College Aspirations and Access in Working Class Rural Communities: The Mixed Signals, Challenges, and New Language First-Generation Students Encounterexplores how a working class, rural environment influences rural students opportunities to pursue higher education and engage in the college choice process. Based on a case study with accounts from rural high school students and counselors, this book examines how these communities perceive higher education and what challenges arise for both rural students and counselors. The book addresses how college knowledge and university jargon illustrate the gap between rural cultural capital and higher education cultural capital. Insights about approaches to reduce barriers created by college knowledge and university jargon are shared and strategies for offering rural students pathways to learn academic language and navigate higher education are presented for both secondary and higher education institutions.

Sonja Ardoin is clinical assistant professor of higher education at Boston University.

ContentsForewordAcknowledgementsAuthors NoteIntroduction. Rural Research ReasoningChapter 1. Rural RepresentationChapter 2. The College Access Gap for Rural StudentsChapter 3. Putting the Pieces Together: Connections between a College Choice Model, Cultural Capital, and College Access, Knowledge, and JargonChapter 4. More Trouble Than Its Worth or Path to a Better Life?: Rural Attitudes About CollegeChapter 5. I Know What B.S. Means, Just Not In Those Terms: Rural Students Encounters With College KnowledgeChapter 6. I Have More to Do Than I Can Possibly Do Well: Rural Counselors Challenges with College CounselingChapter 7. Aspirations and Access Assignments For Everyone In Education: Strategies For Rural, Public High Schools, Rural Communities, Higher Education, And PolicymakersReferencesAppendicesA. USDA ERS Nonmetropolitan MapB. USDA ERS Changing Metro Status MapC. USDA ERS Rural Areas MapD. 2015 U.S. Census Data on MapDotE. USDA ERS Low Education Counties MapF. USDA ERS Persistent Poverty Counties MapG. College and University Jargon ListAbout the Author