First Generation College Student Essay

First-generation college students, defined as those students whose parents have no more than a high school education (Pascarella et al., 2004), tend to have lower graduation rates than their non-first generation peers (Stebleton & Soria, ) and are twice as likely to leave 4-year institutions before the second year (Bringle, Hatcher, & Muthiah, 2010). In fact, almost half (43%) of first-generation students entering college leave before completing their degree as compared to 20% of other students (Chen & Carroll, 2005). Even when first-generation college students persist beyond 3 years, they are less likely to earn bachelor’s degrees than their peers (Pascarella et al., 2004) and less likely to enroll in graduate degree programs (Hahs-Vaughn, 2004). Additionally, Vaughan, Parra, & Lalonde (2014) found first-generation students often come from low-income families and ethnically diverse backgrounds typically underrepresented in higher education, for which the statistics on retention and graduation are even worse: only 11% finish a …show more content…
According to Pascarella et al. (2004), these students are less likely to be engaged in activities that foster student success (i.e. studying in groups, interacting with faculty and peers, participating in extracurricular activities, using institutional resources, etc.), as these experience are often designed to benefit “traditional” students. Likewise, challenges to social and academic integration are exacerbated for students enrolled at research institutions where classes tend to be larger and interactions with faculty members can be infrequent or rare (Hahs-Vaughn, 2004). The obstacles first-generation students face to postsecondary success in terms of social, cultural, and academic integration (Stebleton & Soria, 2012) lend a more difficult transition from high school to college than their peers (Pascarella et al.,