Rural Students in Higher Education: Analyzing Challenges and Solutions

In remote parts of the U.S., access to healthcare, childcare, and education resources can range from limited to nonexistent. According to the Lumina Foundation, rural students are less likely to go on to college than their suburban and urban counterparts, which was particularly obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students in rural areas often face financial barriers to higher education including housing and food insecurity. But those aren’t the only financial challenges they can face. The cost of transportation and internet access present unexpected barriers as well.

Rural students come from less populated, often underserved areas of the country. The U.S. Census classifies rural as “open country and settlements with fewer than 2,000 housing units and 5,000 residents.”

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) uses a different definition, including non-metropolitan counties and outlying metropolitan counties where the urban center has a population under 50,000. By this definition, about 20% of the population and 87% of the land in the U.S. is rural.

Leaving home to attend college presents unique challenges for rural students, but can be worth the investment. Click below to read more perspectives from current rural college students.

Jillian McGeehin and Hailey Valaya, current students at the University of Chicago who came from small towns on opposite sides of the country, experienced similar challenges as they transitioned to college life in the big city. They were both drawn to the university because of its emerging rural leaders program.

McGeehin and Valaya said some of the biggest challenges in their transitions to Chicago — the country’s third-largest metropolitan area — included catching up academically, adapting to the city and public transportation, and the culture shock of meeting students from different socioeconomic classes. McGeehin and Valaya both said that travel can be a headache for students from remote, rural areas as it is usually more expensive and takes longer.

“As much as rural students have a hard time overcoming these barriers, it’s an amazing opportunity getting to go to college,” Valaya said. She said she encourages rural students to venture out from their hometowns and pursue the opportunities available to them, as the return on investment is “100% worth it.”

Almost five million 18-24-year-olds live in the rural U.S., according to the Census definition. Of those young adults:

Rural students face many challenges all stemming from accessibility and the distribution of resources. These barriers include the following, each further detailed in the sections below:

However, colleges and universities in rural areas — and support networks for rural students at urban and suburban institutions — are addressing these challenges through various resources and initiatives.

Some people in rural areas don’t pursue secondary education because there simply isn’t a college or university close enough for them to go to.

The median distance between a student’s home and their college is 17 miles, according to the Institute for College Access & Success, and 69% of students go to college within 50 miles of their home. For community college students — where students typically commute to class — that percentage jumps to 79%.

Wide swaths of the U.S. lack a brick-and-mortar community college or regional university, forming what are called educational deserts. Not living in proximity to a physical college or university can affect whether or not a student enrolls in postsecondary education.

A 2025 working paper available via the National Bureau of Economics Research suggests that students living 30 minutes or more from a community college are less likely to complete an associate degree program. This is especially true for certain demographics: Lower-income, Black, and Latino/a students living in an education desert are less likely to pursue either an associate or bachelor’s degree.

For the past 10 years, researchers have focused a lot of attention on the “digital divide.” This refers to the divide between people who have easy access to computers and the internet and those that do not.

People living in rural areas can have a harder time accessing quality, high-speed internet, also known as broadband. Some people in the U.S. must rely on their phones since they do not have access to a computer, which can be its own inconvenience because not every website is designed for mobile use.

People in rural areas without broadband access may have trouble accessing telehealth, online banking, shopping, or online communication.

Students without broadband access may face challenges researching postsecondary schooling opportunities, supplemental education, standardized test preparation, and online course materials.

An upcoming FCC Supreme Court case could further impact internet access for rural students if subsidies for broadband in less populated areas of the country are deemed unconstitutional.

Students enrolled in postsecondary education may have access to computers and the internet while at their college or university, but often face challenges when they go home for breaks or during campus closures such as the ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“All institutions of higher ed need to have a plan in place for how to support un- and under-connected students,” said Dr. Christopher Ali, the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and professor of telecommunications at Penn State University.

Ali recommends that colleges and universities have the support capabilities to assist students who may be on the wrong side of the digital divide when they aren’t on campus.

“This is a DEI issue, 100%. This is about making sure everyone is able to thrive in the postsecondary environment,” Ali said. “And tens of thousands of students were not able to do that because of a lack of meaningful, affordable, broadband once they left campus.”

Ali said that the digital divide also includes digital literacy and that having broadband access does not matter if you don’t know how to use it. He said digital literacy gaps are usually present among those who cannot afford a computer at home or who often face other inequalities.

When there are limited schools and training programs available, that typically means that certain majors, programs, or areas of study won’t be available in rural or remote areas. The available programs are often tied to the workforce specific to that region.

Many students turn to apprenticeship and credentialing programs to prepare for entering the workforce. However, available apprenticeships and credentials usually depend on the businesses and industries accessible to the student. While students can obtain many credentials online, these can be costly with little payout or hard to complete without reliable broadband access.

Fortunately, the federal government — particularly under the Biden administration — has invested in workforce training and development initiatives in the rural U.S. Those include:

Working learners and student parents face a host of barriers to earning their degrees, regardless of whether they live in rural, suburban, or urban areas. However, rural areas’ geographic isolation and limited resources pose particular challenges.

One crucial resource for student parents is access to childcare. Like much of the country, remote and rural areas feel a particular strain when it comes to finding safe, affordable childcare while parents attend school. Not having a childcare provider can be the difference between a rural parent getting their degree or not.

Many students in rural areas are ready and interested in attending college, but institutional barriers, geographic isolation, and limited access to college-preparation resources may prevent them from pursuing their degrees. This can be particularly true for Indigenous students at tribal schools.

The dropout rate for rural high school students is 11%, according to the National Dropout Prevention Center. This figure is on par with the national average but lower than the urban rate. However, in 2019-2020, the high school graduation rate was higher in rural areas than in suburbs, towns, and cities, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

High school students in rural areas face barriers as early as the college application stage. For example, when college and scholarship applications ask or expect students to participate in extracurriculars, they can unintentionally exclude some rural students. As Dr. Matt Newlin covers in his podcast “The Rural College Student Experience,” students in many remote and rural areas do not have the same opportunities to be involved in extracurricular activities or to volunteer because of what organizations are in that area.

Additionally, attending a smaller school with fewer teachers and resources can affect rural students’ competitiveness as college applicants. Students at rural high schools may not be able to take the same advanced classes as students at schools with more funding. Students might also not be able to choose to attend a different or better high school. Additionally, teacher and staff shortages at rural schools may limit what college-readiness programs are available.

Learning about what options are available is an important part of selecting which college or university. College tours are a crucial part of motivating high school students to attend college. But what if the nearest school is too far away or the transportation is too costly for the student to tour?

A study by Appalachian State researchers found that students from rural areas who visited a college campus during middle school or high school were more likely to enroll at a postsecondary institution.

Additionally, few colleges and universities send representatives to speak with students at rural high schools about the programs at their schools. And it’s not just information about schools that might be lacking. Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and financial aid workshops help students who need financial assistance to go to college, but those might not be available in rural areas.

Newlin discusses in his podcast how the identities of rural students are intersectional: While most people in the rural U.S. are white, many are also low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented minority students.

But most importantly, rural students — like all demographics — are not a monolithic group. They have a variety of backgrounds, but share limited access to the same resources as other students in the U.S.

And while there are great small-town colleges available to students, they can lack the resources and opportunities that draw students to larger universities.

Students with reliable, affordable internet access can pursue online education options. But online learning isn’t for everyone. A Third Way report shows that students are less likely to complete a fully online program than an in-person one, usually because some courses lack wraparound student support services.

Fortunately, schools across the country can take the initiative to support rural students. And some already are via a national network of colleges and universities. The Small Town And Rural Students (STARS) Network supports students from rural communities.

The Rural Student Alliance (RSA), in which McGeehin and Valaya both hold leadership positions, is a student-run organization that receives funding from the University of Chicago. It’s a place for rural college students to connect, bond, learn from each other, and feel supported. Valaya said while there are about 200 rural students enrolled in undergraduate programs at the university, only about 10 of them are continuously participating in the club.

Chelsea Fishman is now the staff advisor for the University of Chicago’s RSA, but she was once a college student from a rural area herself. She said that when she was in college, she spent a lot of time and energy trying to fit in and catch up academically.

She noted that rural students may feel unprepared and behind their peers. Rural students sometimes must take more classes in college to catch up because their high schools are less likely to offer AP or IB programs.

Since she matriculated, she said many steps have been taken to reach rural students and support them, especially with greater outreach to rural high schools. Fishman said some rural high school students aren’t guided or advised to go to schools outside of their home state, let alone elite institutions.

Fishman said that while it is true rural students do not attend city campuses in big numbers, schools miss out on full diversity of thought by not reaching out to include and support them.

“Schools are missing this whole viewpoint that they don’t know they’re missing because no one is there to say ‘hey you’re missing the rural viewpoint,’ which is a shame,” Fishman said.

Fishman said that initiatives that benefit first-generation and low-income students very often support rural students to some extent, and schools could explicitly name and include rural students in these programs.

Currently, many support systems for rural students require learners to advocate for and organize their own resources. For example, the burden of forming clubs or support groups falls onto students. Fishman questioned why “incredibly well-resourced” aren’t doing this work for their students.

Universities in every area can help support college attainment among rural high school students with better outreach. And they can do better in supporting enrolled students by helping them connect to resources and other students on campus.