{"id":3090,"date":"2019-03-12T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=3090"},"modified":"2019-05-06T14:27:28","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T18:27:28","slug":"perspective-the-rural-student-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2019\/03\/12\/perspective-the-rural-student-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Perspective: The Rural Student Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Recruitment of rural and low-income students is often a goal of universities. But some schools don\u2019t offer the support system to allow these students to succeed once they arrive on campus.<\/p>\n

That was the case for writer Alison Stine.<\/p>\n

Stine recently authored an essay<\/a> recounting her experience as a student from a rural background at a private college.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t the first person in my family to go to college \u2014 I was the second generation, after my parents \u2014 and on teachers\u2019 and guidance counselors\u2019 advice, I had applied to several schools, including state universities,\u201d she wrote. \u201cBut the private colleges were the ones that seemed to really want someone like me. They courted me. They offered me money, and I couldn\u2019t say no to that. I couldn\u2019t afford to.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite how much they courted her, the environment on campus didn\u2019t follow up with the same support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hardly alone in my experience of class bewilderment. Now, as then, there is no special orientation for students who identify as poor or rural, no workshops on the culture clash we might experience in college,\u201d Stine wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the price of required books, most professors had no idea of our financial reality. Students are reprimanded for not buying books on time, or not having money on a copy card, or for personal printers running out of pricy inks \u2014 but these are real and valid issues for those not raised in wealth. While our intellects can keep pace with our wealthy classmates, our wallets can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she felt pressure in every aspect of campus life \u2013 from parties to dress code to classwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt I needed to compensate for my upbringing by working extraordinarily hard. My first year, I dressed up for class, to which I would arrive half-an-hour early, waiting outside the classroom door. I took frantic, copious notes, but professors often said words I didn\u2019t know \u2014 and didn\u2019t explain them. Re-reading my notes at night, I stayed up until 2, until 4, trying to figure everything out, trying to learn this new language for a world I still felt I was denied entrance to: a world of learning, but also of wealth,\u201d Stine wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t take long before I stopped raising my hand. My theology professor admitted to me that he missed that fiery, eager student who had debated so much in our first few weeks. But that student had finally heard the snickers from the back of the class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Stine\u2019s full essay<\/a> and check out an article from\u00a0The Journal of College Admission<\/a><\/em>\u00a0on supporting rural students.<\/p>\n

Admission professionals committed to the admission, matriculation, and success of rural and small town students are invited to join\u00a0NACAC\u2019s Rural and Small Town SIG<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ashley Dobson is NACAC\u2019s communications manager for content and social media. You can reach her at\u00a0adobson@nacacnet.org<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recruitment of rural and low-income students is often a goal of universities. But some schools don\u2019t offer the support system to allow these students to succeed once they arrive on campus. That was the case for writer Alison Stine. Stine recently authored an essay recounting her experience as a student from a rural background at … Continue reading Perspective: The Rural Student Experience<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-performance","category-access"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Ashley Dobson","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/ashley-dobson\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-NQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}