What is the Early Registration Policy?
City College of San Francisco is instituting a policy that gives incoming SFUSD students early registration for core classes for every semester that they attend City College. The purpose of this policy is to enhance the likelihood that SFUSD graduates who are working toward a credential or transferring to a four-year institution will successfully complete their program at City College. For years, 70% of new students dropped out of City College, in part because they were frustrated by the lack of basic math and English classes available to them. Under old registration policies, new students were the very last group to register for classes, after veterans, disabled students, athletes, nursing students, culinary program students, and returning students.
What has been the impact of this policy?
City College debuted this early registration policy as a pilot program in 2010. The pilot was successful, with 98% of 323 incoming SFUSD graduates taking advantage of earlyregistration returning for their second semester. In 2011, City College began offering early registration to incoming SFUSD graduates who had completed several steps of its matriculation process, including counseling, placement testing, and an orientation. In 2011,871 incoming SFUSD graduates were eligible for early registration, which allowed them to enroll in classes after veterans and disabled students.
This approach has earned praise and is just one of the college completion efforts launched by Bridge to Success. Through this early registration policy, City College expects to see a substantial gain in retention, leading to an increased number of students who will timely graduate with certificates or degrees from City College.
Click here to view an article in the Higher Education Journal about this pilot.
Early Registration Parties
In June 2012, SFUSD and City College opened up classrooms to host Early Registration Parties which assisted incoming students in enrolling in courses. Hundreds of students participated in this successful event. See a party in action from the following news coverage: http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/san-francisco-college-students-gather-at-early/vcW29/