Individualized, self-paced instruction and an open-entry-open-exit calendar have several advantages which help to overcome the restraints that may modify equal educational opportunity at small, rural colleges. These restraints include limited resources of students, distance from campus, effects of agriculturally-related occupations on student time, and sparsity of area population. The advantages of individualized instruction are that: (1) it increases enrollment by coinciding the entry and exit from college with the harvest seasons; (2) it increases enrollment of the temporarily unemployed; (3) it increases enrollment by providing more flexible scheduling to fit part-time employment as well as full-time employment; (4) it reduces costs by increasing the productivity of instructors; (5) it increases the portability of courses to distant centers by permitting the use of part-time instructors; and (6) it provides a more effective means of packaging programs for industry, that is, as short-term instructional units offered on the campuses. (MB)