Huh, well, this is sucky.

I just got an e-mail from our dept. secretary that I need to register full-time for at least three years (nine terms) to get my degree. I did this for the first four terms, because there was a residence requirement, but since then I've just been going on the basis of the department's Doctoral Student Handbook, which doesn't say anything about it. So for the last four terms I've been registering for 3 credits (the minimum) if I'm not taking a class and 4 if I am. I was only planning to enroll for another four terms...

Well, okay, I just spoke with her on the phone, and it's not too late to increase my variable credits for the current term. So I guess this costs me an extra $2,437 today and maybe $10,000 overall. Ouch. I hope there's something helpful in the stimulus package in terms of tuition credits.