What is First-Generation Students

Students who are the first in their family to attend college.

Undergraduate students whose parents did not complete a four-year college degree or students who are the first in their family to attend college.

First-generation students are the first in their immediate families to attend college. While issues such as poverty, nutrition, employment, and academic performance can be measured, it is difficult to measure the positive impact of having someone in your family who has attended college, or the negative impact of not having a college graduate in the family you can turn to. Whether it is filling out the FAFSA form, guiding a student through the college selection process, encouraging good study habits, or being able to recount similar campus experiences, families with college graduates in their midst provide immeasurable support and counsel to college students, especially those attending college in their first year. First-generation students, on the other hand, struggle with unfamiliar experiences that no one “back home” can counsel them about.