In most cases, for a student to be considered full-time, they must be taking 12 course credits per semester (or about 4 classes).Students with 6-11 course credits (or 2-3 classes) are deemed part-time. Students generally need to be attending part-time or more to be considered for most forms of financial aid.
Most full-time students don’t work, as the workload required to successfully maintain 4 or more classes can be quite time-consuming. Many 4-year degrees can be achieved in 4-years if the student attends full-time for 8 semesters.