Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have had the ability to recruit African-American students since the 1860s by stressing a sense of inclusion and family through their mission statements and community outreach. There was little to no competition for African-American students from predominantly white institutions until integration…

As the mother of a first-year-teacher, I began thinking of ways in which to provide encouragement and support to my daughter and to other beginning teachers. I believe that successful teachers should not only share their knowledge and expertise with novice teachers, but also their struggles, their frustrations, and their methods of managing the…

College choice is the three-stage process of aspiring, searching and choosing to attend college. There are many models pertaining to college choice, however, this study uses the Hossler and Gallagher Model---aspiration, search and choice. This qualitative study explored first-generation college students' perceptions about the influences…

As the Biden-Harris administration seeks to hasten the country's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, reforming the U.S. higher education system to ensure equitable access and attainment for all adults is more important than ever. Most student parents are mothers, students of color, adult and working learners, students with low incomes, and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the strategies employed by senior level first-generation college students (FGCS) as it pertains to academic self-efficacy, parental support, and cultural capital and their role in college enrollment and matriculation. The examination also included additional emergent factors that contributed to FGCS…

United States Government scrutiny of enrollment practices at for-profit colleges has caused significant decreases in profitability at career colleges. The phenomenological problem explored in this study was the declining enrollment at career colleges. Systems theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory formed the conceptual framework for this…

This study examined the effect of the NOVA program, a Students Support Services program at Eastern Kentucky University, on academic success for first-generation and low-income college students. An archival database was used to identify differences in the level of academic success among first-year students in the NOVA program from fall-to-fall of…

Ten years ago when Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL) published its annual study of freshman motivations, those students were entering college in the shadow of the worst recession since the Great Depression. That report, which examined attitudes of students from 2009, provided insight into their motivations, attitudes, and needs in the midst of a very…

Although student retention, persistence, and graduation is a high priority for institutions and policymakers, graduation rates are not improving. Nowadays, more students from first-generation and low-income backgrounds have access to traditional higher education. In this essay, the author argues that an educational system that fails to prepare…

As student populations continue to become more diversified, institutions must understand students' academic preparedness to better serve them. A significant amount of research and literature focuses on experiences of students whose parents had little or no college education. Although these first-generation students have much in common with other…

The purpose of this article is to explore how one group of students reflect upon their transition into the higher education environment. This qualitative research project followed one group of female undergraduate students as they moved through the first year of study. All of the participants were the first in their family to consider further…

The effect of service-learning courses on student growth was compared for 321 first-generation and 782 non-first-generation undergraduate students at a large urban university. Student growth encompassed both academic and professional skill development. The majority of students reported significant academic and professional development after…

Approximately 1-in-3 students on American college campuses come from families who have little to no experience in higher education. Despite their growing presence, many potential first-generation students, those without a parent who has completed a bachelor's degree, will never set foot on a college campus, and those who make it face significant…

Ten years ago the author began a research project examining the life experiences of people who were the first in their family to go into higher education and who later began careers in the sector. Life histories provide unique insights into people's perceptions of their experience and reflect how British society has changed over recent decades.…

Introduction: This study examines first-generation college students' information behaviour through Sonnenwald's theoretical framework of information horizons, a mental map upon which people place the information sources they use. Method: A web survey with 450 first-generation college students and 12 interviews were used to collect data. Interview…