In The Landscape of Financial Aid Access in Iowa: An Examination of FAFSA Completion Rates Across the Urban- Rural Continuum, Stephanie Marie Haines (Iowa State University School of Education) discusses the association between rurality and the completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) using Iowa public high schools as a case study.
The FAFSA is used to determine prospective college students’ eligibility for federal financial aid and provides many states and institutions with the data necessary to allocate financial aid. It is considered a key part of the college enrollment process, especially for students with limited financial resources.
Haines notes that lack of capital is often considered a barrier to attending college for rural students. When gathering data for the study, Haines evaluated circumstances that indicated or impacted the social, cultural, and financial capital of students. These included the percentage of students receiving free and reduced lunch, diversity, percentage of students performing at grade level, class and school size, graduation rate, and FAFSA completion.
The author notes that it is well documented that rural students historically attend college at a lower rate than suburban and urban students. However, the most significant finding in this study is that as financial capital decreases in rural areas, rural students continue to graduate and file the FAFSA at higher rates than their suburban and urban peers. It is in urban and suburban communities that as the percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch increases, FAFSA completion takes a steeper decline. This finding indicates that although a lack of capital to navigate the college application process may prevent some students from attending college, this understanding of the barriers rural students face is incomplete.
Haines notes that these findings remind us that rural America is not a monolith, and that understanding nuances across communities is key to allocating resources and support. Looking forward, Haines indicates that further research into the college application process differences across rural, urban, and suburban areas is needed to ensure that in the future barriers to higher education are removed across the geographic continuum.
