Rural College Students’ Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Postsecondary Access, Aspiration, and Experience for Rural Youth

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether rural college students had significantly different probabilities of experiencing academic, financial, and health-related difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to students attending urban/suburban colleges or universities. The data were drawn from a multi-institutional survey of 31,575 four-year college students attending seven rural institutions and 62 suburban or urban institutions. The results suggested that rural college students experienced significantly higher probabilities of academic hardships (e.g., lacking access to instructors), financial hardships (e.g., losing wages from employment, and health-related hardships (e.g., contracting COVID-19 which required hospitalization).

Author

• Krista M. Soria, University of Idaho