Acclimation In College

Many people will look at college and see it as a pathway to higher and brighter education. What many people don’t understand, is how easy or hard it is to get acclimated into this new system. Some students are fortunate; they have an easy transition and have great experiences in their college career. Often this is not the case, students can have a hard time fitting in and finding positive experiences in their time college. Students have a hard time crossing the bridge into a university setting. This experience is especially hard for first generation college students, (FGCS) come from families who struggle and they are searching for a brighter future. They don’t have many experiences with the four types of capital and it governs their acclimation …show more content…
Meaning their family is still rooted in the working class and in many instances money is an issue. Humble SES also deal with the issue of being an academic outsider. Due to the fact of the lack of economic capital growing up, it would also be a struggle to gain academic capital. Students wouldn’t have the opportunity to spend money on things like school supplies and books. They would gave chores around the house or must help provide for their families. Students with a humble SES commonly put their academics on the back burner. In the television series “Friday Night Lights” there is a character named Tyra. Tyra’s mother is divorced and moves from job to hob to provide for her family. Tyra has an older sister who didn’t care in high school and ends up working at a strip club. Tyra screws off in high school her first two years. She believes there is no way she can get into college. Tyra says she will never be able to afford it, so why would she try in high school? Later, in the series she decided she had to change her ways so she can change her future. She realizes she doesn’t want to be stuck in the same small town all her life struggling to get by. She slacked off her first two years and her grades were terrible. She initially made her decisions based on her family’s SES, and lost two years of valuable education. She eventually gets into college, she is exited and overwhelmed at the same …show more content…
Social capita is the networks of relationships among people. There is an old saying that goes, “It’s not what you know, but who you know,” and in many cases this can hold true. Even in the application process, it can be harder for a FGCS compared to a multi-generation college student. If your parents attended a university, you may have a better chance of gaining acceptance to the university and help with tuition through legacy scholarships. FGCS may not have come from a family with many social connections. As I previously mentioned in “Friday Night Lights”, Tyra had to deal with a lack of social capital. Her family has very little, and she had to get a job to help her mom out. She had no time for volunteer work, extracurricular activities, or internship opportunities. Her family wasn’t well known, so she had very little social connections, and most of the people that knew her family didn’t have a good opinion of them. It wasn’t until she became friends with the guidance counselors’ daughter at her school that she gained some social capital. Her guidance counselor planted the idea in her head that she could make it to college. She then could get the guidance counselor to write her a letter of recommendation to multiple colleges. Even after she got into college, she stayed in touch with the guidance counselor when she needed the help. Without this connection, she would have had a