Most students at Iowa State take more than four years to graduate, but the number of students who do graduate in four years is slowly increasing, according to the ISU Fact Book.

“It’s strictly a student’s decision on when they are going to graduate,” said Beverly Madden, coordinator of Iowa State’s Soar in 4 program.

The average time it takes to graduate at Iowa State is four and a half years, she said.

Many factors lead to students’ graduation time.

One issue affecting graduation time in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication occurs when junior and senior students transfer into different programs, said Cheryl Oldenburg, academic adviser of journalism and communication. With a new major, upperclassmen often must take freshman- and sophomore-level classes, leaving fewer available seats for freshmen and sophomores, who usually register after upperclassmen.

The university can find some ways to help students, Oldenburg said.

“There are different things you can do to keep people in at 15 credits a semester,” she said.

One way students can stay on track for graduation in four years is the Soar in 4 program.

The program requires students to sign a contract agreeing to graduate in four years and take 15 to 18 credits per semester. Participants are guaranteed class availability, and if a student’s graduation is delayed by unavailability of a class, Iowa State will pay for extra sessions. The program works if participating students stay in close contact with their advisers and complete the required number of classes each semester, Madden said.

“Soar in 4 dispels the urban myth that the university cannot provide classes,” she said. “Nobody has ever had to ask the university to pay for the classes.”

Thirty-one percent of 2003 graduates participated in Soar in 4, according to the Student Answer Center.

Oldenburg said she likes the idea of Soar in 4, but the concept is something she would do anyway as an adviser. “I’ve told many students it’s too bad you can’t start college at 25, because you just don’t know [what you want to do] at 18,” she said.

Graduation time also depends on students’ decisions and the programs they are in, Madden said.

Internships, co-ops, study abroad, coming in with an open option major, changing majors, taking a light load, lab courses, family responsibilities and transferring are all reasons some students may not graduate in four years, she said.

“More students today are coming in as open option students, and I think it’s a good trend,” Madden said. “Changing career focus is a very common thing.”

Coming in as an open option student or changing majors does not always cause students to fall behind, she said, but some decisions will not help.

Madden said taking a light load may be counterproductive for some majors.

Some students who take a lighter load so they can work more often should take the full load so they can graduate in four years and then have one less semester to pay for, she said.

“It is more important to understand the concepts than to race toward graduation,” Madden said.

Amber Schuur, senior in apparel merchandising, design and production, said she did not know what she wanted after her first year at Iowa State.

She came to Iowa State as a freshman in the architecture program, expecting to spend five years at Iowa State. At the beginning of her sophomore year, she changed her major to interior design.

Then, the summer before her senior year she decided to move to apparel merchandising, and later added a second major in business management.

“I’ll walk out with more debt than I would’ve liked to, but I’m happier in my major,” Schuur said.