First Generation Students Drop Retention Rates

“First-generation” is a commonly known term, yet most people do not actually know the struggle of being a student who is the first in his or her family to go to college. The majority of the general population assumes that in order to be considered first generation, a student's parents must never have attended college before. However, this is not always the case. The University of Florida defines first-generation as students whose parents never earned a bachelor’s degree. Therefore, a student can be considered first generation if his or her parents have an associate’s degree. Regardless of the definition, a first-generation student’s major issue is staying enrolled in college.
A retention rate refers to the total percentage of full-time students …show more content…
Many feel overwhelmed, confused, and as if they do not fit into colleges or universities of their choice. Many first generation students fear that they will never be good enough or that they will let their families down. Therefore, there is much weight on their shoulders which can lead to them dropping out and thus, drop retention rates. One of the many causes of so many young women and men being first generation students is that several come from disadvantaged backgrounds whether it is about the sex they are or their …show more content…
This could be due to whites having less first generation students than these races. Since a majority of whites have attended and completed college, their future generations are bound to have more guidance when it comes to college as compared to Hispanics and Blacks who tend to be more first generation students. By having this guidance, students are likely to get higher scores on the SAT and have an idea of what college is like while other races who have a higher rate of first generation students are more likely to be left to figure it out by themselves since their parents don’t have that experience. Another advantage whites have over college retention rates is that they have less problems regarding financial earnings along with the Asian race. In 2011, it was found that only 31% of whites were low-income families and 13% were poor families. Asians, as well as whites, had similar percentages with only 32% of families with low-income and 14% of families were poor. As compared to Hispanics, Blacks, and Native Americans who had a much higher statistical rate in the low-income and poor brackets as shown