Despite their lack of visibility, more than 7 million students in the United States are enrolled in rural school districts--about 15 percent of all public school students. Almost half of those rural students hover near or below the poverty line, and not all of them are white. More than 25 percent are children of color, according to a report by the Rural School and Community Trust. Nationwide, 59 percent of rural high school grads go on to college the following fall semester, compared to 62 percent of urban graduates and 67 percent of suburban grads, a recent National Student Clearinghouse study found. If the first hurdle is getting rural students in the door, then the second challenge is keeping them there. Rural students are more likely than suburban and urban students to drop out between their freshman and sophomore years of college, National Student Clearinghouse reported. There are a variety of factors that contribute to a low retention rate among rural students, but one of the biggest is a lack of support--both financial and emotional--from parents who likely didn't attend college.