The Nashville SUNN (NashvilleSUNN.com) is the first citywide student-led newspaper in the U.S. and a publication of the Students United News Network.
As high school seniors throughout Tennessee gear up for the hustle and grind of the college admissions process, it’s worth remembering how different this experience can be for students across the rural and urban divide. When I was accepted to Vanderbilt University in 2023, administrators in my rural Centerville, Tennessee, high school were shocked: A girl from our district had not been admitted in over 25 years.
The quaint town has only one high school, but it borders one of the nation’s wealthiest counties, Williamson County. Centerville, where I grew up, is just a little under an hour southwest
of Nashville, where Vanderbilt, one of the Top 10 schools in the country, is located. Now, a few years after my acceptance, I have realized something: Shock should not be the default reaction when a student from a rural school succeeds.
The reality is that while Centerville might find itself in close physical proximity to elite education, the opportunities offered to students at its sole high school just don’t stack up to those in better-resourced places. From rural high school to elite university, I have had the unorthodox experience of living out both sides of the coin. And what I have discovered is that it’s not rural students’ own ambitions that hold them back, but rather a lack of access to the resources that could help those who want to attend elite colleges achieve their goals.
Rural students have the ambition but not the same opportunities
In the U.S. education system, rural schools are often treated as a breeding ground for blue-collar workers. I have immense respect for those in the workforce, but I find it unfair that students like those in my high school are pressured into a path that feels chosen for them on the mere basis that they were raised in a rural county.
This starts with a lack of access to college readiness and test prep programs. For example, most of my peers at Vanderbilt took in-person Advanced Placement courses while they were in high school to prepare for the rigor of an academically challenging university, but my high school didn’t offer them. Because of this uneven playing ground, rural students are less likely to complete their bachelor's degree when compared to urban and suburban students.
These trends make sense when we zoom in on how underfunded schools are allocating their resources. My district was incentivized by the state of Tennessee to receive $5,000 per student enrolled in career technical education. This allocation applies to every district in the state, but that money goes much further for a rural school with little local revenue and other funding sources to lean on, leading schools to prioritize these programs over college readiness opportunities.
The problem isn’t that there’s anything wrong with preparing for the workforce. Many find it empowering that CTE programs allow rural students to start working after graduation. The problem is that the intense push of workforce readiness onto rural students hinders their ability to succeed in paths outside the “realistic” option of blue-collar work. In this context, it becomes easier to grasp why Hickman County schools have a college readiness score of just 1.4.
Rural students face hurdles long before they apply to college
Without a prestigious high school to rely on throughout the college admissions process, I felt pressure as a rural student to prove myself to admissions officers, a sensation common for students like me. Reduced access to resources leads to assumptions about our abilities that we have to work to break away from in college applications. But even for rural students who do manage to prove themselves to elite university admissions officers, there are still a number of hurdles.
Rural students may not have been exposed to what French theorist Pierre Bourdieu calls cultural capital, non-financial assets like personal knowledge, skills and tastes that influence social mobility. A student from an elite high school may learn the importance of leadership, critical thinking and networking. Meanwhile, an underfunded high school like mine often teaches a curriculum focused on following step-by-step instructions and order. This means that my peers and I were prepped for the workforce before we ever realized it.
Tennessee must invest in rural students' futures
Investing in rural schools is essential to achieving a world where opportunities are accessible for everyone. Rural schools in Tennessee currently have one of the lowest levels of spending in the U.S. Tennessee must offer proper funding that is equally distributed across the state and allocate the same funding for college readiness programs, like AP and International Baccalaureate classes, as it does to career and technical education programs.
The state has made sure any student can have the resources and funding to get to respectable trade schools, local state universities and community colleges. But someone who dreams of something different also deserves to have a chance at fulfilling their dream.
Additionally, there needs to be improvement in the selection and expertise of rural high school counselors. Many Tennessee school counselors are stretched thin, and it is important that they are given proper training to help students through the college application process. Faculty should lift students up as they strive to pursue their goals rather than pressure them into being more “realistic,” something I was told many times as a high schooler.
When you take the time to look at rural students, you’ll find they rarely differ from students from suburban or urban schools. The true difference lies in their schools’ lack of funding and resources, and thus the opportunities they might have access to. If we work to close these gaps, then one day it might not seem so shocking when a girl from a small town gets into her dream school.
Kirsten Lane is a junior at Vanderbilt University and loves trying new coffee shops, doing yoga, reading, playing piano and writing. One of her favorite places in Nashville is Pointdexter Cafe at the Graduate Hotel, and her current favorite book is "Jane Eyre."
The Nashville SUNN (NashvilleSUNN.com) is the first citywide student-led newspaper in the U.S. and a publication of the Students United News Network.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Talent isn't the problem for rural students. Access is. | Opinion
