While first-generation college students are over half of all students in postsecondary education, exclusionary practices block their admittance into elite institutions. The outliers who receive admittance to the Ivory Tower may think they have made it—that their American Dream and long-held belief in the meritocratic ethos has finally paid off. Instead, they are confronted with educational stratification and social reproduction that was stacked against them long before they received the piece of parchment granting them access. The onerous task of navigating through unfamiliar academic and social situations often results in leaving. Can first-generation college students learn how to activate, manage, and accumulate social and cultural capital to navigate elite universities?
Scholarly fields such as Education dominate in research of
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First, no longitudinal study currently exists that follows children from kindergarten to college and beyond. Of course, costs for such a study would be exorbitant, but what social implications exist from the scarcity of available research? Second, the qualitative interviews concentrate on first-generation college students from one elite university. To the best of my knowledge, no study has qualitatively analyzed the differences between first-generation and continuing-generation college students. Additionally, one elite university cannot serve as the paragon for all elite institutions. Third, the qualitative study samples from a variety of cohorts to measure change across time, but a better method would be to re-interview each student in one year increments from the time they matriculate to several years after expected degree attainment. Finally, to fully understand the experience of first-generation college students, interviews with parents, educators, and gatekeepers can provide insights that the students themselves were unaware
In Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton’s Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality, Midwestern University’s structure is discussed in regard to its composition that fosters class structure. Both authors claim that incoming college classes are very diverse in social class structure, however, by the time they graduate they’re social mobility has not shown a difference. Using an ethnographic approach, Armstrong and Hamilton argue that student experiences are fundamentally shaped by their educational institution.
The documentary, First Generation, follows four first generation college students who try and balance the hardships of working, sports, being part of a lower socioeconomic status and handling the challenges of learning how to apply and cover the cost of hefty college tuitions. In this paper, I will discuss barriers that some students experienced, the benefits of attainting a college education as a first generation student and some of the challenges individuals faced once they were accepted into college.
In a society where a collegiate degree is almost necessary to make a successful living, the idea that a student cares less about the education and more about the “college experience” can seem baffling. In My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, Rebekah Nathan, the author’s pseudonym, tackles the idea that academics are less impactful on a student then the culture of college life. Nathan, a 50-year-old cultural anthropologist and university professor, went undercover as a college freshman for a research project. From her research, she hoped to better understand the undergraduate experience by fully immersing herself in college life. To do this, she anonymously applied to “AnyU,” a fake acronym for a real university,
The author, Julia Brookshire Everett commenced the article, “Public Community Colleges: Creating Access and Opportunities for First Generation College Students”, by first characterizing first- generation college students and also expounding on the difficulties first-generation students encountered when acquiring post-secondary degrees. According to Everett (2015), the term ‘first- generation college student’ was first coined in the 1960s in order to regulate student eligibility for federally financed programs to aid students from low-income households.
Saunders, M., & Serna, I. (2004). Making college happen: The college experiences of first-generation Latino students. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 3(2), 146-163.
Immigration has a great impact on first generation immigrants. Studies show that acculturation and assimilation have wide-ranging effects on the groups involved, but mostly on the immigrants' lives. There are positive and negative attributes. Attributes that are due to the issues associated with integrating cultures, and broadly related to the greater issue of immigration. The issues and discrimination towards first generation immigrants cause them to have limitations throughout their lifetime, in the country that they have moved to. Furthermore, the Hispanic and Latino community have lived through this problem for so long. They are always the group to be affected by it because they lose a sense of self and are never really accepted by the dominant or other group involved. This is a big issue that requires more attention and efforts to come up with a solution.
An industry that once promoted fairness and attainability was now itself becoming an obstacle to overcome. “American universities are in fact organized according to middle- and upper-class cultural norms or rules of the game and that these norms do indeed constitute an unseen academic disadvantage for first-generation college students transitioning to university settings” (Stephens et. al, 2012). This proposed characteristic serves as an almost uncontrollable and unchangeable disadvantage that students will likely fail to subdue. Institutions should serve as mediating platforms that allow students to start at impartial grounds, where their talents, abilities and connections are the only factors that can influence their
Long ago, receiving education was once something only the rich could afford; it was a luxury. Nowadays it is open to everyone, but many students enter college only to discover that they are underprepared, and in turn they become disenchanted. David Leonhardt’s article, The College Dropout Boom, addresses the issues that are apparent in the education system and how it contributes to the gap between the upper and lower class while Access to Attainment by Abby Miller, Katherine Valle, Jennifer Engle, and Michelle Cooper calls to improve access to college education for today’s students. This is incredibly important because many students either drop out or never attended college and in today’s time, having a Bachelor’s degree has become a requirement
I feel as if though the best way to adapt to the harsh reality of a personal problem is being vocal about it, which can later help someone realize that it may not have been much of a personal problem after all. One issue facing college students around the world is the fact that many of them derive from households and families lacking any college alumni; therefore, making them first-generation college students. The difficulties that come along with attaching this moniker to students include tedious things such as spending countless, mind-bending hours spent on Google searching what school best suits one’s needs, or needing to delve a little deeper into websites regarding what differentiates an independent student from a dependent one. Minor
Critics contend that the influx of nontraditionals into the college student market has accelerated a trend toward the “massification” of collegiate education – that is, that it has led to a watered down pedagogy that is far below the goals and expectation of the elite colleges. Nonetheless, the improvements in education oriented toward accommodation of the nontraditional student have had the practical effect of making college more affordable and accessible to all classes of people.
I am Nursing major and with that degree to become a Nurse Practitioner who specializes in the Cardiovascular System to reduce the rate of heart diease in America. I am a hardworking individual and I take my academics very seriously. I understand that I am at school for a purpose and know my purpose is to further my education. I am just trying to make it. My parents always told me growing up “ In order to get something you never had that I will have to do things I have never done.” No one prepared me for college, because I am a first generation college student. In addition to being a first generation college student ; I am also a first generation high school graduate. I use my my parents trials and tribulations as my motivation, because I want
The right and privilege to higher education in today’s society teeters like the scales of justice. In reading Andrew Delbanco’s, “College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, it is apparent that Delbanco believes that the main role of college is to accommodate that needs of all students in providing opportunities to discover individual passions and dreams while furthering and enhancing the economic strength of the nation. Additionally, Delbanco also views college as more than just a time to prepare for a job in the future but a way in which students and young adults can prepare for their future lives so they are meaningful and purposeful. Even more important is the role that college will play in helping and guiding students to learn how to accept alternate point of views and the importance that differing views play in a democratic society. With that said, the issue is not the importance that higher education plays in society, but exactly who should pay the costly price tag of higher education is a raging debate in all social classes, cultures, socioeconomic groups and races.
Caroline Bird writes the statement in her 1975 article “The Case Against College (Bird 15-18)” that not every high school graduate is ready to attend college. It is 2010 and this article is still valid today. Some of the college students I have been around were not mature enough for obedience school let alone college. A few of the points she makes in the article are: College has never worked its magic for everyone. Does it make you a better person? Are colleges responsible for your children? Are my children living in a country club? I will use some of my own experiences as an example of college life, as well as examples from my daughter’s college experience, along with my nephews as well. All to find the answer to the big question: Are you ready for a college education?
In their book Paying for the Party, Armstrong and Hamilton discuss how universities take class differences and class projects of distinct women to define what will be their college experience. In their book, Armstrong and Hamilton define class projects as individual and class characteristics that defines a person’s agenda and class- based orientation. Hence, people with similar class projects, not only shared the same financial and cultural resources, but also the same expectations toward school. (Armstrong & Hamilton, 2013). As a result, Armstrong and Hamilton claims that students with similar class projects end up becoming a collective constituency and a representative group for the university, whom in turn must take their interests to form a college pathway for them. Therefore, a college pathway for Armstrong and Hamilton refers to how universities are able to take successfully the interests, class characteristics and expectations of students to mold within the organizational and architecture context of the school. In a way, each college pathway is built not only to represent, but also to provision and guide the different types of students in a college.
As a byproduct of the change in college culture, it will create a “friendlier” environment for first generation. Students need to feel safe rather than out of place. Additionally, prestigious institutions need to take initiative to create new programs that will make college a painless transition for first generation students by implementing new policies such as mentors or clubs. As many colleges and universities have not taken the initiative to help first-generation students, North Carolina State University is one of the few exceptions. As a fellow first generation college student at North Carolina State University, I have reaped many benefits from the different organizations they have around campus. In the Poole College of Management, I was assigned a professional mentor in my future line of work that made the transition into college a better experience for me. After listening to his forums, I was able to use the skills I had learnt from my parents and apply it to college and my study habits benefiting me in countless possibilities. Additionally, the sociology department at North Carolina State University has created a program that guides first-generations students throughout all four years of college making the transition as