Abstract
Undergraduates who grow up in rural communities face systemic disadvantages that can compromise their career development. Utilizing survey data from undergraduates attending 300+ 2- and 4-year colleges and universities (n = 6,000), we examined whether there were statistically significant (p < .05) differences between rural and suburban/urban students’ participation in a variety of career development activities in high school or college. We further analyzed whether those career development activities were associated with rural college students’ work capital and critical cultural wealth. The results reveal both disparities and opportunities to leverage specific career development activities to bolster rural students’ career-related outcomes.