In Iowa, freshman to senior students have to take multiple surveys to find multiple jobs that fit their interests.

“It is a department of education expectation, all schools are required to do it here in the state of Iowa,” principal Brent Riessen said.

Which means, IHaveaPlan is here to stay.

“This is the first year the state has mandated that all graduating seniors have completed the guideways,” school counselor Susan Baker said. “We have been told by the State that all graduating seniors are to have finished the guideways for four years on the I Have A Plan, what the consequences are, we haven’t been told. We don’t want to take any chances since this is a State Mandated requirement for Iowa students.”

In advisory, students are required to take IHaveaPlanIowa each year.

“I feel that IHaveaPlan is pointless and hasn’t given me an accurate depiction of what what I want to do after college,” senior Amber Hodapp said. 

IHaveaPlan intended to give students an idea of what they want to do after high school, even if the results happen to be extremely far off at times.

IHaveaPlanIowa is a program that was established about six or seven years ago to aid students in college career planning and started as a task in advisory. If it is not completed by the end of the designated advisory time students have to complete that year’s section on their own time.

“IHaveaPlanIowa is one of the options that is available,” Baker said. “It is free, there are other opportunities, but they have to pay for those.”

Other services IHaveaPlanIowa provides are scholarships, job search, test prep, college and university info as well as career explorations. It is suggested that students take advantage of the site at different points in their high school career.