As the new semester begins, students from all over the world have decided to contribute to the record-breaking 1,781 incoming transfers that enrolled at Iowa State this past fall.

The Office of Admissions has found that 25 percent of the undergraduate population is made up of transfer students, making one in four students coming into Iowa State from another college at some point in their education.

Members of the ISU community continue to distribute tips for students deciding to transfer in and out of the college.

After high school, Erica Stromgren decided to immediately pursue her undergraduate education at Iowa State. However, after spending a year at the college, Stromgren decided to transfer out to further her education in vet tech at Des Moines Area Community College.

“Iowa State was simply too big for me,” Stromgren said. “I like all my small classes at DMACC and how the professors know me personally.”

For the 2009-2010 school year, the Office of Institutional Research conducted statistics that showed the main loss of students occurs during a student’s first and second year enrolled at Iowa State.

On average, 84.4 percent of students return to Iowa State after their first year, while 76.1 percent continue their education after their second year.

Preceding graduation, the retention and graduation rate of a full-time freshman who comes to Iowa State and graduates is 71.4 percent.

Senior research analyst Jonathan Compton believes that once a student decides to stay at Iowa State after the first two years, they will more than likely stay here to graduate.

“The numbers do not drop off much after those first and second years,” Compton said.

Although some students decide to leave Iowa State for various reasons, many students decide after attending another institution that Iowa State is the college that will shape the best and most memorable experience for them.

Junior Cody Smith made the decision to transfer from Iowa Central Community College this spring in hopes of a bright future ahead in his college journey.

“The staff at Iowa State has helped me all along the way and made it efficiently easy for me to transfer,” Smith said. “They kept in contact with me throughout the whole process and made sure they gave me what I needed to pursue the best education I possibly could.”

With 1,050 transfer students coming from Iowa community colleges this past fall, many students like Smith have found new organizations and opportunities shaped in transitioning from a smaller to bigger college.

Iowa State has developed the Admissions Partnership Program that is provided as an organization to help students from community colleges in Iowa start off on the right path in their journey at Iowa State.

Through a partnership between Iowa State and Iowa’s community colleges, the program has established resources to incoming students by creating advantages of providing one-on-one interaction with an adviser to help plan a successful route in a field of education.