Student Debt and Geographic Disadvantage

During the early 2000s rates of college enrollment and completion rose for young adults from rural backgrounds at the same time that rising college costs and stagnating family incomes increased rates of student loan borrowing. Recently published in Rural Sociology, this paper examines geographic disparities in student debt accumulation among a recent national cohort of US college-goers from rural, suburban, and urban backgrounds. The article received the 2019-2020 Olaf Larson Graduate Student Paper Award from the Rural Sociological Society and was covered by The Rural Review and The Daily Yonder.