Community College courses closing fast

<p>I registered for my daughter's community college courses (dual-enrollment) this week and was amazed at how many courses were already filled. We had requested one one night and the person contacted us the next day to say that it had been filled before she could register the course for us. She's taking three that should work out but I think that she would have been a little happier with her earlier choices.</p>

<p>I guess that this should be expected given the economy.</p>

<p>I wish that were the case at our local CC. I am signed up for 2 classes I really want to take (Spanish 2 and French 1) and they will probably not make because they have 4 and 3 enrolled respectively. They are not required for the associate degree I am taking but I want to do the Spanish 2 before I forget all I learned in Spanish 1. I signed up for the French at the same time because they rarely offer it (and I have enough French from school back in the stone ages that I think I can manage both at the same time). My son is also signed up for a class that he has to have to graduate and that has 3 people signed up also (and no we don’t run into each other at all so I am not cramping his style).</p>

<p>The more general classes are more full though.</p>

<p>The community college where I teach is expecting a 30% increase in enrollment this fall. We generally see increases whenever the economy’s bad, but never this much!</p>

<p>I noticed that the French, Spanish and Arabic courses had openings at our daughter’s cc - maybe people aren’t taking language courses for economic reasons?</p>

<p>Our local news says that our CC has seen a 22% increase in enrollment. That coupled with cutbacks due to state budget will prob. mean a lot of students won’t be able to get the classes they want. I was trying to help a student register for dual enrollment classes last week and was amazed at how many were already full. When S2 did dual enrollment two years ago at same CC there were plenty classes/seats.</p>

<p>I had a look at articles on this and there are lots of articles around talking about increased enrollments and even de facto capping at CCs.</p>

<p>So moral of the story is, if you’re dual enrolled, get to the college to register the day that registration opens, or if you’re a normal-aged CC student, sign up online at midnight! ;)</p>

<p>At our local community college in the Bay Area it seems like the numbers are a bit higher for being only July, though not full up yet. There are many non-core classes that have room (French and German classes are still not full up). The core classes, English Comp and lower level Math classes are quickly filling up. My guess is that by about 2 weeks before the fall semester starts that core classes classes will all be full up and anyone who believes they can just wait until the first day of classes to wander in and sign up (which was very possible in prior years) will find themselves shut out.</p>

<p>Annika</p>

<p>At my local community college (also in the Bay Area, may be the same as Annika’s) students will have trouble getting classes for two reasons: classes are filling up quickly, and classes that are underenrolled will be cancelled. So a student wanting a popular class might find the class already full, and a student wanting a less popular class might find it cancelled because it didn’t have 25 students already enrolled at the beginning of the quarter.</p>

<p>The cc where I teach is seeing enrollment gains, but the upper level courses with prereqs still have low/reasonable enrollment. We have 3-4 students for every available spot in upcoming nursing and allied health programs so the courses required in those programs are closed - A&P,applied math, psych & dev. psych, etc. Courses required of all students such as intro to computers are completely full and developmental courses are jam packed. I am apalled by the poor job my state does in preparing students in basic reading, writing, and math skills, particularly given that we waste tax dollars teaching things for the second time. CC faculty in my state haven’t had a raise in 3 years, by the K-12 folks are well protected by their union and have had to suffer “small” raises in rough times. I wouldn’t mind paying them if the results were better. Before anyone jumps on me, I fully understand that poor student performance doesn’t rest entirely on K-12 teachers, but is also impacted by parental support and the mandates (now changing at our state level) for compliance with statewide and national testing.</p>