A major component of the College’s Guided Pathways work is the revamping of the intake and onboarding processes. Changes have been implemented to impact the Spring 2019 admissions/registration cycle. Registration and orientation procedures have been redefined to allow for more effective dissemination of information to incoming new students. A group of staff and faculty from Educational Support Services, Student Development, and Enrollment Management have worked together to determine the information incoming students need, when they need it, and effective means of providing it.

A crucial component of the redesign is the use of an online orientation platform for incoming new students. The online orientation platform leads students through a series of modules addressing topics such as admissions, payment, academic pathways, educational planning, college resources, etc. With the online orientation platform, students can access information when it is convenient for them, which decreases the need for students to come to campus and therefore decreases opportunities for students to exit the pipeline. Moreover, the modules remain available to students after they enroll, which enables them to access information for review as needed.

As a means of streamlining the intake process, the College is offering more one-day “express enrollment” days. Express Enrollment days allow students to complete various tasks (such as placement testing and registering) during a single visit to the campus.

Changes have also been made to other aspects of the intake process, notably placement testing. Such changes include increasing how long SAT scores are accepted; changing placement exams and recalibrating minimum scores to increase effectiveness of placement; and adding multiple measures as possible options for placement in English and Math. Additional measures will be used for students entering Spring 2019: high school GPA of 3.5+ for English, and high school GPA of 3.0+ and successful completion of at least Algebra II for math.