Bakersfield?College students have heard that seeing a counselor, especially as a new student, is imperative in creating and successfully reaching their academic goals. Unfortunately, not much may be said or understood?beyond that.
BC counselor Kathy Rosellini goes into more detail about why new students should see a counselor and what they may expect from a first visit. “As far as new students are concerned, I think it is very important for them to see a counselor because most students do not know what their placement scores mean, they do not know what they want to major in, and so on,” said Rosellini.
“When I see a new student for the first time,” Rosellini said, “I want to know what they hope to get out of college and?what their educational goals are?so they can make the most of their time here and make wise decisions.”
Rosellini goes on to point out some common problems with new students that a visit to a counselor might help solve. “Ninety percent of the time, [new students] have never talked to someone who is actually doing that job to find out what are the best things and the worst things in that job and?if there are classes that person would recommend a student take to be more successful in that career.”
Seeing a counselor can help take a lot of the guess work out of what classes a student should take in order to build towards their chosen major.Counselors’ offices are located in the Student Services building, and students have two options when going to see one: either make an appointment to see one, or show up as a drop-in.
“Depending on the time of year and demand, it is not unusual for a student to have to wait two to four weeks to get in to see a counselor,” Rosellini states, and goes on to warn, “We are going to implement a new policy that if a student misses their appointment twice, they will not be allowed to make an appointment a third time, but will have to see a drop-in counselor.”
The BC website for the counseling department can help to guide new students through the processes of admissions, orientation, assessments, and counseling.? There is also information listed about degrees, transferring, financial aid and more.
Students interested in any of the above are encouraged to visit the website at www2.bakersfieldcollege.edu/counseling.index.html.