It is possible to date. I am from a small and as you put it very out of town community and I have had the same issue when it came to dating. Every time something came up that seemed likely and good- I would go to NY or wherever I needed to go out from (95% of the time it was NY.) It gets expensive and I only did it after a really good checking out and made sure it was really worth my while to go out there. I have had to this enough times (but not more than half a dozen) and most of the time I had to miss a day of school. It got hard, but I made sure to tell the prof. that I will be gone on a Friday or a Monday and would make sure that what ever work I would be missing I would get (to an extent.) Obviously you can’t take a cadaver with you on a plane. I am in Nursing school- so I had the same worries about missing a ton of work for such little time gone.
Hatzlacha and let me know if you need more help or advice! Glad to see someone else here is on the same boat as me.