COVID Forces Number of Rural Students Attending College to Plummet
By Marianne Besas, The College Post
The number of rural students expected to enroll in college in the near future has plummeted due to COVID-19. A major indicator of this trend is that the number of rural students completing federal application forms for financial aid has dropped by 16 percent compared to last year. This is higher than the 14.2 percent drop amongst urban students.
In some rural states, the drop was even bigger. For example, West Virginia experienced a 26.1 percent decrease, while Louisiana fell by 26.4 percent.
Statistics indicate that this trend is indeed underway, with a drop in first-time enrollment recorded in many universities in rural areas. In the recent fall semester, first-time undergraduate enrollment fell by nearly 4 and 8 percent at the University of Idaho and Idaho State University, respectively. Idaho already has the lowest proportion of high school graduates who pursue college education in the country, tied with Alaska at 44 percent.