Small-town students can be overlooked. Colleges are now looking their way.
| Plymouth, N.H.
For America’s colleges, recruiting more rural students could be one way to diversify their campuses in the wake of a Supreme Court ban on race-conscious admissions. Students from small towns can bring different experiences, perspectives, and values to the classroom than their urban counterparts.
That’s why a group of elite and flagship colleges is trying to grow its ranks of rural students. The coalition, Small Town and Rural Students College Network, or STARS, recently doubled in size, to 32 colleges. It has sent representatives to more than 2,000 small-town high schools in 50 states in the past year.
Why We Wrote This
Rural students enroll in and complete college at lower rates than their urban and suburban peers. What are colleges and universities doing to get more of them to apply?
By reaching out to rural students, highly selective schools hope to convince some high-achieving, low-income students that an elite education is within their reach. Barely a fifth of rural adults over the age of 25 has a bachelor’s degree, compared with 35% of nonrural adults.
Jillian McGeehin, a sophomore from Sugarloaf, Pennsylvania, a town with just under 4,000 residents, now attends the University of Chicago. Ms. McGeehin did summer programs at the university during high school, but says it didn’t really hit her until she arrived on campus just how different living in a city would be.
“It’s still jarring sometimes,” she says of navigating the subway, “but I’m better than I was.”
Dino Koff, Dartmouth College’s director of financial aid, knows his institution’s $90,000 price tag can scare away low- and middle-income families.
So when he spoke to students and parents at Plymouth Regional High School in rural New Hampshire last month, he was quick to mention some more encouraging statistics. Statistics like 50% – the share of students on scholarships – and 22% – the share of families who pay nothing at all.
“You have to look at more than sticker price to what it’s going to cost you,” Mr. Koff told them.
Why We Wrote This
Rural students enroll in and complete college at lower rates than their urban and suburban peers. What are colleges and universities doing to get more of them to apply?
His pitch was part of a push by a group of elite and flagship colleges to grow its ranks of rural students, who enroll in and complete college at lower rates than their urban and suburban peers. The coalition, which recently doubled in size, to 32 colleges, has sent representatives to more than 2,000 small-town high schools in 50 states in the past year.
For America’s colleges, recruiting more rural students could be one way to diversify their campuses in the wake of a Supreme Court ban on race-conscious admissions. Students from small towns can bring different experiences, perspectives, and values to the classroom than their urban counterparts.
Enrolling more rural students in higher education could also help to bridge the political divide between rural and urban America, says Marjorie Betley, the executive director of the Small Town and Rural Students College Network, or STARS, which debuted in April 2023.
“One of the best ways to combat polarization is to have a conversation with someone who is different from you,” says Ms. Betley, who is also the deputy director of admissions at the University of Chicago. “Where better to do that than in a college classroom?”
One rural recruit to Ms. Betley’s school was Jillian McGeehin, a sophomore from Sugarloaf, Pennsylvania, a town with just under 4,000 residents. Ms. McGeehin did summer programs at the university during high school, but says it didn’t really hit her until she arrived on campus just how different living in a city would be. The sprawling subway system was overwhelming, and she couldn’t get over how expensive everything was.
“The minimum wage back home was $7.25, and here, that’s a coffee,” she says.
Why fewer rural students enroll
Closing the longstanding college attainment gap between rural communities and the rest of the country won’t be easy. Barely a fifth of rural adults over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree, compared with 35% of nonrural adults. In many small-town high schools, “college is more the exception than the expectation,” says Ms. Betley. “It’s not built into the fabric of the school.”
When college is promoted or encouraged by rural schools, it’s often only for the highest-achieving students, says Crystal Chambers, a professor of educational leadership at East Carolina University, who has studied the influence of teachers on rural students’ aspirations. This can lead the remaining students to underestimate their academic potential and rule out college, she says.
High school guidance counselors, whose job it is to help students figure out their postgraduation plans, are often pulled in different directions. They are tasked with responding to immediate crises like addiction and food and housing insecurity, says Noa Meyer, board chair of the rootEd Alliance, which places dedicated college and career advisers in rural high schools and collaborates with the STARS network.
“They’re spending less time helping kids get into their futures, and more on protecting them in the present,” she says.
In families where neither parent has been to college, students can be left to navigate complicated admissions and financial aid processes on their own.
Rural schools are also less likely than urban and suburban ones to offer advanced math – a requirement for admission to many top colleges.
Meanwhile, a growing number of rural students are questioning the return on a costly degree and choosing work over college. At Plymouth Regional High School, which draws its 660 students from eight small towns, students now talk proudly about entering a trade and making good money sooner, counselors say.
“Since COVID, kids have been reassessing the value of college,” says Brian Sutherland, one of the counselors. “They have a hard time imagining that in 10 years, maybe their body won’t feel like laying wire all day.”
Those students who are willing to postpone a paycheck for the promise of higher earnings down the road tend to pick cheaper options, like Plymouth State University, a mile from the high school, or the University of New Hampshire. Even with its generous financial aid, it can be hard for Dartmouth to compete with the state’s flagship university, which is free for some low-income students, Mr. Koff acknowledges.
The pitch from recruiters
By reaching out to rural students through high school visits and fly-in programs for students and counselors, highly selective schools like Dartmouth hope to convince some high-achieving, low-income students that an elite education is within their reach. For rural students without access to calculus in high school, STARS offers free online courses and tutoring through partnerships with Khan Academy and Schoolhouse.world.
When Mr. Koff and other college representatives visit rural schools, they provide students with the information and tools they’ll need to apply to any college and pay for it. They’re there not just to sell their own institutions, but the idea of college as an attainable dream and a worthwhile investment.
Norman Sackett, a senior who applied early decision to Dartmouth, attended the recent presentation by Mr. Koff. Mr. Sackett’s father is an MRI technologist and his mother works in early child care. When he entered their income into the U.S. Department of Education’s net price calculator, he learned his family would be asked to contribute just $5,000 – a manageable amount. He’ll find out if he got into Dartmouth later this month.
Colleges haven’t always paid so much attention to rural students. Until fairly recently, most college recruiters saw rural schools as too remote, and too small, to justify travel expenses. While an urban high school might see hundreds of recruiters, a rural one would be fortunate to get a dozen.
This history means that many rural high schoolers have no idea how many options are available to them, says Ms. Betley. When she asks rural students how many colleges they think there are in the U.S., all say fewer than 100. When she tells them there are over 4,000 “their minds are blown,” she says.
Participating in the STARS network, which has received $150 million in support from Trott Family Philanthropies, provides colleges with the money – between $200,000 and $1 million each per year for a decade – to pay for trips to far-flung schools. It also allows them to share expenses on group trips to different geographic regions, such as northern New England.
Several colleges that participate in STARS, including The Ohio State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are also enlisting their own students as recruiters and advisers to rural students. Some serve surrounding high schools; others act as ambassadors for the college on visits back home.
“We were in their shoes once”
Avery Simpson, a peer adviser from Brooklyn, Wisconsin, who grew up in a farmhouse raising chickens and honeybees, says the biggest thing the high schoolers she speaks with want is reassurance. Some want to know if they’re choosing the right college; others are unsure if they’re even college material.
In those cases, says Ms. Simpson, who is now a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “it’s nice to look at them and tell them we were in their shoes once, and they can do it.”
Colleges in the STARS network are also creating programs aimed at helping students from rural high schools make the transition to large, urban institutions.
In Chicago, Ms. McGeehin was helped by her school’s Rural Student Alliance, a place where she can “be reminded that not everyone around you is from New York City.” She now serves on its board. She’s planning to invite members of the university’s public transit club to speak to first-year students who may be as confounded by the subway as she was.
“It’s still jarring sometimes,” she says, “but I’m better than I was.”
