Brooke Cuddington

UWRT 1103-009

12 Sept. 2019

468

Entering into college is scary for everyone. It comes with a lot of big changes like

moving, new places, new classes, and more individuality. College can be especially challenging

for first-generation students. Going into college for me was more difficult than most students

because no one in my family had ever even attempted to go to college. The application process

alone can be extremely more difficult, especially if a students high school counselor/advisor is

not very helpful. As this may have been more difficult, the question becomes do first-generation

students face a disadvantage in higher education?

First-generation students are still 34% of the undergraduates in colleges all around the

U.S. A first-generation student is a college student who is the first in their family to go to college

and get a higher education. First-generation students have been around since the first college

schools. All I knew about first-generation students was from my own experience as a first

generation student. After doing some research I have found that first generation students are

more likely to go to a two-year college than a four year university, and first-generation students

were more likely to attend college part time than students who had at least one parent who has a

degree. I have found many sources on my topic already. Pieces from US News, PNPI, and a

video from Films on Demand called “How Faculty Members Can Help First-Generation Students

Succeed”. All of these sources are based on first-generation students and information about them

and their success.

Keywords that are related to my topic are higher education, college, post-secondary

school, first generation students, advantages, and disadvantages. I used all of these words to try
to find information about my topic. My next idea for my research is to find a peer-reviewed

article because I know it will be beneficial to my research and it is very academic. I could limit

my question to looking at only UNCC, but this would make my research very difficult. What I

do want to do is limit my research to only the United States so my question is broad enough to

research, but still not too broad that is becomes vague. Specific questions that are coming to me

are how can I take this research and apply it to my life, since I am a first-generation student? And

why do first-generation students have such different statistics than students who have had a

parent go to school? Can these statistics be lowered?

My inquiry project could be important to my classmates and the larger community of

UNCC by recognizing that first generation students may have a disadvantage and with that may

have more questions, so they could offer to help them, or the community could have more basic

knowledge of the struggles first-generation students face.

https://fod-infobase-com.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=162892&tScript=0

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2019-05-14/what-you-should-know-
as-a-first-generation-college-student

https://pnpi.org/first-generation-students/

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/10/04/institutional-change-required-better-serve-
first-generation-students-report-finds