Students: Leverage rurality for college admission with 'your take in your place and how your place ... created your take'

Tara Kaprowy

Rural high school graduates aiming to go to college might feel insecure about their small-town backgrounds, but it can be a huge bonus in writing an application essay, writes an essay coach living in rural Kentucky.

Colleges and universities want more diverse student populations, including rural students, Tara Kaprowy writes for The Sentinel-Echo, a thrice-weekly newspaper in London, Ky. She offers prospective college students some practical tips on how to nail the application essay with an honest, vibrant treatment of where they come from.

"Not only will you get to write about something that you know, your rural background may not be obvious in any other part of your application," Kaprowy writes. "That means you’ll get to showcase another essential side of yourself, which is exactly what a personal statement is for."

And rural doesn't have to mean living on a farm, she writes. "You don’t have to have a dad who’s a farmer to write about your rural life. You don’t need a tractor, a horse or a Meemaw who cooks the best fried green tomatoes and lets them dry on newspaper. What you’re after is your take in your place. And how your place has created your take."