News

Record Number of Students Learn Patience in Enrolling

JAMESTOWN - Crowds are forming. A record number of students continues to enroll daily at Guilford Technical
Community College, with registration running 31.2 percent ahead of last year's student body record of 11,287. Fall semester classes begin Aug. 17.

"Patience" has become the theme as students crowd into the college's registration center at Medlin Campus Center waiting for their names to be called so they can enroll or have a conference with a financial aid advisor.

Students at Jamestown, High Point and Greensboro campuses are finding long waiting periods when they show up to register.
While "patience" is the word for waiting students, college officials say that the solution to reducing waiting times may be "internet technology."

With 10,029 students enrolled through Monday - 2,387 more than the number during the same period last year, GTCC personnel is trying to get more students to register on-line and speed the enrollment process.

"We are encouraging students to go on-line and do the same tasks that they can do by 'fighting the crowds' in the registration center," said Nancy Sollosi, director of finance. "Students who already have been through orientation can register, pay and even order their books on-line," she said.

Instructions for performing these tasks are available at www.gtcc.edu, she said. "We encourage students to go on-line because the procedures there are easy to follow - and certainly faster than having to stand around for hours to register in person," she said.

"We also need to get the word out to parents. We do a fine job communicating information to students, but often the information is not shared with the parents who plan to come on campus and help finalize plans," Sollosi said.

"It isn't uncommon to see frustrated parents standing in those long lines. In talking with them, I find they usually didn't foresee the long wait. And they aren't aware of the options for avoiding this dilemma. With enrollment up so dramatically, people could find themselves waiting for hours if they aren't pro- active about avoiding the rush," Sollosi added.

"For the past two months we've had an increase of about 30 percent in enrollment. Day-to-day we have an increase from 40 percent to100 percent in processed financial aid applications," said Sylvia van Noppen, a financial aid advisor. On Monday the number of financial aid recipients was up 94 percent over a year ago - 3,746 to 1,931.

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