College’s Freshmen Skip to the Head of Line

Golden West College has moved its incoming freshmen to the front of the registration line, extending a practice other local community colleges use to ease the transition between high school and higher education.

By getting dibs on fall classes ahead of continuing students and the public, current high school seniors will avoid the problems associated with hammering out a college class schedule.

The new system could affect 800 to 1,000 incoming freshmen who filled out application forms and took placement tests during Golden West’s visits to area high schools, which began in February, said John Breihan, Golden West’s administrative dean of student support services.

Freshmen “tend to be our full-time students, and scheduling tends to be more of a problem for them,” said Breihan. “It’s been our concern that they take fewer units because they don’t want to figure out the schedule.”

Reaching out to high school students through these enrollment programs has become common around the state as community colleges try to make enrollment more accessible, said Ray Giles, director of special services at the Community College League of California.

The problem at Golden West is not one of inadequate space in core courses, like the math and English classes required for transfer to the Cal State and University of California systems, but scheduling conflicts for individual students, Breihan said.

Because many students also work, they often prefer to be on campus only during morning hours or only on certain days of the week.

If given a chance to register ahead of continuing students, these incoming freshmen should be less likely to run into classes closed for lack of space and should be able to find classes at preferred times, Breihan said.

“We consider the students coming from the high schools as being, in a sense, our most fragile students,” said John Grajeda, a Golden West counselor. “They don’t know how the college system works, and for them to not get classes they need their first semester here can be a very frustrating experience.”

Grajeda said he expects to see fewer frazzled students in his office, trying to choose between an afternoon math class and their work schedule.

To be eligible for the priority registration at Golden West, high school seniors must take placement exams through the college’s assessment office.

These tests can be taken on campus May 20 and June 3. Fall classes start Aug. 28.