For the Zers generation in rural counties, the lack of university degree is not a career obstacle. “My stress is to choose an option, without finding an option”

But despite the credits of the college he won, the college is not part of his plan.

Since his secondary school diploma in June, he has supervised an art camp to the County Arts Council. If this does not turn into a permanent job, there is work at Creative Food Ingredients, known as “Cookie Factory” for the way the city felt cooking cookies, or in local factories like American Classic Outfitters, which designs and sews athletic uniforms.

“My stress is to choose an option, not to find an option,” he said.

Even if rural students obtain their secondary school diploma at higher rates than their peers in cities and suburbs, fewer of them go to college.

Many rural school districts, including that of Perry to which Townes Assists, began to offer college levels and to work to eliminate academic and financial obstacles to higher education, with some success. But the college does not have the same call to students in rural areas where they often had to travel further for school, parents have less university experience and some of the noisiest political voices are skeptical about the need for higher education.

College registrations for rural students have remained largely stable in recent years, despite efforts at the district level and recruitment interrupted by many universities. About 55% of American rural high school students graduated in 2023 registered in college, according to data from the National Clearinghouse Research Center.

College can make a huge difference in the gain potential. An American with a baccalaureate earns about $ 900,000 more during his life than a pair with a graduate of secondary studies, revealed research of the social Security Administration. For women, the difference is about $ 630,000.

A school is inspired by the hopes and objectives of families

The absence of a university degree is not an obstacle to opportunities in places like the County of Wyoming, where people like to say that there are more cows than people. Dairy farms, potato fields and maple sugar houses are a source of identity and jobs for the county just east of Buffalo.

“The college has never really been, I do not know, a necessity or a problem in my family,” said Townes, in the midst of three children whose father has a tattoo shop in Perry.

At Perry Secondary School, Superintendent Daryl McLaughlin said the district is inspired by students like Townes, their families and the community, completing university offers with career -oriented programs and technical areas such as building trades. He said he was as happy to provide reference verifications for employers and soldiers as to write recommendations for college requests.

“We invite our students to know these establishments, whether it is a college or whether employers, they are in competition for you,” he said. “Our work is now preparing them to succeed so that they can enjoy the greatest advantage of this competition, in the end, to improve their quality of life.”

However, registrations for college in the district have exceeded the national average in recent years, ranging from 60% of the 55 graduates of the 2022 class to 67% of the 2024 and 56% of graduates of 2025. The District underlines the decision to direct federal pandemic alleviation funds to cover school fees for students in its accelerated university registration program – College. When federal money has exhausted, the district paid to continue.

“This is a program that has been in our community for some time, and it is a program that our community supports,” said McLaughlin.

About 15% of rural US secondary students were enrolled in college lessons in January 2025 thanks to such double registration agreements, a rate slightly lower than urban and suburban students, revealed a survey of the Department of Education.

Rural access to double registration is an area of growing interest because defenders seek to fill the gaps in access to higher education. The college of the Alliance high school has announced this year the financing of seven states to develop a policy to extend programs for rural students.

The image problem of higher education is acute in rural America

Throughout the country, many students feel jaded by high costs of tuition fees. And the Americans are increasingly skeptical of the value of the college, have shown polls, with the Republicans, the dominant party in rural America, losing confidence in higher education at higher rates than Democrats.

“Whenever you have this story that” the college is bad, the college is bad, these teachers will endocate you “, it is difficult,” said Andrew Koricich, Executive Director of the Alliance for Research on the Regional Colleges of the Appalachian State University in North Carolina. “Do you have to understand, how do you fall for information thanks to the ecosphere and say, in fact, people holding a baccalaureate, on average, earn 65% more than people with a secondary school diploma?”

In a large part of rural America, around 21% of people over 25 have a baccalaureate, compared to around 36% of adults in other fields, according to a government analysis of the results of the American census.

Some rural educators do not make the promotion of the college

In the rural county of Putnam, Florida, around 14% of adults have a baccalaureate. This does not prevent director Joe Theobold from settling and achieving an annual 100% admission objective for students of Qi Roberts Jr.-Sr. High school.

Papeteries and power plants offer opportunities for a middle -class life in the county, where the cost of living is low. But Theobold tells students that the objective of higher education “is to leave and learn more not only about the world, but also about yourself”.

“You don’t want to be 17 years old, determine what you are going to do for the rest of your life,” he said.

Families choose the Magnet school because of its accent on higher education, even if most of the district parents have never gone to a college. Many students visit university campuses through the Camp Osprey, a program from the University of North Florida which helps students discover dormitories and dining rooms.

In the north of New York State, Devon Wells, secondary of secondary, grew up in his family farm in Perry but does not see his future there. He is considering a career in welding, or as a worker of the South Carolina electric line, where he heard that the salary could be double what he would do at home. None of his plans need college, he said.

“I grew up in a farm, so it’s a practical work. That’s really all I know and that I would like to do,” said Devon.

Neither the parents of his towns or his cities pushed in one way or another, they said.

“I remember that they told me about it like:” Hey, would you like to go to university? ” I remember telling them, “not really,” said Townes. He would have listened to if a college recruiter reached out, he said, but would not be ready to go very far.