Widening the college path for students from rural America

The Small Town and Rural Students (STARS) College Network, a coalition formed last spring by Northwestern University and 15 other colleges and universities, will double in size following a year of growth in creating opportunity for students from America’s small towns and rural communities.

Part of Northwestern’s broader commitments to access, diversity and inclusion, STARS is dedicated to ensuring students from rural and small-town America have the information and support needed to enroll in and graduate from the college or university of their choice. In its inaugural year, more than a quarter-million students across the country joined the STARS College Network and took part in STARS activities — and the Network’s impact is growing, according to Liz Kinsley, associate dean and director of Undergraduate Admission.

Northwestern’s incoming Class of 2028 will represent a 40% increase in students from rural and small-town high schools across the U.S., she said. One of those students is Jude Morris, a Quest Scholar from Hollister, California, planning to major in anthropology, who said Northwestern’s diverse community was a key factor in her decision.

“Coming from a small, largely rural area, there wasn’t a large variety of people from different backgrounds or with different ideas and it was difficult to find opportunities that surrounded inclusion and diversity,” Morris said. “Being able to transition to Northwestern with the help of programs like the STARS Network, where diversity of people, beliefs, groups and research is not only present but celebrated, I can’t help but look forward to all the new experiences and connections I’ll make at Northwestern.”

STARS programming extends through the summer months, with activities designed to lower college barriers for even more rural students, Kinsley said.

In late June, Northwestern hosted the inaugural Small Town and Rural Teen University Prep Innovation Intensive, or START-UP, for 18 rising high school seniors from across the country. A collaboration between the STARS College Network, Northwestern’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions, and The Garage, START-UP provided a three-day, cost-free opportunity for participants to get a first-hand look at campus, hear from Admissions staff about the college process, and engage with Northwestern’s distinctive resources for supporting undergraduate innovation and entrepreneurship.

Next month, Northwestern, the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will jointly host a “fly-in” for counselors from rural high schools across America from Aug. 12–14, with their visit to Evanston set for Aug. 13.

College counselors in rural high schools are often overburdened, if the school even has a counselor. The average national caseload for rural counselors is 310 students, with a high of 574 in rural Michigan, according to a 2023 study by the National Rural Education Association. This means that students may have less access to educators and college-access professionals who have broad experience and familiarity with the full spectrum of college opportunities. 

The August fly-in is an opportunity for rural high school counselors to see campuses in person, and for the universities to learn more about the landscape and challenges these counselors face in supporting their rural students’ paths to college, Kinsley said.

Now in its second year, STARS welcomes 16 new members this month. The new member institutions are Amherst College, Auburn University, Dartmouth, Duke University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Southern Methodist University, Spelman College, Stanford University, University of Alabama, University of Arizona, University of Arkansas, University of California Berkeley, University of Denver, University of Notre Dame, University of South Carolina and The University of Texas at Austin.

In addition to Northwestern, STARS founding members are Brown University, California Institute of Technology, Case Western Reserve University, Colby College, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Ohio State University, University of Chicago, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Vanderbilt University, Washington University in St. Louis and Yale University. STARS is led by the University of Chicago and Vanderbilt and headquartered at the University of Chicago.

Each STARS member combines its own resources with STARS philanthropy to support pipeline programs and outreach efforts aimed at students from small-town and rural America, as well as offering financial aid and on-campus programs to support students who enroll.

In addition, Trott Family Philanthropies, the foundation of Byron and Tina Trott which catalyzed the creation of STARS with a $20 million gift in 2023, has donated another $50 million to expand the Network. That gift makes possible an investment of more than $150 million over 10 years in programs that prepare, recruit and support rural students. Once financial aid provided directly by the member institutions is factored in, along with additional support from philanthropies, non-profits and governmental agencies, an estimated $7.4 billion will be spent in support of STARS’ mission over the next decade.