Dartmouth's flexible 4-term study schedule (The D-Plan) means that students receiving financial aid need to manage the effects of any changes you make in your plan and stay on top of any increases and decreases in funds. Here's some help.
Changes to your enrollment pattern will have an impact on your financial aid eligibility. Because the annual student income contribution is not pro-rated by the number of terms that you are enrolled, grant aid may increase or decrease as a result of D-Plan changes.
The calculation we use to determine your scholarship eligibility is:
(Total Cost) – (Parent Contribution, Student Contribution, and Job/Loan) = Scholarship
NOTE: When you adjust your D-plan during an academic year, any adjustment to the per-term scholarship will be retroactive to the beginning of that academic year.
In the above case, if you were originally enrolled for summer, fall, and spring, then in December decided to change spring to a leave term, your per-term scholarship for summer and fall would be retroactively reduced from $9,729 to $9,229, and you would have a balance due of $1,000 on your next bill. This is the result of the fact that the $3,000 student contribution is not pro-rated, so your per-term contribution is now $1,500 per term rather than $1,000. Similarly, an addition of a term will typically increase your per-term scholarship for that year.