<p>...assuming that he/she is enrolled full-time</p>
<p>It is difficult to say - there is no set time limit. Some schools, especially those with institutional aid, may have fairly strict time limits. So they may specify 4 years of aid, or 5 years of aid. Others may be more lenient. </p>
<p>All schools should have available their SAP - Satisfactory Academic Progress - rules. This will include things such as required GPAs , time or credit hour limits etc to be eligible for financial aid. For instance at my daughters school the SAP is 150% of the number of credit hours required for a particular degree. So if the degree requires 130 hours the SAP limit would be 195 attempted credit hours. This includes all hours attempted at any institution including hours failed or hours dropped. There are often appeal procedures in place where students can appeal for an extension of aid. These rules are set by the schools.</p>
<p>Additionally there are certain rules within federal aid. Stafford loans for instance have a cumulative limit, if a dependent student took the full Stafford eligibility every year it would max out in the 5th year. Oddly the Pell grant is limited to something like 16 or 18 (!!!) semesters. I am sure there are other rules also also.</p>
<p>Pell is limited to 900% … at full time, that is 18 semesters. This JUST started with the 2009-10 school year (previously, there was no limit). Between the Pell limit, aggregate loan limits, and SAP, undergrad aid definitely has a limit … it just varies based on individual circumstances & school policies.</p>