First-Generation Student Enrollment and Attainment Beyond the Baccalaureate

• In Event: Roundtable Session 78
  In Roundtable Session: Underrepresented Groups in Postsecondary Education 1

Abstract

First-generation students face substantial obstacles in pursuing their dreams of a college education. Enrollment rates, graduation rates, and highest degree attainment were examined and compared for first-generation and non-first-generation students by ethnic membership for graduate-level education. Data were from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study, B&B: 1993/2003, n > 8,000 students in the 2003 survey. Graduate degree attainment and enrollment rates of first-generation and non-first-generation students differed overall and by ethnicity. The most notable differences were between Black, non-Hispanic and Hispanic, first-generation and non-first-generation students obtaining second graduate degrees. Findings support the consensus that first-generation students are not a homogenous group and that many of the first-generation students fall into multiple groups (e.g., low income, ethnic minority) with overlapping barriers.

Authors

• Somer L. Franklin, Sam Houston State University

• John R. Slate, Sam Houston State University