First Generation College Student Opportunities & Challenges

According to a 2010 study by the Department of Education, it is estimated that nearly 50 percent of the college-going population consists of students whose parents did not graduate from college, and many parents did not attend at all.  The National Center for Education Statistics indicates that 30 percent of all entering freshmen are considered first-generation college students, as they are the first in their families to attend college.  Obtaining a rigorous college education benefits first generation college students, and not just immediately upon graduation, but throughout the lifetimes.

However, first generation students are disadvantaged across a myriad of variables in considering, applying for, and graduating from an institution of higher learning.  Disadvantages accrue from a family environment of low expectations, a culture of complacency, and a habitual lack of academic preparation. According to the National Center of Education Statistics only 11 percent of students who begin their post-secondary journeys at two-year institutes and community colleges, advance toward the completion of bachelor’s degrees. Longitudinal studies reveal that first generation colleges are less likely to select majors from Science, Engineering and Math (STEM) disciplines or from Humanities than do their non-first generation counterparts, and are generally less prepared for the rigors of college than the students with college educated parents.  Unfortunately the majority of college students, irrespective of demographic, are saddled with college loans. Although many first-generation students qualify for Pell Grants, debt repayment is still an obstacle for scores of first generation students. Often first generation students carry a disproportionate share of the tuition debt load.

In the self-fulfilling prophecy fashion, fear of tuition debt, and the ability to replay it, can engender a sense of hopeless in first generation college students, which leads to attrition, and first generation students disappearing from their college classrooms in their Sophomore and Junior years, some not just withdrawing from classes in a scattered fashion but dropping out of college altogether.   Students are likely to transfer elsewhere and continue their studies, but those who do not reenter the academy are still burdened by tuition debt that demands repayment, even though they have not earned the requisite academic credentials necessary for professional, post-college, employment. First generation students persevering and graduating with degrees, report positive outcomes from their college-going years. This is particularly true for students who have accessed career services offices, and have secured internships, co-ops and shadowing opportunities while in school.

In contrast to their more privileged counterparts, first generation college students may be more likely to withstand external forces, develop personal responsibility, and master the basic lessons of “paying one’s dues.” They pull from reservoirs of experience, of necessity, and of structural challenges, having strengthened their abilities to persevere despite feelings of isolation. First generation college students begin to become acutely aware of, and sensitive to, social class differences. When students enter institutions of higher learning, they are unaware of how different, economically and socially, they are from classroom peers, whose families are college educated.  Wealth and privilege disparities, among students, and to some extent the professoriate, are amplified in the higher education environment, and contribute to a growing sense of unease among first generation students. Self-confidence may plummet when first generation students associate with traditional students early on in their collegiate journeys.  Later the students fully realize the extent to which their peers’ economic and cultural experiences confer advantages for members of the student body whose parents were college educated. Conversely, first generation students become wise to the fact that they are disadvantaged. Disadvantages accrue to students of the working class, those from low income backgrounds, students aging out of the foster care system, and college students who were once homeless.

Irrespective of home environment, first generation college students are less likely to feel supported, even at home.  Some face rejection and a repudiation, as though family members perceive the college-going member as  “better” than the rest of the family.  After experiencing college life, first generation students report that they don’t feel like they belong in college, nor at home anymore. Conflicting feelings of unrealized belonging fuels cognitive dissonance. First generation students report internalized self-reliance, yet they long to belong.  Students who are first in their families to attend college are less likely to avail themselves of collegiate support services and resources than their more advantaged counterparts. Likewise, first generation students are more reluctant to enter competitive institutions, and, when they do, are more likely to be academically under-prepared than their peers.

Past research indicates that students whose parents have not completed education beyond high school are significantly less likely to graduate from college than their peers with parents holding at least a bachelor’s degree. Nationally, 89 percent of low-income first-generation students leave college within six years without a degree. More than a quarter leave after their first year — four times the dropout rate of higher-income second-generation students. Only 6 percent of lowest income bracket have a bachelor’s degree, albeit, nearly 40% of highest income individuals do (Fitzgerald and Delaney, 2002).

From their earliest family memories and school-going experiences, first generation college students have the odds stacked against. They often face hidden, and openly overt, barriers to college-bound aspirations. Barriers are erected, intentionally or not, in every sector of society: family, friends, k-12 Schools, community, and within and between social classes.  Upon successfully navigating formidable pre-college barriers, students accepted by a college of their choice, are still not home free. Inside the academy, they still do not play on equal fields alongside traditional student classmates.  Their fortunate peers have college educated parents, who are more likely to inspire, encourage, and expect their offspring to complete college, and graduate with baccalaureate, professional and even terminal degrees.  First generation college students experience more bumps in the college-going road, more jolts to their psyche, and take more detours to circumvent feelings of inadequacy, isolation, and indignation. They encounter institutionally hardened forces, an accumulation of cultural norms and traditions that still exist in campus classrooms and in student clubs.  Processes designed to support first generation students, often do the opposite. They inhibit student progress toward degree completion. First generation students may turn inward, experiencing shame, when subjected to condescension. Ignorance of college life, and its peculiar vocabulary of bursars, deans, registrars, contributes to student disorientation, as they question their own worthiness, or lash out against cultural norms which are wholly unfamiliar.

Despite the set-backs and barriers, first generation college students are better served by attending academically rigorous institutions of higher learning, graduating, and becoming degree-holding college graduates, than by forgoing rigorous postsecondary educational degree attainment.  Likewise, colleges and universities must face their own realities: Although administrators and professors intend to serve, educate and support first generation college students, institutional barriers to student success are hard-wired in the higher education system. Breaking the logjam demands action on the part of higher education leaders. The must urgently adapt and prioritize. Examining the manner in which structural inequities are framed and drastically redesigning student support services, and aligning academic content is a viable starting spot.

The First Generation Foundation believes that the college journey is worthy of its investment.  The benefits of a college degree extend beyond the pecuniary interests of lone, individual students and graduates.  Higher education contributes to the betterment of our families, our communities, and our world.  An authentic college education expands minds, encourages inquiry, engenders intellectual curiosity, unlocks human potential, and reminds us of our common humanity.  A college education imparts lessons in humility and leadership and service. It allows us to be distinctly human, and to aspire to the attainment of lofty goals. It accommodates us, and supports us when our aspirations stumble, leading not to accomplishment, but to failure. A college education teaches us to cultivate spirits of resilience, and helps us to learn how to endure challenges, large and complex, and small and irksome. A rigorous college education instills principles: How to reframe our problems and set-backs into opportunities for strengthening us, not weakening us.  Higher education instills and sustains the timeless nature of educated persons of good character and good nature.  A college degree is a signpost affirming an important message: We are going the right way.

Our Convictions

Although today’s world is marked by profound, disruptive, and accelerating technological and societal change, the First Generation Foundation remains a stable anchor, forged by consistency of its character, its central purpose, and its dual aims, of advocating for first generation college students, and advising academically rigorous colleges and universities of best practices which support and sustain first generation students’ for success in college, career, and life.

“To afford an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life.”  Abraham Lincoln, 1861

“To open the gates of opportunity and create a society in which everyone has a chance to advance his welfare to the limit of his capacities.” Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965

“She did what she could do.”  Mary Ott, Baldwin Wallace College, Year Unknown  

We Do What We Can Do

The First Generation Foundation is an exempt charitable organization classified as a public charity. The First Generation Foundation is not a a private foundation. The use of the word “foundation” is not a legal term, nor should it be construed to indicate the organization exists solely to make grants to like-minded causes. The First Generation Foundation follows the naming convention that scores of nonprofit organizations have adopted. Through use of the term “foundation” non-profits, as public charities, are better able to position their missions and, to protect their brand identities.  The Foundation is organized to receive income from the conduct of activities in furtherance of the organization’s exempt purposes. As a 501 (3) (c) the organization is structured  to receive contributions from many sources, including the general public, governmental agencies, corporations, private foundations or other public charities; additionally, it may engage in fundraisers to support its mission. The Foundation listens, learns, and strives to help its core constituencies: first generation college students and the rigorous postsecondary educational enterprises serving and educating them. The Foundation does what it can do to identify, mitigate and remove structural barriers to first generation collegiate success in the academically rigorous postsecondary educational sector.

• Deliver keynote addresses and presentations to collegiate board of trustees, presidents’ cabinets, faculty governance, classrooms, and clubs.
• Assess and evaluate the efficacy of first-generation student services and communications across campuses.
• Design campus research studies to clarify problems and opportunities to advance the first generation student agenda.
• Offer metrics, rubrics, and resources which advance prioritization, optimal decision making, and student learning outcomes.
• Foster first generation student advocacy across campuses.
• Facilitate collaborative problem solving geared toward actionable solutions to campus challenges facing first generation students.
• Orchestrate cross-campus conversations, forums, and focus groups of students, faculty, staff, advisory and community members.
• Consult across academic, student, community and social-capital endeavors to design and enrich the first generation college student experience.
• Serve first-generation students by providing access to free digital information, varied resources, scholarships and monetary support.
• Orchestrate fund-raising student to support first generation students; raise awareness, build bridges and remove barriers to college.