| The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between rural students' personal characteristics and experiences, high school experiences, and postsecondary enrollment patterns. By focusing on factors that differentiate among the educational experiences of rural and metropolitan (urban and suburban) students, this research adds to the current literature on college choice. Using NELS:88/2000 data, a multi-level, ordinal, logistic regression model was utilized to account for the clustered nature of student- and school-level data. At the student level, high school curricular intensity, senior test score, class rank, SES, and educational anticipations were all positively associated with higher educational pursuits following high school, while acceleration credits and being from a majority race were negatively associated with educational pursuits. Gender and factors placing students at risk of not graduating high school were not significantly related to college attendance in preliminary models and were therefore not carried over to the final model. Average high school SES was the only school-level variable found to be significantly related with college attendance. Intensity of the curriculum offered by the high school, average school parent expectations, high school funding, high school enrollment, and the urbanicity variables were not significantly related to attending college. Although graduating from a rural high school was not found to be significantly related to college attendance, the results demonstrate the complex nature of the post-high school planning processes for rural students. |
