"People tend to overlook the rural areas," says David Hochstetler, a high school senior in rural Michigan. "I think it's kind of disappointing because some able students could get looked over."

Populations are declining in more than one-third of rural counties across the country. Colorado鈥檚 counties are bucking the trend, thanks to a number of鈥�

Rural hospitals aren鈥檛 just providers of medicine and health care, but also are often major employers and a massive part of a town鈥檚 tax base. However,...