Thousands of high school seniors are waiting for that life-changing message: Will they get into their dream college?
With increased competition marked by more emphasis on college-level advanced placement courses, this time of year can be especially unnerving for students from rural communities whose schools can’t offer the breadth of courses found on suburban campuses. Michael V. Martina / The Herald
Nationally, students from small towns are more likely to graduate from high school, but less likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to attend a four-year university, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
“I am very nervous,” said Granite Falls High School senior Nicole Berg, 18, who has applied to Washington State University, Eastern Washington University and Whitworth College in Spokane.
Berg, the senior class president, has taken advanced classes in physics and English and science courses all four years.
Classmate Diana Haug, 18, recently learned that she has been accepted to the University of Washington, ending weeks of anxiety.
“You just don’t know,” she said before getting word she was accepted. “I am so nervous.”
Students from small towns can overcome disadvantages, such as fewer advanced courses and math and science offerings, said Jerome Sullivan, executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers.
“Intelligence isn’t restricted to urban communities,” he said.
And while test scores and transcripts are important, so are hard work and initiative, he said.
At the UW, the average grade point average among incoming freshmen this year is 3.69 and the average SAT score is 1198, well above the national average of 1020 and state average of 1062.
Philip Balinger, UW’s admissions director, said students from small towns shouldn’t let limited course offerings keep them from applying.
“We look at what they have taken in view of what they could have taken,” he said. “We really do want to be the University of Washington, not the University of I-5 corridor.”
There are many examples around Snohomish County of small-town high school graduates thriving at big-time schools.
Rebecca Jensen graduated as valedictorian from Lakewood High School. Four years later, she is working on her doctorate in chemistry and doing research at Northwestern University near Chicago.
Darrington High School graduate Keely Rankin attends University of California Law School in Berkeley, overcoming fears that her small-town education would put her at a steep disadvantage in college.
Stephanie Bradley went from Granite Falls High School to England’s Oxford University, where she earned her master’s degree in biochemistry in four years.
Lakewood’s Jensen took a few classes at Everett Community College through the Running Start program. Initiative landed her a job in a chemistry research lab as a freshman in college.
“The opportunities are there for you if you’re willing to put in the work,” she said.
She earned a 3.87 grade point average, the highest among WWU chemistry graduates last spring. She is attending Northwestern with tuition and living expenses paid, along with a signing bonus, and she is eager for the chance to do molecular research with high-energy X-rays at the Argonne National Laboratory.
Rankin, a Whitman College biology and environmental science graduate, believes her rural roots in Darrington helped in the application process. Many students had 4.0 grade point averages and glowing credentials.
“Though grades still matter, schools are also looking to diversify the incoming class,” Rankin said. “I think that the perspective I gained growing up in a small town helped me gain admission into both college and law school.”
Her biggest disadvantage was assuming her classmates would be more intelligent and she would not be able to compete, she said.
Bradley would joke with her Oxford classmates that she must have been admitted by mistake. She would tell them: “There must be a Bethany Stradley out there still waiting for her (admissions) letter.”
The Granite Falls graduate clearly belonged at Oxford, one of the world’s most respected universities, and plans to apply to medical school.
Bradley took initiative in applying to college, writing to Oxford and other places for advice on what it would take to get accepted. She didn’t let the terse responses bother her.
“Not giving up hope, I think, is really important,” she said.
Emmett Sapp, 17, a Darrington High School senior, already has been accepted to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and is awaiting word from other universities.
He doesn’t know if being from a small town helped him get in as universities look to diversify their freshmen classes.
“How can they really pick from all these overqualified people?” he said. “I can’t imagine what goes on in their minds.”
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
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