With the arrival of a very special Autumn weekend for thousands of students, fall 2023 sees various Iowa public universities commencing walks on the graduation stage.
A little over 4,000 international undergraduate and graduate students who were studying for various subjects like education, engineering, and enterprise leadership at Iowa, have finally earned their degrees.
The individual news portals for the universities, such as Inside UNI for the University of Northern Iowa, Iowa State University News Service and University of Iowa website had announced the ceremony schedules beforehand for their students to register.
University of Northern Iowa
According to Inside UNI, over 600 students graduated from the University of Northern Iowa this winter, and the fall commencement took place at 10 a.m. on 16 December in the McLeod Center.
The ceremonies included 175 students in the College of Humanities, Arts and Sciences, 172 students in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 147 students in the College of Education, 114 students in the David W. Wilson College of Business and 34 interdisciplinary students.
The so called “Panther grads” come from 7 different countries, 15 American states and 86 out of 99 Iowa counties. The age range spans from 20 to 59 for undergraduates and 22 to 54 for graduate students who had earned their degrees this year.
The cumulative grade-point average (GPA) for undergraduates is 3.38, with 13% of all these students earning a degree in multiple majors. Graduation rates are at a record level for UNI students with nearly 20 percentage points above similar universities.
University of Iowa
Their official website states that around 1,700 students, with 600 graduate students and 1,092 undergraduates as degree applicants, celebrated their graduation from the University of Iowa this weekend.
This semester students came from ages 18 to 72 from 43 different countries, which includes the United States and its 40 states and territories within which they represent 61 counties in Iowa. 20% of all graduating students belonged to a minority group, while over 25% of undergraduates identified as first-generation college students.
The cumulative grade-point average (GPA) for undergraduates was 3.22, where the subjects of English, creative writing, nursing, and elementary teaching became the most popular fields of study.
Commencement ceremonies took place between 14 and 17 December, depending on the various colleges, programs and schedules.
Iowa State University
The official News Service reports that Iowa State University saw around 1,800 students graduate at 1:30 p.m. on 16 December in the Hilton Coliseum. This year’s graduation event, which was also live-streamed by the university, was smaller than last year’s class of 2,100 students.
An estimated 1,500 of those who attended the ceremonies were undergraduates earning their bachelor’s degrees, while over 300 graduate students, including 224 master’s and 94 doctoral students, got their chance to walk on the stage.
