Why Do Students Leave College Students?

First generation college students are those who are seeking to be the first in their family to earn a degree, according to UCLA. First- generation students can come from low, middle, or high income families without a history of going to college. Families of first generation students can either be supportive of the students plan for a high education or make them feel family pressure to enter the workforce right after high school like they did. First generation students often do not know their options regarding higher education and have fears about going to college and it’s cost. Currently, 42% of UC undergraduates are first generation.

Being given the label "first-generation" by definition means that a student is the first in his or her family to attend and finish with a college degree.

Going to college as a first generation college student is a hard experience to go through, students whose parents did not go to college have a disadvantage because they do not know how to adjust well to living at college.

A substantial amount of educational and psychological research has consistently demonstrated that African American students underperform academically relative to White students. For example, they tend to receive lower grades in school (e.g., Demo & Parker, 1987; Simmons, Brown, Bush, & Blyth, 1978), score lower on standardized tests of intellectual ability (e.g., Bachman, 1970; Herring, 1989; Reyes & Stanic, 1988; Simmons et al., 1978), drop out at higher rates (e.g., American Council on Education, 1990; Steele, 1992), and graduate from college with substantially lower grades than White students (e.g., Nettles, 1988). Such performance gaps can be attributed to

A first-generation college student is the first person in a family to attend college or any type of secondary education. This title “first-generation college student” has created a stigma for so many students making their time in college more difficult than someone who has come from a family of college graduates. First-generation college students often find themselves lost and without the edge of students who come from parents and/or siblings who went to college.

Today's education is often viewed as failing in its goal of educating students, especially those students characterized as minorities, including African American, Hispanic, and Appalachian students (Quiroz, 1999). Among the minority groups mentioned, African American males are affected most adversely. Research has shown that when Black male students are compared to other students by gender and race they consistently rank lowest in academic achievement (Ogbu, 2003), have the worst attendance record (Voelkle, 1999), are suspended and expelled the most often (Raffaele Mendez, 2003; Staples, 1982), are most likely to drop out of school, and most often fail to graduate from high school or to earn a GED (Pinkney, 2000; Roderick, 2003).

There is abundant research on how second-generation college students have an advantage on first-generation college students. For one, according to (Garcia, V. (2015), a second-generation student is more informed about entry exams that include placement tests, ACT, and SAT. Simultaneously, these individuals may be unaware of the preparation required to earn a passing score on such exams.

“In fall 2016, some 20.5 million students are expected to attend American colleges and universities, constituting an increase of about 5.2 million since fall 2000” (National Center for Education Statistics). That number seems to be rising each and ever year, and it almost seems as students feel like they have to go to college directly after high school. Maybe it is because they feel that they have to fit in, even if college is not for them. Although some students attend college for academics, sports, and other reasons, some students attend college for no apparent reason; with that in mind, students should take into consideration the time and money that is put into going to college.

The transition from high school to college is a dynamic time in one’s life that parallels the change from childhood to adulthood. Both of these changes are dramatic and, as a result, feelings are difficult to put down into words. A messy combination of emotions fills the heart, surfacing in strange ways. Confident high school seniors go right back to the bottom of the chain when entering college as freshmen. These students start all over, just like entering grade school or high school for the first time. The move up from high school to college signals the switch from dependence to self-sufficiency. From a personal point of view, going through the experience of graduating high school and transferring to a residential college campus at STLCOP, made me realize I was no longer a kid and capable of making my own decisions.

In 1976 black students accounted for 1% and Hispanics made up .03% of total enrollment at two and four year colleges, while the percentage of whites enrolled was 83%. By 2011, both black and Hispanic enrollment had increased by 14% with white enrollment decreasing by 24%. These numbers illustrate that the black share of total enrollment between 1976 and 2011 almost doubled, the Hispanic share quadrupled and the White

The exponential growth of the Latina/o population is symptomatic of an unquestionable shift in the demographic landscape, and is also reflected in the demographic make-up of higher education. As of 2012, Latina/os constitute the largest ethnic/racial minority group in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). Furthermore, Latina/o undergraduate students constitute the largest minority group on college campuses, at 19% of total students enrolled (Pew Research Center, 2014). Research also indicates that Latina/o students experience continued racial discrimination on college campuses (Chavez & French, 2007; Yosso, Smith, Ceja, & Solórzano, 2009; Cokley, Hall-Clark, & Hicks, 2011; Zeiders, Doane, & Roosa, 2012).

Research shows that Black college retention and graduation rates are low, especially when compared to other races. On The Chronicle of Higher Education: College Completion website, the graph shows 2013 graduation rates for all California public colleges. According to the graph, 17.1% of first time, full-time, Black undergraduates attained their degree within four years. In six years, 45.4% of them met this goal. On the same scale, Whites, Asians, Hispanics, and American Indians are surpassing black graduation rates. In four years, 38.8% of White students are graduating from these institutions, while 67.8% are graduating in six. Forty-two point two percent of Asians are graduating in four years, and 73.3% are graduating in six years. Hispanic students are graduating at the rate of 20.9% in four years, and 53.3% in six years. The rate for American Indians is 31.1% in four years, and 57.5% in six (The Chronicle of Higher Education: College Completion). For a quarter century, the racial college achievement gap between

For African American men, a crisis is occurring as institutions continue to observe dismal graduation rates. As a continue to learn about African American male student success in higher education, it has become more imperative that I understand my institutional efforts to address this issue. Like institutions across the nation, California State University, Northridge (CSUN), acknowledges the disparity in retention and graduation rates for students of color specifically African American male students. There have been many initiatives directed at supporting students of color persistence. CSUN has several programs directed towards improving African American

Despite large growth in college enrollment among blacks and Hispanics there are still many racial/ethnic disparities in their rates of college degree attainment (Zhan 2014). Student loan debt is believed to have a bigger effect on minority students than their white counterparts because minority students are more likely to use student loan debt to help them receive their education. Also since parents have a huge impact on the amount of debt a student may obtain minorities may be at a disadvantage. Minority students are more likely to come from a single parent household where their parent likely did not receive a college education or attain their degree. Minority students who are attending college in the last decade had parents who likely were born in the sixties-seventies. This was a time when racial segregation and white supremacy were still very much alive in the America. Therefore many minorities, especially African Americans, did not attend college. This brings us back to the “Reproduction of advantage theory” (Houle 2013). Since a large majority of minorities parents did not receive a college education they most likely were in the low to middle income bracket. This means an overwhelming amount of minorities accumulate a large amount of student loan debt when compared to the white population. This causes many minorities to drop out and not attain their degree or not

“Kids who are the first in their families to brave the world of higher education come on campus with little academic know-how and are much more likely than their peers to drop out before graduation” (1). Many people believe that school isn’t for everyone, and whoever goes is privileged for doing so. Countless people in the world today do not attend college, and this is mainly due to an influence of those in their family. Perhaps they are unsupportive of higher education, their parents and family members may view their entry into college as a break in the family system rather than a continuation of their schooling and higher learning. Most of the first-generation students decide to apply to colleges, because they aspire to jobs which require degrees. However, unlike some students whose parents have earned a degree, they often seek out college to bring honor to their families, and to ensure they make a decent amount of money for their future.