It's pretty close to rural. 40K citizens and corn fields a mile or so from campus. Not sure what your overarching point is though--what's wrong with remarking on the improbability of a submission from a tiny university in Iowa?
I grew up in a town of 6k and we were the big one in 20 miles. 40k is suburban IMO.
Edit- and I was ridiculing the idea that the mention of a wealthy, homogenous suburb indicates how inclusive this community is. Pretty much every story here deals with things from a young, white, wealthy perspective.
To be clear, no one argued that "posts from Iowa" == "inclusive"; you're arguing against a straw man. But more importantly, it seems your beef with HN is based on the assumption that everyone from a town of 40k or more has the same experiences. This is such a distorted idea of "diversity" when you consider that it includes people from major metropolitan areas, silicon valley, red states, blue states, and all over Europe (and yes, all of those groups are well-represented on HN). The fact that you're here from a town of 6K and I'm here from a town of 2K is testament to the OP's point, and it contradicts yours.
