First Generation College Students Essay

As research on prospective first-generation, low-income students has increased, scholars have realized that there are different clusters of first-generation college students. While popular media has depicted college applicants as either academically gifted or unprepared, the reality is that there is a diverse set of students who apply to college each year (Shaw et al., 2009). Shaw et al., (2009) discovered five clusters of college applicants in their research—privileged high achievers/athletes, disadvantaged students, average students needing more guidance, female academics, and privileged low achievers. Of these clusters, first-generation college students comprised at least half of the disadvantaged students cluster, in addition to the
These findings are comparable to earlier research by Cho, Hudley, Lee, Barry, and Kelly (2008), who found that first-generation college student’s families were overrepresented in the less than $35,000 income bracket and underrepresented in the more than $200,000 income bracket. In addition, 47 percent of students in their sample of first-generation college students were minorities. Because of the demographic that many first-generation students come from, it is imperative that educators are aware of the ways to promote college access for this population. While 91 percent of college-qualified high school seniors from high-income families test for and apply to a four-year college, only 62 percent of high school senior students from low-income families do the same (St. John, Musoba & Simmons, 2003). According to Perna et al. (2008), as well as Roderick, Coca, & Nagaoka (2011), college-related counseling is lacking in both low-income and minority communities. Research from Cho et al. (2008) has shown that disadvantaged, low-income African-American and Hispanic students look