College towns are siphoning students out of the rural heart of the Farm Belt

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8. I think they see what they had missed out on growing up

Plus they may feel able to be themselves more in Iowa City or urban areas such as Des Moines, Chicago, or other big cities than in small rural communities. They get exposed to differing beliefs and people who are different then them. While some retreat back in to their shells others completely change over the course of their time away.

Alternet had this article last year about how religious fundamentalism in rural America had a rigidity about it. Maybe that's causing young people to move to larger urban areas where there is more freedom of belief and expression than too many rural areas.