While Iowa State’s enrollment continues to increase, Des Moines Area Community College also is attracting more students.

Students at DMACC’s Boone campus signed up for 17.4 percent more credit hours this semester compared to the 1998 spring semester.

“Each fall semester, we have had record enrollment because DMACC is service oriented and cost effective,” said Larry Schroeder, educational adviser for DMACC’s Boone campus.

“Also, many students from the area choose to take classes here and then transfer to four-year schools like ISU,” he said.

Administrators at ISU said they understand the value of community colleges and see them as an opportunity for students to develop academically before attending a state school.

“Community colleges are attractive to some students because of lower costs or to get their academic goals in order,” said David Bousquet, assistant vice president for Enrollment Services at ISU.

“Also, sometimes, students need to make up academic deficiencies,” he said.

Schroeder said students often find the smaller, more intimate atmospheres of community colleges are often seen as a benefit.

“A majority of the instructors really see DMACC as a service-oriented school and cater to the students’ needs easier [then larger schools],” he said. “The students pay to have us serve them, and that really comes through in the classrooms.”

DMACC charges $69.40 per credit hour each semester, while one credit at ISU can cost anywhere from $77.39-$234, depending on the total number of credits a student is enrolled in.

“Tuition prices are skyrocketing and community colleges [deflect] the costs and keep classes affordable,” Schroeder said.

Another cause of increased enrollment at DMACC is the post-secondary enrollment program, where high school students can take classes through DMACC and receive college credit.

“The high school pays the costs of the post-secondary enrollment,” Schroeder said.

“Because of this, some schools don’t make the program well known,” he said.

In order to participate, high school students need to prove they are ready to take on the challenge DMACC offers before they can enroll, said George Silberhorn, counselor for DMACC’s Boone campus.

“The high school counselors make sure the students using the post-secondary enrollment program are capable of handling college-level classes,” Silberhorn said.

“Those students must then do a satisfactory job in the classes, or the student will have to pay instead of the school,” he said.

Full-time ISU and DMACC students may choose to use a cross enrollment program, where an additional class from the other school can be taken for the same tuition price.

“There has been about a 4 percent increase in cross enrollment between ISU and DMACC, and most [ISU] students have elected to attend the Boone campus,” said Kriss Philips, executive dean for DMACC’s Boone campus.

DMACC also has a number of international students on their campus.

“DMACC’s enrollment is about 10 percent international students,” Silberhorn said.

“Most of those students have some sort of connection to ISU, from spouses of ISU students to family members of ISU faculty,” he said.

With more students attending both DMACC and ISU, administrators at each school disagreed about whether competition exists between the schools.

“There is not much competition for students between ISU and DMACC,” Philips said.

“DMACC actually acts as a feeder institution to ISU because students often transfer there after completion of DMACC classes,” Philips said.

Bousquet said he felt some competition exists in attracting freshmen to the schools.

“There is some competition between ISU and DMACC simply because both schools seek to enroll first-year students,” Bousquet said.