So, maybe when you registered for classes at orientation you decided to strive to take 18 credits your first semester, but now you are rethinking the decision.

There are some things that you should take into consideration when dropping a class.

One of the most important is, are you receiving financial aid?

If you are, make sure that you look into the conditions of your aid or scholarship.

If you are receiving Federal Aid you need to make sure you read the conditions of Satisfactory Academic Progress on the financial aid Web site.

The following are the rules of SAP according the Office of Student Financial Aid web site:

• Students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign must successfully complete at least 67 percent of cumulative attempted hours by the end of the spring semester each year.
• Generally, only hours completed as satisfactory, credit earned, or with a passing letter grade will be counted toward hours earned.

  All hours registered for at the time of the tuition assessment deadlines will be included in our evaluation even if your credit range for assessment does not change.

  What this means is that if you don’t like a class when it starts and you drop it, and then you drop another class, this could affect your completion rate and hurt your financial aid status, so make sure you take this into consideration.

Further information on the conditions of financial aid can be found at http://www.osfa.uiuc.edu/finaid_basics/sap.htm