Definitions surrounding first generation college students are mixed, which adds to the uncertainty that such students may face in navigating college. This article seeks to explore some of the complex socioeconomic and intercultural issues are intertwined with the first gen student experience.

Brenda Lara, a third-year Ph.D. student at the University of California at Los Angeles, wasn’t sure what “first gen” meant when a staff member asked if she and her friend were first gen college students. 

Lara remembers responding that neither of her parents went to college, but that she didn’t know what first gen, or first generation, really meant. As the daughter of immigrants from Mexico, Lara had heard the term first gen, or first-generation, used in a context of first gen immigrants but not in a college context. Her friend was even more unsure if she was a first gen because her mother had gone to college in Armenia. 

I, too, was unfamiliar with the term first gen until my last semester of college. Like Lara, I had heard the term but had never given it much thought. My parents had gone to college in South Korea, which I thought automatically precluded me from being first gen. 

First gens’ struggle to navigate and understand this aspect of their identities arises from mixed definitions of first gen. Some would say Lara’s friend and I are not first gen because our parents went to college, even though it wasn’t in America. 

But first gen cannot be so simply and singularly defined. First gens like me and Lara do not operate with the same level of knowledge of the American college experience that many of our peers were taught by their parents. As former first lady and fellow first gen Michelle Obama said in her memoir “Becoming,” it takes extra energy to rise to such challenges all the time. 

There cannot be a singular definition and narrative of first gens because it is a unique and multifaceted identity that truly affects one’s college experience. First gen college students should be encouraged to self-identify as first gen, which emboldens them to seek resources and communities that empower them as they pave the path for future generations. 

The Struggles First Gens Face 

The U.S. Department of Education outlined in the Higher Education Act of 1965 that students are first gen only if neither parent has a bachelor’s degree. This excludes students whose parents went to college in another country and students with a degree-holding parent who isn’t present in their life. 

Many people, including higher education administrators, say this definition needs to be more inclusive. They recognize that students whose parents went to college in another country and those whose parents didn’t go to college at all will struggle with the same issues in college.

One such issue is first gens’ relative lack of “college knowledge”— knowledge about the hidden, yet crucial aspects of college such as knowing what a credit hour is or how to apply for an on-campus position. For students whose parents went to college in another country, those things can look vastly different. 

Tiffany Wang, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Montevallo in Alabama, has researched these struggles first gens face. Students often come to Wang with questions such as what the difference between a work-study and a part-time job on campus is—things she easily asked her parents as a second gen student.

“There could be a deeper learning curve for [students] whose parents went to school inside the United States versus those who went to college outside the United States,” Wang said. “If your parents went to college in the United States, you already have people in your network who could support you with the information you need to be successful. You are not relying on forming a new support network or finding that information on campus.”

If your parents went to college in the United States, you already have people in your network who could support you with the information you need to be successful.

Tiffany Wang

First gens’ struggles are compounded by the fact that first gens are less likely to seek help for their struggles, which has led to higher dropout rates for such students.

For first gens like Kesia Eng, a fourth year studying political science at the University of California at Los Angeles, or UCLA, she, not her parents, is the one explaining college. When her father, who attended college in Taiwan, asked her why she was enrolled in so few classes, Eng explained that she was enrolled in a normal course load of three to four classes a quarter. Eng’s father had asked because he had taken more classes at a time as a college student in Taiwan. 

“I had to tell him it’s different for my school and that the school system in the US is different from how he went to school,” Eng said. “Having to explain that is kind of difficult.”

UCLA’s Powell Library / Creative Commons

Eng also recalled her struggle in filling out financial aid forms like the FAFSA, or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. To parents of first gens like Eng, the FAFSA and the financial jargon in it is as new to them as it is to first gens. Thus, first gens like Eng often struggle to fill out the FAFSA and other financial aid applications without their parents’ support. 

This struggle to navigate financial aid continues throughout college. Many first gens who come from low income and immigrant households rely on this federal aid to finance their educations, yet their lack of college knowledge compounds their difficulties in paying for their degrees. 

When Brenda Lara was a freshman at Loyola Marymount University, she felt she had to fight to receive more financial aid even as the university seemed to herald her in marketing material as a shining example of their commitment to diversity. Though Lara finished her first year with a 4.0 grade point average, her financial aid was slashed by $5,000 without any explanation. 

“I had gone to financial aid hoping to explain my situation, but it felt more like an in and out situation—just the place where you go to learn about what you already have and not to negotiate,” Lara said. “Negotiating seemed so jarring.”

Now, she encourages her older siblings, who followed her example and are in college, to be confident when they explain their financial situations. She now knows that financial aid offices will work with students if they need more aid, but this was something she wishes someone had guided her through earlier. 

“I feel like that would have made the difference, if someone had guided me to the financial aid office or given me the lowdown and said, ‘Well, this is what to have to do to fight for more financial aid,’ because I had no idea how that worked,” Lara said. 

Mixed Definitions and Their Implications

First gen support programs such as the McNair Scholars Program, an initiative that assists first gen students and other underrepresented students attain graduate degrees, are designed to help first gens and other underrepresented students navigate higher education at the same level as their peers. Some colleges look at students’ background and their parents’ highest level of education to recommend them to programs like McNair, said Wang, who has advised many McNair scholars.

Yet certain first gens are ineligible for McNair and other federal programs due to the federal definition’s restrictions on eligibility. Colleges also vary in how they define first gen in the admissions process, which can greatly impact a student’s admissions chances.

While programs like McNair Scholars uplift many first gens, they ultimately create a singular narrative. They also operate off harmful assumptions such as the model minority myth—the belief that Asians are educated, hardworking and serve as an example to other minorities in America. 

For example, the McNair Scholars Program seeks to serve students from traditionally underrepresented communities in academia, which does not include Asians, who make up about 17% of college-educated STEM workers. Asian students must be low-income and first gen to be eligible for the McNair program, while other minority students need to just be first gen or low income.

Not all minority groups are underrepresented in STEM fields / Creative Commons

To deem all Asians as a monolith of students ready to pursue STEM research is problematic. There are gaps in privilege and education even within the Asian community, says Vun Doubblestein, an associate director in the Division of Multicultural Affairs at Western Michigan University.

Doubblestein explored Southeast Asian American college students’ first gen experiences in her Ph.D. dissertation and found that even within the Asian community, certain subgroups such as Cambodians and Hmong are less likely to go to college than other Asian counterparts.  

“All the [existing] data suggested that there was overrepresentation in higher education and that Asian Americans have high income and don’t need help, and I thought that can’t be right,” Doubblestein said. 

If such differences in achievement exist even within an ethnic group, then the much larger group of first gen college students will certainly include vastly different reasons for being first gen. Solely defining first gens as students with parents with no bachelor’s degrees assumes that educational experiences, particularly college, are the same across the globe and that parents can relay that supposed same experience to their children. Yet first gens whose parents went to college in another country also experience struggles in a cultural sphere.

Ami Yoshimura, a first-year business and engineering major at Lehigh University, chose to attend Lehigh over Cornell because he could pursue his passions for engineering and business at the same time. But his parents attended university in Japan, and like many parents in the Asian community, saw Ivy Leagues such as Cornell as the best fit for him and his future. 

Cornell University / Creative Commons

Yoshimura understood his parents’ perspective of how an Ivy League degree would help him advance far in life but felt that he wouldn’t thrive or be happy at a school just because it was known for being academically rigorous. 

“[Parents] don’t understand the college process,” Yoshimura said. “My parents don’t know any school other than the Ivy Leagues. Even if they try to learn, it takes them a while. We’re already one step behind.”

Yoshimura, who is active in the first gen community at Lehigh through support programs such as Passport to Success, attributes his parents’ lack of understanding to how they are still learning about America and its education system as immigrants. 

“I’m with a lot of first gens because we have similarity in how our parents are the ones who came to America, whether they had a formal education or not. They had to figure out how to live here,” Yoshimura said.

Many criticize the Asian community with what they see as an obsession with the Ivy Leagues. When Asian Americans protested against Harvard’s use of affirmative action in the admissions process, a group of counter protestors also rallied as they held signs that said “Asians Will Not Be Tools for White Supremacy.” 

A protestor at the Harvard protest / Creative Commons

But what those counter protesters and Americans in general need to recognize is that Asian parents, especially immigrant parents, idealize the Ivy Leagues in part because they see them as the best chance for their kids to succeed as minorities in America. In east Asian countries like South Korea, the university you go to sets you up for a life of success and opportunities.

Parents like Yoshimura’s father, who graduated from Keio University, a top 10 university in Japan, recognize this value from their personal experience and try to translate it over to their children’s education in America. This leads to a disconnect between parents and students as the students understand where their parents are coming from but recognize the different reality of the American education system. 

First gen graduates such as Jeff Lee strive to resolve this disconnect as their own children navigate college. Lee, who graduated from Cornell with a BA in computer science in 1989, has three children, one of whom already graduated college. 

“I wish someone had told me what I told my son, that you don’t have to be the top of the heap in college and you just have to do your best,” Lee said. “I wish someone had given me the license to try things that I normally wouldn’t try or classes that I normally wouldn’t take. I wish someone had told me that college was a time to explore—no one told me that.” 

I wish someone had told me that college was a time to explore— no one had told me that.

Jeff Lee

No one had told Lee, as his parents both got their degrees in Taiwan before they immigrated to the United States. His mother had encouraged him to always spend his time studying instead of playing sports. Just like Yoshimura’s parents, Lee’s mother and her educational experience in an Asian country led her to think that the Ivies were the best choice for him and his future. 

But Lee now has knowledge of the American college experience to pass down to his children, and he doesn’t push his children to maintain perfect grades or attend an Ivy. He recognizes that they can succeed without needing to do those things. 

“I try to tell my kids to try to learn and experience and experiment,” Lee said. 

Building Resiliency and Community 

Though federal programs like McNair may exclude some students, educators are striving to be inclusive with who they serve as first gens. They also find various ways to empower first gens through campus support programs. 

La’Tonya Reese Miles, director of the First Year Experience at UCLA, works collaboratively with other departments like residential life to foster awareness of the first gen identity on UCLA’s campus. First gen programs like First To Go, housed under First Year Experience, aren’t dependent on federal funding. That allows those programs to serve students as they feel fit. 

“We let students self-identify. I think that in and of itself is a success,” Miles said. “We’re not checking anybody’s papers; we’re not asking for them to verify. I mean, we jokingly say that if you feel first gen, then you probably are.” 

Miles was actually the staff member who helped explain to Brenda Lara and her friend that both of them were first-gen. When she was at Loyola Marymount University, Miles was the director of the Academic Resource Center, which housed a support program for first gens called First To Go.

Loyola Marymount University / Creative Commons

But not all first gens will self-identify, especially students whose parents have gone to college in another country. First gens also grapple with imposter syndrome as they realize that their peers seem to know basic things about college that they themselves don’t. 

First gen students like Kesia Eng strive to educate each other on college knowledge as they build first gen communities on their college campuses. Eng co-founded a first gen support group called the Association of First-Generation Undergraduates, or AFGU, because there was no existing undergraduate organization centered around first gen identity at UCLA. 

Much of Eng’s college experience consisted of her figuring out different college terms like “discussion sections,” which were smaller TA-led learning sections that other students already seemed to know about. That’s why she strives to make AFGU a place in which first gen students who really understand the first gen experience act as peer mentors to other first gen students.

“I wanted to help others and facilitate that learning process,” Eng said.

AFGU hosts several online platforms in which students feel safe to ask any questions about navigating college. Many students, said Eng, think they’re the only one with questions such as how to get funding for grad school applications, but others always encouragingly respond that they had the same exact question too. 

It is such hidden aspects of college in America that can only be known by experiencing it for oneself. I, too, now have this knowledge of the higher education process and its intricacies that my parents were never able to tell me.

I now understand how to fill out a FAFSA and what the difference between a major and general requirement is. I can now share this knowledge with others, including other first gens and later, my own children. Just like Lee, Eng, Miles and other first gens who are sharing from their experiences to help, I too, am a first gen who can pave the path for others to be successful and resilient.