[Guest Post] Small-Town and Rural Students take on MIT and Boston by Nicole Cooper

Bringing STARS to Campus: Reflections on our first STARS@MIT Fly-In 

As we gear up for the second STARS (Small-Town and Rural Students)@MIT Fly-In program this fall, we’re reflecting on the incredible success of our inaugural event. Last fall, we welcomed our first group of high school juniors specifically from rural and small-towns to experience life at MIT and gain insights into the college application process—through the unique lens of being from a small-town or rural community.  

As part of our commitment to expanding college access to small-towns and rural students through the STARS College Network, 32 institutions across the country, including MIT (a founding member), are launching programs to bring students to campus and help them envision themselves in these spaces. Instead of just telling you how impactful this experience was, we want you to hear directly from one of our STARS Ambassadors, Vaneeza—a current MIT student who played a key role in planning the weekend and hosting one of our visiting students. While we work behind the scenes to open applications and plan for the Fall 2025 STARS@MIT Fly-In, take a moment to read about the program from Vaneeza’s perspective! 

Building Connections through Shared Small-Town Experiences
In October, MIT Admissions hosted its first STARS@MIT Fly-in program, bringing 20 high school juniors from small and rural towns nationwide to MIT for a three-day visit to learn about the college application process, MIT, and attending school in an urban environment. As one of the STARS Ambassadors, I helped plan and host activities during their visit.

My fellow STARS Ambassadors and I met the visiting students on the first evening and played a game of “Rural Students Bingo,” in which we try to fill a bingo card by finding people with different interests and backgrounds, ranging from traits like having grown up on a farm to liking sci-fi movies. This was a fun way for us to break the ice and learn a little about each other before spending the next two days together. At dinner afterwards, we got a chance to really sit down and get to know each other; I learned about the students’ lives at their schools, and we got to tell them about our experiences at MIT. It was amazing to chat with the students about everything from their research projects plans and internships opportunities, to even just living in the city. These conversations were a great precursor for what followed throughout the weekend: an exchange of lifestyles and goals through the lens and trust of a shared background.

Navigating New Environments

Students learn about high-speed photography at the Edgerton Center by taking pictures of popping balloons!

Throughout the program, the visiting students impressed me; this was such a new environment, and for many this was the first time flying on a plane, riding a subway, or just being away from home. The way they embraced the new experiences with excitement to learn, insightful questions, and eagerness to explore was incredible to see.
The admissions office hosted workshops on how to balance academic and social goals with financial considerations in the college search process (it’s hard to do!) and how to showcase strengths such as resilience, community involvement, and other characteristics often found in small-town and rural communities in their applications. Our goal for the program is to really teach the students that they have so much to offer their future college communities!

A key part of finding success in the college search and application process for rural students is also gaining the confidence that they can navigate their future campus environment. So why not adventure around the city we call home? In small groups, we took the students to the famous historical Beacon Hill via a public transportation tutorial. I remember when I first came to MIT that the T was this scary mysterious thing that I was afraid to learn

Admiring Halloween decorations on Beacon Hill

to use. I had never lived in a place with any kind of public transportation, and the thought of doing the wrong thing or getting on the wrong train was terrifying. Now I know the T is a great luxury that provides a ticket off campus that is both affordable and easily accessible, and it was really lovely getting to share that experience with the visiting students. We walked through Beacon Hill and Boston Common in what had to be the nicest weather October has ever seen and got to showcase the beauty and history of the area. This was a highlight of the weekend for me because I got to explore the city in a way I never had before and share the experience with students who were so excited about every new thing we saw. 

Discovering Belonging

Throughout the visit, there were lots of opportunities to build strong connections with the students and help make our campus feel like a home. One way I got to do this was by hosting a student in my dorm. Having a student spend the weekend with me meant that we had

plenty of time to talk about all sorts of things, from new hobbies we were learning to crazy hometown tales. I also got to show them around my dorm, Simmons Hall, and how we have built a community of our own here. Since Simmons is a place where we encourage drawing on the walls, my visiting student got to leave some artwork of their own, physically cementing their place in this community. Having this time to get to know one of the students on a more personal level was wonderful because I got to share some of my favorite parts of my

Creating chalk art at Simmons

community with them and hopefully show them how easily a campus can feel like a home.

At the end of the jam-packed weekend, the STARS Ambassadors hosted an MIT scavenger hunt where students used what they learned over the past two days to navigate campus more independently, hitting landmarks like the Banana Lounge, Killian Court, and the Borderline Murals. It was super fun to see the students confidently find their way after such a short time, which I hope is a sign that they enjoyed being on campus. Watching all the students work together to solve the clues and have a good time also showed me the sense of community and friendships they had formed with each other. This helped me realize that beyond finding belonging on our campus, these students now also have a community amongst themselves which they can lean on during their college application process and beyond. They can support each other knowing they each understand each other’s backgrounds and the goals they hope to achieve.

STARS discover campus during scavenger hunt 

Lasting Impact

One conversation that stood out to me was halfway through the program when I asked a group of students how they were liking the visit and if they thought they might attend a school like MIT in the future. Everyone said they were having a good time, but one student had decided this was not the environment they were looking for during college. That was a reminder of how important these types of programs are beyond learning how to strengthen applications or how to navigate a city; this student was now able to make a more informed choice about where he wanted to spend the next four years. Even if they decided the city was not for them, they would never be left wondering “what if?” and that is why I am so happy to have been a part of this program–because we are able to share perspectives and experiences that these students so often don’t get the chance to experience in high school, especially from these small-town backgrounds where many people rarely leave their state.

I enjoyed helping host this visit for many reasons. It was great to meet prospective students and see them excited about starting the next chapter of their lives. I was also super impressed by how open they were to exploring the area and talking with us and each other because I know how scary moving into this new type of environment can be. Seeing the students also reminded me of how much I’ve learned and grown since being on campus, and it was very fulfilling to see such deserving students get a chance to explore college in a way that has been historically unavailable to so many from small-town and rural backgrounds and start that journey themselves. Overall, I am so grateful to have been a part of this inaugural program not only because it was so fun to meet and host students and share my new home with them, but also because I got to see the impact this type of program is having on students by showing them that their perspectives are valued on our campus and by hopefully showcasing that they have so many great options for their futures.

Students gather at MIT’s main entrance