First-generation collegians lag behind - research indicates that students, who are the first generation in the family to attend college, are not as likely to have as many academic skills as those whose parents went to college - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Sept, 1997

First-generation college students may have fewer academic skills than their peers whose parents went to college. Ernest Pascarella, professor of education, University of Illinois at Chicago, indicates that researchers followed nearly 3,000 students through the first year of college. First-generation students often were less skilled than their peers in reading, math, and critical thinking at the beginning of their college careers and showed less improvement in those skills than their classmates during their first year.

"As higher education becomes more accessible to minorities and students from low-income families, we will be seeing a dramatic increase in first-generation students in the next decade," Pascarella predicts. "This study's most important message is that first-generation students need more support than other students, and that we need high school and college programs to do that."

First-generation college-goers are more likely than other students to have non-academic obligations such as children and work that may influence their study habits; tend to take fewer credit hours and study less, causing a lag in cognitive development; and report less encouragement from friends and family. They are more likely to be Latino and female and tend to be older. They generally were less involved with peers and teachers in high school and consequently are unprepared mentally for the college experience. Researchers also found that first-generation students anticipate requiring longer to complete their degrees, take fewer courses in the humanities and fine arts, are less likely to perceive instructors as being concerned about students, and are more likely to report personal experience with discrimination.

The only consistent advantage first-generation students possess is being certain about what academic field they're going to major in, Pascarella says. "But since most of the information we have shows disadvantages in the area of academic performance and persistence, the combined portrait is one of first-generation students at academic risk."