N.C. State has implemented new college preparation programs in counties throughout rural North Carolina to help students from non-urban areas better compete for university admission.
Richard Linton, dean of N.C. State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said it has become increasingly challenging for students from rural areas to compete with students from non-rural areas. Studies show that high school students in rural counties score lower on college entrance exams and are less likely to purse higher education.
“We know that in many cases students from rural communities around the state of North Carolina have a more difficult time competing,” Linton said.
In March, a Raleigh couple gave the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences a $3 million endowment for programs designed to prepare high school students from rural areas for college.
Linton said the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences aims to develop programs that will help provide the often underrepresented students from rural areas a four-year degree in agriculture and life sciences.
“We’re doing this in two ways: We are creating programs in high school, and then we’re also creating programs just as they enter college,” Linton said.
An initiative that will attempt to raise rural students’ ACT scores called ASPIRE, or ACT Supplemental Preparation in Rural Education, is one the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ programs that will benefit from the $3 million gift.
The ASPIRE program, working through a cooperative extension service in 32 North Carolina counties, helps high school students increase their college entrance exams scores.
ASPIRE consists of educational programs that are developed to tutor high school students in math and English so students are well prepared to take both the SAT and ACT, according to Linton.
“The average SAT score in many counties has been raised by 120 to 150 points,” Linton said. “That large of a difference can make a difference in somebody getting accepted into N.C. State or someone who might not.”
The majority of the students in the program have an interest in agriculture and life sciences, but the program’s main goal is to prepare students for the SAT and ACT so they have a better choice about where they can go to school, Linton said.
“Many of the students are coming from rural communities and have this interest in agriculture and life sciences, but certainly there are likely students that have other interests as well,” Linton said.
The College of Engineering also has programs that appeal to rural students, according to Bill Fortney, Director of N.C. State Engineering at Craven Community College.
The mechanical engineering systems program and engineering transfer program is a collaboration between N.C. State and Craven Community College which began in 2004.
Students in the four-year mechanical engineering program earn a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering with a concentration in mechanical engineering systems from N.C. State without ever leaving Craven Community College.
“They don’t have to come to Raleigh, they don’t have to pay room and board,” Fortney said.
