(Estherville)– There’s good news to report when it comes to enrollment at Iowa Lakes Community College. College President Scott Stokes says numbers were up in the fall and have gone up some more for the spring term…
“We were excited in the fall when we saw an increase in our credit hours by nearly 9 percent and then that trend continued this spring with our credit hours being up another 3 percent for the spring semester. We have a number of individuals who have worked really hard. Our admissions team and marketing team and of course all of our program coordinators and instructors have done a great job working with students showing them the great opportunities that we have here at Iowa Lakes.”
Stokes says enrollment in pretty much all programs is up, with aviation, nursing, and arts and sciences seeing the greatest growth. He attributes the increased number of students, in part, to the “Last Dollar Scholarship” program…
“That is a state funded program and the goal of the Last Dollar Scholarship program is to help Iowans achieve education and training in high demand jobs. This fall we awarded over $530,000 to more than 270 students attending Iowa Lakes. The way the Last Dollar Scholarship works is that if fills in the tuition gaps not covered by other federal and state grants. So the goal is for students to leave here with very little or no debt and go into high, well paying jobs. So that is one thing that has really helped some of our programs be able to help students with the cost.”
Stokes anticipates Iowa Lakes’ enrollment numbers will be back on par with what they were pre-pandemic this coming fall…
“We have been working super hard to get back to where we were. We were just slightly under where we were pre-covid in the fall and that’s kind of where we maintained in the spring. So all of our goals are to be back up above where we were pre-covid by next fall and I think that’s a very achievable goal that we’ve set.”
According to the 2022 Annual Condition of Iowa Community Colleges report, Iowa Lakes Community College held the number one spot for enrollment growth over the previous year compared to all other community colleges in Iowa.
