Finding college success as a rural student

Where are you from?

I’m from Fulton, Missouri, a small town in the middle of the state that most people don’t recognize by name. I live on the outskirts of Fulton, closer to the highway than the brick street we call “downtown”. I’m from a graduating class of about 150 students, where less than 10 of us chose to attend a university that’s over an hour away. I’m from driving thirty minutes to go grocery shopping and chatting with my friends in school parking lots.

What was your biggest concern in your college search?

One of my biggest concerns, and my parents’ main concern, was if I could afford to attend college. As I started my search, I avoided highly selective universities because I assumed they would be too expensive. I continued believing that I could never afford highly selective schools until I attended a virtual financial aid webinar which explained the difference between the “sticker price” and “net price” of attending college. Even though the “sticker price” of highly selective universities is astronomically high, I realized that most people don’t end up paying that amount. Instead, students end up paying the “net price” which reduces the sticker price-based on federal financial aid, scholarships, grants, and more. After this webinar, I added a new column to my college search spreadsheet, one where I went to every school’s Net Price Calculator and received an estimate on what I would have to pay based on my financial situation. This allowed me to see that for my financial situation, attending WashU would be cheaper than attending my state school.

Who helped you with your college application?

Throughout the college admissions process, I received a majority of my application support from online admissions webinars. I also got feedback from my family on the written sections of my application. My dad, a retired high school teacher, used what he remembered from his college admission process to help me find schools and apply. Meanwhile, my mom, who is not a college graduate, used her love of reading to help me review my essay.

How did you find WashU?

Unlike most of my friends, I did not find WashU by driving through St. Louis, receiving mail, or by attending my high school’s college fair. Instead, I found WashU through the College Board’s free college search feature. I entered in a list of features that I was looking for in a university and one of the results that stood out to me was WashU. At that point I began to attend webinars to learn about the academic life and began to look for answers about what the culture was like. The more I researched different schools and their environments, the more I knew WashU was the school I wanted to be at for the next four years.

What classes made you feel prepared for college?

I don’t think there is any specific subject that helped me feel prepared for college. Instead, I found that taking advanced classes, even online, helped me gain the skillset to take on college-level writing and coursework. While my high school offered a few AP courses, they were all scheduled for the same time block. As a result, I was only able to take an AP course on a subject that interested me (U.S. Government) because my high school offered an online version. However, now there are open-access online courses and tutoring available for small-town and rural students thanks to the STARS College Network. I’d highly recommend taking one of their self-paced classes at schoolhouse.world or Khan Academy!

How have you embraced your rural identity in college?

One of the biggest culture shocks I experienced in college was transitioning from living in a small town to living in a mid-sized city. Not only did I miss my friends like most of my peers, but I missed watching the geese cross the road each morning and my dog running in fields of hay. As a result, I kept working to find ways to connect with students from similar rural and small-town backgrounds. The summer before my junior year, I started working for undergraduate admissions as a Rural Peer Ambassador. Within this role, I helped coordinate WashU’s inaugural Rural Scholars Academy, a program designed to help students from similar backgrounds access schools like WashU. Since then, I have worked with my fellow Rural Peer Ambassadors to launch a club designed to help WashU students from rural backgrounds find and connect with each other.

How has your rurality helped you succeed in college?

My rural background has undeniably helped me succeed at WashU. One of my biggest fears in my first semester of college was whether my rural background prepared me enough for a highly selective university. I remember feeling behind my first semester as I was surrounded by my peers chatting about their pre-college internships and all their AP courses. However, as the semester continued and the classes grew more difficult, those worries began to melt away. I realized that growing up in rural Missouri gave me a unique ability to enjoy hard work and find answers in a way my peers did not. These past several years, I’ve realized that the ways my rural identity has shaped my personality has had a greater impact on my success than what APs my high school offered. In other words, my initial fears about attending college were entirely incorrect; my rurality was not a roadblock to success but is the reason I’m able to thrive in college.

This article was published in the 2025 I’m First! Guide to College.