Challenges Of Being A First Generation College Student

“First-generation students often grapple not only with self-doubt and a lack of academic advice from family members, but also with work-related responsibilities, inadequate writing skills, and other and intellectual challenges.” (Sanacore) A First-generation student is a student whose parents have not gotten a degree in college and are the first of their generation to go to college. Students that have parents that have gotten a degree tend to make more money than the students’ parents that did not. Making the cost of college very challenging to pay for some students. Therefore, the integration of new technology makes going to college very difficult for some students scaring them away and having them go straight into the workforce after high school and. High schools need to implement new strategies to help first-generation students prepare for college and colleges need to comfort students to help them cope with the amount of stress that they face.

The level of education that the student’s parent has plays a immense role when deciding whether to go to college or not. “According to Chenoweth and Galliher (2004) students are much more likely to attend college if their parents did.” (Hand and Payne). But for the first-generation students whose parents did not go to college, the process that going to college takes is very grim. First-generation students also struggle with the amount of independence that goes along with college. Often times First-generation students form a relationship with their parents where the student becomes reliant on them which can creates feelings of culpability when he or she leaves to go to college.

The costs of college are causing First-generation students to become bankrupt; making it very tough to pay for the essential necessities like groceries. Many students have to enroll in SNAP or widely known as food stamps because of their loan debt. In the article College students and SNAP, Nicholas Freudenberg, Sara Goldrick-Rab, and Janet Poppendieck explains that:

At the end of 2018, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on food insecurity among US college students. The GAO estimated that although approximately 7.3 million US college students had household incomes below the level that qualifies them for eligibility for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP; formerly known as Food Stamps), only 2.26 million (31%) were actually enrolled in SNAP. Moreover, a recent survey of more than 86 000 students at 123 colleges and universities found that just 20% of food-insecure college students received SNAP. These rates are far lower than the 85% participation rate for SNAP-eligible individuals in the general US population in 2016.(Freudenberg)

Students shouldn’t have to rely on Food Stamps to be able to go to college. Colleges have to be able to create a financial plan to help the students get through school and not have to be worried about how they are able to pay for their next meals.

Tuition is getting more and more expensive and colleges need to implement a flexible and sufficient financial aid to all students. Financial aid is becoming increasingly popular as students struggle with managing work and school. Soria, KristaM., and MichaelJ. Stebleton disclaims that “Tuition at public 4-year colleges has more than doubled in the past three decades.” The students are stuck to pay the difference of their tuition making their loan debt grow exponentially. Making them have to get a job to pay for college while they are going to school can affect their grades because they don’t have enough time to get their homework done. “Federal Grants only cover about 30% of the cost of a 4-year college education; and 68% of graduates from public, and non-profit colleges in 2015 had student loan debt, averaging $30,100 per borrower. (Soria, KristaM., and MichaelJ. Stebleton). Most colleges students look at the costs of tuition when applying for colleges. Parents and teachers strongly encourage that students stick with in-state colleges instead of out of state. The reason for that is because if you want to go out of state the tuition doubles and you also have to have a place to stay which is even more expensive. All of the costs of college can suck the life out of you but with the right help will make the process a lot more inviting.

College can be very stressful without the correct academic support. High schools need to implement programs to help first generation students prepare for college. Several high schools have implemented the program called AVID. Geyer enlightens that “The La Crosse School District will provide $200,000 to the district over a three-year period to implement a program called AVID, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination.” More schools need to hop on the AVID train and help the students. “David Stoeffler, the foundation’s executive director says this is a game changer for our children, our schools and our community. Our investment today is a down payment to help future generations in La Crosse have an equal opportunity at the American Dream.” (Greyer) Schools around the globe should consider the AVID program and put it into motion so students do not have to be so stressed out about college readiness.

However, many colleges ignore that there is a crippling student loan crisis going on and continue to disregard the fact that the student’s health is being affected by the amount of stress that the student acquires from the financial challenges that they face. According to The University of Austin Texas at Austin University Health services, “Stress produces a physical reaction in the body that can make it harder to focus, sleep, and do well academically. Recurrent physical and psychological stress can diminish self-esteem, decrease interpersonal and academic effectiveness, and create a cycle of self-blame and self-doubt. In fact, only 1.6 percent of undergraduates reported that they felt no stress in the last 12 months, according to the National College Health Assessment (NCHA). Which means at some point in college they are going to face stress. When you are going to college you have to be able to manage work, school and family. The workload that college entails is superior than the amount that high school requires. And for that many college students are struggling to keep up with that, on top the responsibilities of their jobs can cause additional stress to their day-to-day life.

First-generation students face many challenges when going to college which is why colleges need to embed strategies to help First-generation students. The integration of new technology makes going to college very difficult for some students. Colleges need to make it easier for students that are transferring from high school to apply. Colleges also need to set up a sufficient financial aid plan to help them pay for college. The costs of college are on the rise and not slowing down making it very problematic to pay for obliging students to apply for food stamps since they don’t have enough money to buy groceries. Causing students to be stressed out. Nonetheless, the stress that goes along with college is immense. The majority of students that attend college report that they have had some kind of stressor in college. Stress can affect your health if you don’t take the right steps to cope with it. Knowing how to balance school and work is difficult for some students which is why colleges have to be able to help the students that are struggling financially with the expenses of college to lower the amount of debt the student concurs after graduation.

Works Cited

Freudenberg, N., DrP.H., Goldrick-Rab, S., & Poppendieck, J., PhD. (2019). College students and SNAP:The new face of food insecurity in the united states. American Journal of Public Health, 109(12), 1652-1658. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ihcproxy.mnpals.net/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305332

Geyer, Allison. 'La Crosse Schools Receive Largest-Ever Grant to Fund New College Readiness Program.' TCA Regional News 21 Aug. 2014. Web.

Hand, Christie, and Emily Miller Payne. 'First-Generation College Students: A Study of Appalachian Student Success.' Journal of Developmental Education, vol. 32, no. 1, Fall 2008, pp. 4–15. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=keh&AN=35782238&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Sanacore, Joseph, and Anthony Palumbo. 'Let's Help First-Generation Students Succeed.' Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 61, no. 36, 22 May 2015, pp. 1–5. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=110603261&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Soria, KristaM., and MichaelJ. Stebleton. 'First-Generation Students' Academic Engagement and Retention.' Teaching in Higher Education, vol. 17, no. 6, Dec. 2012, pp. 673–685. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/13562517.2012.666735.