Many students at Pleasant Valley want to get out of the state for college because of both the appeal of city life and the educational opportunities.
In the past few years, there has been a large increase in the number of high achieving students applying to colleges out of state. There must not be any obvious issues at first, but Iowa’s economy and growth depends heavily on the people of the state. When the top performing students leave the state for college or their career, Iowa suffers.
Iowa’s future depends on the youth. For this reason, it is worth exploring why so many students want to leave Iowa.
One large reason is Iowa’s lack of big cities. Many students have lived in small suburban towns in Iowa for most of their lives and want something different.
Pleasant Valley graduate Vishwa Subramanium felt strongly about this. He attended high school at Pleasant Valley before heading to Georgia Tech for his undergraduate degree. Subramanium said, “As much as I love my family and friends back home, I love it here. There is so much more to do in a big city like Atlanta.”
He also spoke about the lack of opportunity in a smaller state like Iowa. “In Atlanta, there is opportunity everywhere. If I were to stay in Iowa my whole life, I probably wouldn’t be able to grow as much mentally as I can here,” Subramanium continued.
Another reason why many students look to attend an out of state school is the social culture difference. People Senior Gui Pinho said, “I like that unlike many of Iowa’s public schools, other colleges have a work hard, play hard mentality. I know you can find a group that you will fit into anywhere, but in other colleges, I can find more people like me.”
The leaders of Iowa’s government are trying to make a change to this migration of students out of state. Kim Reynolds, the governor of Iowa, recently signed bills to give $90 million dollars in funding for K-12 education. With help from the government, Iowa may just be able to create more Iowan jobs.
If Iowa’s legislation pays attention to these issues, more students may stay in the state. For now, students will continue to attend universities all over the country.
