This study analyzed data of two freshmen cohorts to examine the effect existence of students' home city geographic characteristics on first-year persistence at a micropolitan university. The geographic factors including proximity and urbanicity of students' home city were combined with the other factors of students' background characteristics, financial aid, and university academic outcomes in the model development of first-year persistence by using sequential logistic regression. This study shows that in addition to academic major certainty and academic performance demonstrated from high school through university, the proximity of home city to campus has significant positive relationship with first-year students' persistence. Urbanicity of home city does not seem to influence first-year persistence. Practical implications with regard to addressing the student retention at rural universities are discussed. (Contains 3 tables.)