By Jonas Patlan
Universities now offer programs for transfer as an opportunity to attend their campus. By partnering with community colleges within the state,universities such as ISU, UNI, UNL, UNO, Minnesota, and more, have started transfer programs for smoother transition from your in-state universities.
Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa both offer a program that goes by the acronym APP, which stands for Admission Partnership Program. The program is accessible to community colleges all over Iowa, including DMACC.
The program allows a more cost effective, less intense environment of education for students who may be undecided, low income, or not academically prepared for a 4-year college. With Iowa State’s partnership program, acceptance is accompanied with an ISU ID, an ISU e-mail, a personal academic advisor, and access to ISU campus facilities.
Acceptance to the program is application based. The application is free, and takes a matter of 10-15 minutes to complete. There is, give or take, 300 students enrolled in the program at a time. Unlike the admissions application, the program is not competitive. It is designed to be of student help, as opposed to an honors or advanced program.
DMACC student Sam Thompson said, “The APP program was just a cheaper option for me, I saved eight grand to go to an easier school for two years.”
Sam chose to be a part of the APP program because he was certain that he wanted to go to Iowa State University, but did not want to pay the amount of money it would have cost with the risk of it being too difficult.
Tim Hauber, the coordinator of the APP admissions and applications, gave insight that students who are a part of the program tend to graduate on time in their desired field of study.
Without the program, there is the option to apply for a transfer after you have completed two years or 64 credits. It will be reviewed and processed just as a first-year application would.
What APP offers is the chance to interact with your future at ISU, your assigned academic advisor will contact you to make sure you are taking the right courses, and working on the right path for your major.
The program targets high school graduates, encouraging them to consider an alternate route for their bachelor’s degree. ISU recommends the APP route to students they feel will benefit from starting at a community college.
The program is open for application year-round, and accepts students every semester. So first-year or second-year, the program accepts students who know certainly that ISU is the school for their further education.
The next term is coming around the corner, and advisors will be in contact with APP students to help guide their course selection in the right direction. If you apply, before course selection would be the best time.
Attached below are links to Iowa State’s website. One takes you to the APP information page, and the other goes to the application form.