Youth living in remote rural communities face significant geographic barriers to college access. Even those living near to a postsecondary institution may not have the means for, or may not see the value of, pursuing a college degree within their local economy. This study uses 18 years of national county-level data to ask how local economic shocks affect the postsecondary enrollment and attainment of rural students, as compared to students in metropolitan and metropolitan-adjacent regions. Results from an instrumental variables analysis indicate that each 1 percentage point increase in local unemployment increases local college enrollment by 10.0% in remote rural areas, as compared to a 5.2% increase in metropolitan-adjacent areas and no detectable increase in metropolitan areas. The rise in rural college enrollment is driven primarily by students enrolling in or continuing in associate degree programs, and by students transferring from 2-year to 4-year programs.

生活在偏远农村社区的青年面临着大学入学的重大地理障碍。即使是那些住在大专院校附近的人，也可能没有能力或没有价值，无法在当地经济范围内攻读大学学位。这项研究使用了18年的县级全国数据，来询问与大都市和大都市邻近地区的学生相比，当地的经济冲击如何影响农村学生的高等教育和入学率。工具变量分析的结果表明，偏远农村地区本地失业率每增加1个百分点，本地大学入学率就会增加10.0％，而大城市毗邻地区则增加5.2％，而大城市地区则没有可察觉的增加。