The Small-Town Effect
What it means to be rurally educated and heading to higher education
—By Madeline Bough
After a long drive home, Megan Roberts was ready for turkey and to celebrate Thanksgiving. This year for her was even more special as she got to bring a college friend back home to introduce to her parents and show where she grew up. Everything was going to plan when they arrived at Megans house, but suddenly Megan saw her friend wearing a shocked face. Megan asked what was wrong and the friend simply responded, “There’s a deer head on your wall.”
Roberts, the U.P. Scholar program manager and previous student at University of Michigan, was one of the few rural students who attended the university. Roberts spoke of how she was afraid she had offended her friend, but this was not the case. “She questioned my dad the rest of the night about it. She was curious.”
The experience is memorable and heartwarming but brings up questions. How different is rural life compared to the urban or suburban experience? As a rural student myself attending University of Michigan, a school known for its academic excellence, education is what comes to the forefront of my mind. Students when coming into university have a wide variety of backgrounds. Things like socioeconomic status, race, and culture are becoming increasingly more considered when looking at college applicants but rurality is often brushed aside. Here we will explore where rural students are at a deficit, stigmas that follow rural students into higher education, and what rural students bring to higher education.
Where rural students stand
For those who wish to attend college, the high-school years are stepping stones. But what if those stepping stones are not even for each?
Higher education has barriers for many; we speak to the predominant ones often, such as race, socioeconomic status, disability, and more. The rural barrier is often not talked about. In order to talk about rural education barriers, rural education must be defined. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) defines rural as a territory at least 5 miles from an urbanized area and 2.5 miles from an urban cluster. The NCES splits the definition of rural areas even further into subcategories of “fringe,” “distant,” and “remote,” with remote being the furthest from urbanization. So if the high-school attended by a student falls into this territory they have received a rural education.
According to NPR, “Forty-two percent of people ages 18 to 24 are enrolled in all of higher education, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, but only 29 percent of rural people in that age group are enrolled, compared with nearly 48 percent from cities.” The stepping stones based on this statistic don’t seem to be equal for rural students, but let’s explore rural education further.
Competitive edge
If you’ve ever been through the college application season, you know how stressful the process can be. As an applicant you must be at the top of your game at all times, keep that GPA at 4.0, and do enough activities to seem like a well-rounded applicant but not too many so that it looks like you have no direction. Simply put, the process is stressful. Now imagine that the GPA-boosting AP’s weren’t offered, the SAT tutor didn’t exist, and the unique club that’s amazing for an application was never an option.
This isn’t an imaginary scenario for most rural students. Zachary Payne, an academic advisor at University of Michigan, confirms this idea, noting how some rural places around the country don’t necessarily have the same resources as more “competitive” high schools. He says, “This could be less AP or IB courses, but it could also be extracurricular opportunities, sports, clubs, STEM opportunities, etc.”
Brayden Hopkins, a graduate of Hudson Area High School, MI, a school defined as “rural distant” according to Locale Lookup, currently goes to Columbia College Chicago for film. He stated, “I have no idea what score I got [SATs]. It was a lot of work to log in and no one really explained how to me.” Hudson Area High school does not offer either AP or IB courses, nor did it offer any resources for SAT prep.
Caroline Yoder, a graduate of Addison High School, MI, also defined as “rural distant,” currently attends the University of Michigan as a freshman psychology major. Her experience with SAT prep and APs slightly differs from Hopkins. She recalled that there were no SAT prep resources available at her school and the APs offered at her school were “just ok.” She stated, “Teachers did their best to prepare us with their resources and none of us did bad on the exam, we all just did ok.” Addison offers 2~4 AP courses and no IB.
Looking on the other side there is Natalie Estereicher Solano, a graduate of Millennium High School, AZ, a school defined as “suburb midsize.” Solano is a freshman at University of Michigan studying engineering and her story can only be described as the polar opposite as that of Yoder and Hopkins. Solano took 26 AP/IB courses and scored a 1520 on her SAT. However she also wasn’t offered prep resources at her school and did her studying primarily on her own.
The difference in these cases is staggering and not uncommon. The Institute for College Access & Success states that a challenge that rural institutions face are academic constraints that result from lack of funding or support that makes it hard for schools to provide “diverse academic offerings, mentoring services, and career counseling and resources.” Lack of funding and a sparse geography is a deficit that is not something to look over when considering rural students and their struggle. A friend and I wanted to retake the SAT to be more competitive for admissions and scholarship opportunities. Where we went to school didn’t offer retakes, so we drove 4 hours to Indiana and took it again. I did worse on the second exam, and he did better, but we both still had “uncompetitive” scores.
Steep stigma
The rural-urban divide is no joke, and Brookings cites how the divide is further strengthened by this idea that urbanization is superior to rural life, neglecting what rural areas do for the economy. This divide feeds directly into education in a multitude of ways. Stigma and stereotypes are an important factor. Payne and Roberts had similar takes on some of the stigmas rural students specifically face. Roberts said, “Rural communities are often spoken about with deficit language and examined in deficit based programs. It’s often about what the community lacks, not celebrating their accomplishments and what they’re good at.” Payne echoed these sentiments: “I think the biggest stigma that rural education faces is that it may be seen as less-than.”
These judgements don’t just affect the outlook on the institutions themselves but also the students directly. Roberts spoke to how rural students at universities in urban areas are often looked down upon simply because of the area they grew up in, like being known for being ignorant of diversity. Payne insightfully added, “Students from these communities may feel like they need to hide their rural identity because they don’t feel like they aren’t good enough compared to their peers, creating a sense of imposter syndrome.”
Stigma is not held on just one side, however. The Institute for College Access & Success notes that rural students often “hold more negative perceptions of value, attainability, and affordability.” Roberts spoke to this as a misunderstanding, such as the idea that U-M is expensive. “Don’t get me wrong. [The] University of Michigan can be expensive but there is a lack of understanding of resources and scholarships.”
Roberts spoke to the elitism of universities as well. In particular, the University of Michigan has a slogan of “Leaders and Best.” Roberts said, “You all are some of the best but looking at it from a different perspective, it does seem elitist and maybe a little full of ourselves.”
Payne brought in another point about rural areas and their focus. In particular he highlighted how rural areas are often oriented towards the trades, community college, and the military. As Payne pointed out, while this serves the community well, it comes with deficits. “I think that there is some reasonable discourse about how to match the needs of students, acknowledge that not everyone wants to go to college, but also keep a strong college-going culture simultaneously.”
Payne’s point reminds me of a daily struggle of mine as a student in a rural area. Often when speaking to counselors…and describing my plans I was met with, “That’s a lot of school are you sure?” or “Very ambitious, aren’t we?” While this taught me to advocate for myself, often it was frustrating. I didn’t feel supported in striving for the best of the best and while it’s fair to not want to go to college, it’s not fair to push that ideal on everyone else. One interviewee in a Lumina Foundation report, education consultant Kelly Wilson Porter, said, “Going to college is not a slight leap of faith for many rural students, because it is especially intangible to them—both as a place and as an ideal stepping stone to a better life.”
Small town, big heart
Rural education is spoken negatively of in many manners but often comes with attributes that a lot of urban/suburban areas don’t have. A key strength is an incredibly strong sense of community. Says Yoder, “I liked having a small school where I knew everybody, I always had support, a group that I could be with, it’s really easy to feel alone here but I felt like I had a group where I was at.”
Educationally there are some benefits as well. Small class sizes allow for personalization with teachers and strong connections. Hopkins explained this as, “Teachers are there not for the pay but because they love it and the community.” Rural students are often a tight knit group and care deeply about their community, even when they leave. Hopkins still keeps in contact with teachers, calling them role models who made him who he was. I also keep in contact with lots of people within my community as well, and they often check up on me and my well-being, sending me well wishes.
Some of the fear cited earlier in rural communities about universities stems from concern about a “brain drain.” According to The Rural Reconciliation Project, it’s this phenomenon in which high-achieving kids leave rural areas to move to urban areas for more opportunities, leaving rural areas’ population to dwindle. While research points to this, when I asked Hopkins and Yoder if they would return to their home, they responded quickly. Hopkins told me he would raise his kids where he grew up. The community means a lot to him.He stated he wouldn’t be who he is without it. Caroline had slightly different reasons. She would like to be closer to nature and not the city. She said that the small community culture is comforting and a strong foundation to build a life with.
Solano, however, stated, “I hate Arizona; it felt like a cage. I wanted out and to get out of the state.” While the two rural students are interested in coming back to their community after higher education, in this situation it’s the suburban student that holds no desire to return to their community.
A gap worth filling
A main theme here for rural students is having to fight hard to get to higher education. Another fight that has to be made is getting universities to acknowledge them, come to their communities, and admit them. The University of Michigan itself only has a rural population of 8.7% even with the Michigan population being 20 percent rural.
Why? Simply, rural areas are far away. The American Council on Education calls these “education deserts.” Just like how a desert can span on for what feels like forever, rural areas tend to have long and great distances between higher education opportunities. This proves difficult for both universities and students, because in reality what kind of investment is it to send a recruiter 6 hours away to gain maybe one admit? People like Roberts devote their career to it but universities on a larger scale don’t always see the bigger picture.
However, Roberts spoke to exactly why universities should see past the numbers for these students. First she talked about how every single rural student who decided to come to college, wanted the education and will fight for the opportunities granted. In other words, they won’t take anything for granted. Payne concurs, saying, “I think some characteristics of rural students would be that they are scrappy, tough, resilient, and gritty.”
Finally here
After the battle to get higher education, rural students still need to learn how to manage a new environment, just like every other kid. Hopkins spoke to his experience being lonely and learning to be lonely. Yoder spoke to college being draining and the load being overwhelming at times. Both describe how they had to get used to the city noise when falling asleep, rather than crickets. Stores in walking distance rather than a 15 minute drive away. Competitive classmates that make looking at the class average a gut punch, rather than basking in the highest score of the class. There is lots of hardship but there is also lots of good. Hopkins is learning about film and slowly getting on track to live his dream of being a director. Yoder has met a community in a church around here and gets to explore her faith on her own. I have made a friend group of many different individuals, who are not even remotely rural, but give me an abundance of happiness. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll get to shock them with a deer head on a wall.
Feature Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash