 units in the Spring term to meet the annual 36 unit full-time requirement for that academic year.

Repeated courses

Review the disclosure on our Satisfactory Academic Progress page for more information about treatment of repeated courses.

Official Part-Time Enrollment

If you are approved by the Registrar’s Office to enroll as part-time status, your financial aid will be revised based on the number of units in which you are enrolled at UCI and the amount of fees you are required to pay.