The Admissions Partnership Program gives community college students a head start on their Iowa State experience.

Iowa State is one of three Iowa colleges that is in agreement with central and western community colleges, including Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC), Marshalltown, Ellsworth, Iowa Lakes and Iowa Central community colleges. The program has been around for 14 years.

Nearly 2,000 students transfer to Iowa State University yearly; last year, about 1,378 students transferred. Around 400 to 500 students transfer during spring semester, and around 250 to 350 of those students are in the Admissions Partnership Program.

The program started due to the increase of DMACC students transferring to Iowa State. It has a free application process that allows students to be a part of the Iowa State community before officially applying to Iowa State. The program is only offered to students enrolled in community colleges.

Community college students must be in good academic standing and have at least a 2.25 GPA. Students who apply and are accepted are assigned to an academic adviser according to their interests and major. The program helps ease the transfer process and the transition to a four-year university.

According to Tim Hauber, the assistant director of transfer recruitment, the program has proven success over the last 14 years. He said students involved in the program see an increase in their GPA compared to students who are not in the program.

Hauber primarily works with transfer students one on one. He answers questions about transferable coursework and transfer plans for students and oversees the Admissions Partnership Program.

Hauber said it’s a chance for students to get the Iowa State experience.

“Iowa State gets the most transfers than any other schools. We [have the most transfer students] by far of all the schools; we do this very well because each of the colleges have their own transfer coordinator,” Hauber said.

Though students in the program are not official students, there are perks to being in the program. They can receive their student identification card, a Net-ID, dine at dining centers and use health facilities on campus. Students that pay the activity fee can also get involved with Iowa State student clubs and organizations. According to Hauber it makes the transition from community college to Iowa State better.

The program ensures that transfer students’ coursework coincides with Iowa State’s. Hauber said all community colleges have Iowa State course equivalencies, but not all course credits transfer over.

“You could take a class that, let’s say it’s more of a career type class, that we don’t offer at Iowa State and so we can’t give you credit for it at Iowa State because it doesn’t match anything we have here,” Hauber said.

He said if a class is designed to be at a two-year school and not at a four-year school it will not transfer because it will not match to Iowa State’s equivalencies.

“They’re taking like a pre-math class or a precalc or taking a writing workshop class, it’s helping you get ready for composition I or composition II,” Hauber said. “That’s considered a prep class and that doesn’t transfer over, it’ll count at DMACC, but it won’t transfer in.”

Ashley Martinez-Torres, junior in journalism at Iowa State, graduated from DMACC in fall 2019. She transferred to Iowa State in January.

She said she attempted to apply for the Admissions Partnership Program last fall.

“I tried to participate in the program, but they told me that I didn’t qualify for it,” she said.

She mentioned if she did qualify for it she would have had to stay another semester taking more coursework.

Hauber also said each college is different. Four years of a foreign language may be required for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, but it isn’t required for the College of Business.

Hauber recommends community college students to use resources such as early advising with Iowa State faculty members and using the transfer resources such as Transit, a program on the transfer admissions website. Transit has a degree audit function that allows students to plan their coursework plan before transferring.

“Even if you’re undecided or still at four different majors, you can look at degree audits and between all four and see which one is best, make sure you’re on track, find out stuff at least a year or two earlier than waiting until after you get all your classes scheduled and then transfer and kind of get surprised, so finding out early is always better,” Hauber said.

Early advising can help students prepare and figure out what courses will transfer. He recommends students to reach out to their community college advisers.

McKenna Iles, a junior in event management, transferred to Iowa State with help from her adviser during the process.

“I had a little help from an adviser but mostly [did it] on my own and my cousin transferred from DMACC so she helped me figure stuff out,” Iles said.

Due to her process, not all of her credits transferred.

“Since some of my credits didn’t transfer, I still have some of them to do before and then I have to take an internship class next semester before I can even have an internship and then internship class after the internship so I have to get that done and make sure I’m doing that the next three semesters that I have,” Iles said.

Her advice to future transfer students is to get involved in their academic planning.

“Talk to your advisers before you take classes at DMACC to make sure they’re going to transfer into your field. I wish I would have talked to my adviser a lot sooner at DMACC, but I didn’t,” Iles said.

Hauber said every transfer process is unique to each student.

“Ask us questions earlier in the process and don’t make assumptions,” Hauber said. “‘Hey, I have a friend who did this’ or ‘my sister went to University of Northern Iowa and this is how it worked there so it must be the same everywhere,’ it’s really not.”

Hauber said the Admissions Partnership Program is here whenever students are ready to start their adventure at Iowa State.