Challenges Of First Generation College Students

Improved Essays
I. Review of Literature

The United States aims to increase the number of additional college graduates by eight million to meet future workforce demands and to maintain global competitiveness (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). To achieve this goal, requires increasing college going and college completion among marginalized groups and would be first generation college students (FGCS) (Matthews, 2014; U.S. Department of Education, 2011). Many scholars agree that in order to increase college going among this population of students, parent and family involvement is an essential component for college access programs (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2000; Dyce, Albold, & Long, 2013; Perna & Swail, 2001; Perna & Titus, 2005; Tierney & Auerbach, 2005; Tierney,
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Terezini et al (1996) found that FCGS experience greater difficulty than their peers in transitioning to college. In many cases, students with different backgrounds than the majority student population often experience an incongruence when they attempt to integrate into the social, cultural or academic domains (Auerbach, 2004; Engle & Tinto, 2008; Herndon & Hirt, 2004; Hsiao, 1992; Hurtado, Inkelas, Briggs, & Rhee, 1997; Pascarella, 2006; Terenzini et al., 1996).
Persisting in college and completing a plan of study toward earning a college degree also represent major challenges for FGCS. Choi (2001) found that FGCS were less likely than their peers to remain enrolled in school and attain their degrees. Engle and Tinto (2008) also reported that FGCS had lower persistence and higher departure than non-FGCS. One study on college retention found that FGCS had significantly higher departure rates in the first and second year of college than their
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In the National Survey of College and University Parent Programs (2013), the authors reported that from 182 responding programs 79.2% indicated that their school began providing parent and family services between 1990-2013. The report also showed that nearly 50% (46.3%) of the programs were launched between 2000-2010 (Savage & Petree, 2013)

The national survey also provided a list of the most common parent and family services offered by more than 95% of the participating schools included: Parent/Family Weekend, Parent Orientation, Parent Website and Email newsletter (Savage & Petree, 2013). Additionally, parents were also enlisted to have a more active role in university activities and programs by hosting events as a volunteer; sponsoring career development opportunities; and fundraising for the school (Carney-Hall, 2008; Wartman & Savage,

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