You only need to be half time or more to be eligible for a tuition credit*.
There are other tax attributes where being a full time student matters, primarily whether you can be your parent's dependent over age 18 or have more than $4700 income for the year.
According to IRS publication 17, a full-time student is a student who is enrolled for the number of hours or courses that the school considers to be full-time attendance.
To qualify as a student, the person must be, during some part of each of any five calendar months of the year:
- A full-time student at a school that has a regular teaching staff, course of study, and a regularly enrolled student body at the school, or
- A student taking a full-time, on-farm training course given by a school described in (1), or by a state, county, or local government agency.
The five calendar months do not have to be consecutive.
*
To be eligible for the tuition credits, the course must be taken at "an eligible institution". The school should be able to tell you if it is an eligible educational institution. In general, an eligible educational institution is an accredited college, university, vocational school, or other postsecondary educational institution, including accredited, public, nonprofit, and proprietary (privately-owned, profit-making) postsecondary institutions. Additionally, in order to be an eligible educational institution, the school must be eligible to participate in a student aid program administered by the Department of Education. If they issue a 1098-T they are probably an eligible institution.
Enter your school at the link below, to see if it's on the dept. of education list.
https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home
