<p>I got kicked out of UC Davis for failing grades, and am guaranteed readmission if I finish lower division biology, chemistry, physics, and math courses with a 3.1 or over. I live in San Francisco, and on my block is a 54 link bus stop, which takes me to city college of san francisco in little time. The problem is: I’ve heard horrid stories from students who have taken forever to graduate because they couldn’t get the classes they needed. Is City college of SF really that impacted? </p>
<p>My second option would be the Peralta district colleges, but only the Berkeley city college and Laney college because the bart takes me there. However, compared to CCSF, it is a much bigger inconvenience to commute to. Is CCSF so much harder to register for classes at than Laney college and Berkeley city college that it is worth the long commute? </p>
<p>Please tell me about your personal experiences from registering at CCSF, preferably compared to ease of registration at other community colleges. If you don’t have personal experiences with CCSF, anecdotes from friends,peers, or family would be nice, too. Thanks.</p>
<p>You already asked this question…it may be hard to get the exact classes you want your first semester but the next one will be fine. I’ve never had a problem getting classes I want and I have basically no seniority there because I kept dropping/failing classes. But you have to be flexible with class times and fulfilling requirements with any class vs the specific class you want.</p>
According to who? The accrediting committee gave them 8 months from now (that would put us in mid-March 2013). I also would not say that’s guaranteed to happen, but it’s looking nearly inevitable and is still a worthy caution for new CC students. I don’t know what they’re (the school administration) is telling you on campus, but every Chron article and every local news story is plainly showing how incompetent the school has become (as whole, not the individuals). High ratio of manager/administrators vs professors, huge lack of financial oversight and accountability of funds, and the fact that every comment from the school’s highest admins reflects that they have no plans to change their ways and think everything they’ve been doing to get them where they are is all fine and dandy. Even the Mayor chewed them out the other week, so good luck getting his support as he’s been on a hard edge for a little while now.</p>
<p>I’ll give the fair caveat that not everything you read in the paper or see on a news broadcast should be taken as absolute truth, but my point is if you’re hearing otherwise to the things above, please point to us where so that I can start keeping a pro/con tally for the school’s closure reflective of how the media and community feel about it. Just a hint - the pro has a wide head start.</p>
<p>It’s just so hard to believe that they’ll shut down the biggest CCC completely. I’m not saying that the budget is amazing, but I highly doubt it will shut down. Even if CCSF doesn’t meet their demands 100%, its more likely they’ll get more chances because the accreditation committee knows the closure would have tons of bad consequences.</p>
<p>I think it’s likely that in 8 months, <em>something</em> will happen, but I highly doubt the entire school will close. But some of their smaller campuses might (selling them and cutting those classes will help the budget) and I bet a lot of unnecessary/non-credit classes will be closed. I think the situation is grim for people who rely on CCSF for free cooking or fitness classes or for are getting random certificate in fashion or horticulture, but the likelihood of it closing entirely seems very low. </p>
<p>I also suspect that the extremely dramatic news reports and the original ultimatum are purposefully sensational. I think that by putting CCSF in the spotlight like this, the issue of CA’s public education is brought up again as something the public needs to take very seriously. Right now, the official position is not that CCSF will close if they don’t get their **** together, but that they will close if voters don’t approve a ballot measure that provides more funding. So all of these very grim news articles are a good thing-they’ll spread the news that we need to vote for this measure this November. And if the measure isn’t approved, like I said earlier, I suspect CCSF will make drastic cuts but basic GE classes at the Ocean will stay. Maybe it’ll get worse over the years, but a sudden closure of a school that big is just ridiculously unlikely.</p>
That’s the very thing Mayor Lee chewed them out for: just months before the accreditation report they were in his office asking for his support of that tax. He thinks “Oh, sure, education is important and the things you’re doing are important, so I will support it to help it at the ballot box.” Flash forward a few months and he looks like an idiot (for lack of a better term) for supporting a tax to an educational institution that wasn’t as financially sound as they had pitched to him when they introduced the tax. Now with a lot of their waste in the open, I think it will actually have the opposite effect and citizens will be ****ed that CCSF has been misusing their public funds all this time and will not agree with giving them more.</p>
<p>In case you’ve not paid attention, there’s a feeling of a big “no more taxes for any reason” going on throughout the nation right now which is a main reason why prop 29 (the cigarette tax) failed last month - it wasn’t because of the billions big tobacco spent on ads, it was the overall feeling that people are tired of giving more money to their local governments to inflate public employee pensions and benefits while the rest of the city’s residents go on scraping by with no comparable benefit.</p>
<p>I’m not agreeing with a CCSF closure, nor opposing it, but I think it is comparably as grave an issue as most of the media is portraying it and I would advise new CCers to attend another CC if they can (without undue financial hardship etc). It’ll start with the fluff classes that most students don’t need as core to transfer or graduate their AA/AS/Cert because of a tax initiative failure, but it will balloon to more as the city allocates funds appropriately in light of recent events.</p>
<p>Yes, at 90,000 students it will be hard to close the doors altogether on CCSF, but how many of those 90,000 are in those fluff classes and how many more for other non-essential programs. Once the numbers are whittled down to a more realistic value of what the school can/should support, then it may be easier to significantly limit the school’s programs before they pour the money back into them to fix them.</p>
<p>Sorry, forgot to actually give in the way of the OP.</p>
<p>I’m not saying to not go to CCSF. It is the easiest commute for you, which is saying more than it really is (cheaper, and less time traveling so more time studying etc). It’s worth noting that you can certainly attempt at obtaining the credits you will need from CCSF and then after a term if it seems too hard to register for the classes you will need (this may possibly be determined earlier than a full term) you can drop your CCSF courses and register at a different CC. In fact, it may be wise to apply to CCSF and a different CC for the same term and when it comes time to register for the classes you can see which one is making it easier and which looks like it will be difficult (i.e. which one looks like the classes are already filled up and you’d need to be on a waitlist for). Try to take advantage of any priority registration initiatives the CC may have as well, for example Honors, sports, or student government. I’m not sure if applying to more than one CC in different districts will have an effect on your financial aid though (if you need it), so you may be able to ask around this forum or at an FA office at the CCs.</p>
<p>During my first semester, by the time I got my registration date I had many physical science and math classes available to me. I had already fulfilled my bio requirement, so I didn’t care. </p>
<p>But as I told you earlier, you must go to CCSF now and show proof of completion of pre calc in order to be able to register for calc 1. Right now I believe all of the calc 1 classes are full but you can still put yourself on the waitlist. You can see which classes are full and which are available right now on there website, there is no need to ask us here.</p>
<p>Have you registered for the peralta college district yet? You might as well apply for both. Once you apply for peralta you can also view which classes are available.</p>
<p>Shannon, thanks a lot. I have enrolled in Laney college and have decided to attend there. I think I will have a much greater chance of getting the classes than at CCSF. All my placement tests and everything are taken cared of at Laney, but my registration date has yet to come for CCSF (31st of this month!). </p>
<p>I was freaking out because of the bart fees I have to pay to go to laney, but I found out that I am eligible for financial aid at Laney even though I lost my eligibility at Davis.</p>
<p>All the math and chem courses are taken at CCSF. At Laney, I am waitlisted position 9 for chem, but got into Calculus. Do people tend to drop classes during the first week of school? In Davis, they did. I don’t know how often and likely people drop classes in cc’s. Thanks a lot, once again Shannon. You have been a big help.</p>
<p>Again, still seems like admin is not willing to do what it takes. They’ve got time, but not much. The article highlights, and I’ve read elsewhere, that 92% of the school’s budget is dedicated to admin and faculty salaries, benefits, and retiree health obligations. 92 cents of every dollar.</p>
<p>As per the OPs question, the local news station also had a piece last night showing CCSF students trying to register for classes and finding everything they need as filled - including some basic math classes. A CCSF spokesperson noted that around 500 classes were cut and more may be to come.</p>
<p>It’s unfortunate that CCSF is doing things like that now that it’s almost forced upon them when all other CCCs in similar positions have been gradually doing so for the last 12-18 months.</p>
<p>And thanks Shannon. I got the chemistry class I wanted. </p>
<p>Things are going okay, but bart fees are so pricey. </p>
<p>I’m considering taking a night cooking/kung fu/dancing class at CCSF to get priority for next quarter. If I can get the science and math courses I need, I might go to CCSF. But i doubt it. Like sunburst said, their future does look quite grim.</p>
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