My husband is West Virginia born and bred (go Mountaineers!) and his family has deep roots throughout Appalachia- with coal mining, steel mill working, and farming in recent generations. As a result of our family ties, I have advised aspiring college applicants who call these regions home, many of whom have been the first in their immediate families to attend college. During my career in college admissions, I read hundreds of applications from students in rural areas, including Texas, California, South Dakota, and New York State. Now as a Collegewise counselor, I help college applicants from all over the country craft their unique stories, drawing from what I’ve learned during my 25 years in the field.
Rural applicants have some unique advantages in the college process, and also some unique challenges. I’ve highlighted five aspects of the college process below, with an emphasis on issues students from rural areas may want to consider. I’ve included links to many other resources and suggestions for how rural students can successfully navigate the path to college.
1. Going to College is Really Important
For many students from rural areas, college may not feel like a necessary step. Graduating from high school means you can immediately earn an income, which enables students to support themselves, contribute to a family business, and allows parents to allocate their financial resources to other important needs. However, a college degree deeply impacts a person’s lifetime earning potential. In fact, according to the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, over the course of their lifetimes, people with four-year degrees earn about $1.2 million more than people who do not have four -year degrees. On an annual basis, folks with four-year degrees earn about 84% (or $36,000) more than those with a high school diploma. And those with advanced degrees, like master’s or doctoral degrees, have even higher lifetime earnings.
Attending college has other benefits, too! Studies show that people with college degrees are physically healthier and live longer lives than those without college degrees. This could be due to a number of factors including access to quality healthcare (college graduates are 47% more likely to have health insurance), being able to afford treatment for medical conditions, and acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to research and access appropriate medical care.
Access to employment is another major benefit of earning a four-year degree. During the country’s most recent economic recession, the jobless rate was nearly 10% higher for young workers with a high school diploma compared to those with a four-year degree. The job market still largely requires college degrees- with 65% of available jobs requiring some training or education beyond a high school diploma, and 35% of those requiring at least a bachelor’s degree. For more information regarding job openings for the most common jobs by education level, here’s a great report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
2. Your Rural High School Can Prepare You to Succeed in College
Familiarize yourself with what your high school offers. Rural high schools often have different or more limited resources than urban and suburban schools. Students spend more time commuting to school (leaving less time for other activities), and rural schools often lack funding for advanced classes, unique electives, and programs like orchestra, art, and technology. Colleges are aware of these differences and are able to review a student’s application according to what is available to them.
For academics, take the highest level (advanced, honors, Advanced Placement, or Dual Enrollment) classes you can in the subjects that make the most sense for you. Then earn the highest possible grades in those classes. If you want to attend a more selective college, take a look at that college’s website to see what their academic requirements are, and then be certain that you take the right number of classes to make yourself competitive. (Hint: that means generally taking more than just the minimum requirements!)
Whenever possible, take advantage of activities outside of class. Join the choir at church, volunteer at the local senior center, or enter an animal from your family farm at the county fair. I worked with one student who was President of his 4H club, and another who started a tutoring program that became the largest, most active organization at his high school.
Do you work a part-time job to help pay for family expenses or provide your own gas or insurance money? Do you take care of your four siblings after school, helping them with homework and preparing meals? Guess what- these are very important activities that your future college values! One of my favorite college essays was about a student’s experience working for two years at an auto body shop. I recall an applicant who wrote an essay about her pet falcon, and another who cultivated Manuka honey bees. We also once admitted a student whose video introduction was hosted from his family’s tractor during harvest season. Expensive, selective summer programs, private music lessons, and travel sports teams aren’t necessary- all that matters is developing skills or pursuing passions, to the greatest extent that you can.
3. More Competitive or Expensive Schools are not “Better”
In tip #1 above, I talked a lot about why going to college matters, but I never mentioned which colleges were better to attend–that’s because there is no such thing! Going to college is what matters–and then finding the school that is the best fit for you. We’ve all heard of Harvard, Yale, Duke, and Stanford; but Hofstra, Prairie A&M, Boise State, and Willamette are all incredible places to attend college, too!
At Collegewise, we always work with students to find colleges that suit them best; colleges that work for their needs, personality, and interests. In order to find schools that will work for you, here is a great search engine that will allow you to prioritize all kinds of attributes- distance from home, majors of interest, size, states or regions, and financial aid offerings are all available to refine your search. After you have a list of possibilities, we like to visit Unigo or Niche to check out student reviews, virtual campus tours, and other critical information in order to help you learn more.
My best advice: don’t just create your college list off of the places you’ve heard of. Instead, use some of the resources above to find places where you’d really belong; where you’d thrive.
4. Having (the Right) Support Makes a Difference
There are three important things you need to know as you approach your college search process: 1) where to apply; 2) how to apply; and 3) how to pay for it. Yet, rural high schools often face challenges when allocating staff, teachers, and administrative resources toward college guidance. Your school’s guidance counselor is a great place to start working through the process, but if your school only has one or two counselors or the counselors’ job includes other priorities besides college guidance, they may not have time or resources to provide strong support for college applicants.
While students from more urban areas will likely find college access networks nearby, rural communities often don’t have those same organizations. Students might have more luck looking for local, county, or state sources of support. Many state colleges and universities offer support programs for rural applicants (North Carolina, Virginia, and Texas, for example), and even some colleges offer targeted support for applicants from rural areas (CalTech, James Madison University, and University of Wisconsin, for example) that may include application support, academic and social support once students are on campus, and tuition programs that favor rural students.
National Organizations Dedicated to College Access for Disadvantaged or Rural Populations:
Collegewise Resources for All Students:
- Common Application Guide
- Free Webinars
- Free Resources Online, where you can search by topic area to find advice on whatever you need
5. Yes, Rural Students Can Get In
The admissions process evaluates you on the success you’ve had within your own environment. You aren’t compared with students from cities or the suburbs, who have different values, different opportunities, and different lives than you. In fact, your background will make you even more competitive- take a look at this article and this one, that highlight why students from rural communities are a population schools want to recruit!
Most college applications include an opportunity to write about your life, and you should share the experiences that are unique to you as a student in a rural community. Consider the values, character attributes, and skills you have that students from urban and suburban areas might not have had the opportunity to develop. There are many! The knowledge you’ve gained from a life in the mountains, desert, or high plains would bring valuable perspectives to any university community.
Next Stop... College
What’s more, the same skills you use to be successful in high school are a great foundation for you to build on to be successful in college. The main skills that students need to earn a degree, students from rural areas often already have in spades; the ability to think independently, advocate for yourself, and problem-solve are all skills you’ll need in college.
The bottom line is that you can be successful in college. Using your own curiosity, ingenuity, some creative research skills, and… above all… consistent effort, you can apply to, pay for, and attend your “dream school.”
Works Cited
- "Bureau of Labor Statistics." United States Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov.
- "Unigo." Unigo. https://www.unigo.com.
- "Niche." Niche. https://www.niche.com.
- "CalTech Application Support for Rural Applicants." California Institute of Technology. https://www.caltech.edu.
- "James Madison University Support Programs." James Madison University. https://www.jmu.edu.
- "University of Wisconsin Rural Programs." University of Wisconsin. https://www.wisc.edu.
- "The Economic Value of Higher Education." Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2018/data-on-display/education-pays.htm.
- "How Higher Education Affects Lifetime Salaries." Collegewise. https://collegewise.com/how-higher-education-affects-lifetime-salaries.
- "Job Market Trends for College Graduates." Collegewise. https://collegewise.com/job-market-trends-for-college-graduates.
- "Support for Rural Applicants in Higher Education." Collegewise. https://collegewise.com/support-for-rural-applicants-in-higher-education.
About Us: With more than twenty years of experience, Collegewise counselors and tutors are at the forefront of the ever-evolving admissions landscape. Our work has always centered on you: the family. And just like we’ve always done, we look for ways for your student to be their best self - whether in the classroom, the applications, or in the right-fit college environment. Our range of counseling, test prep, academic tutoring, and essay management, all with the support of our proprietary platform, lead to 4x higher than average admissions rates.
