First generation college students

I would be interested to see how closely the desire for more parental involvement tracks with first-generation status.

I’m white, but both from a rural area and my parents did not go to college, and so most of the college experience was foreign to them and my community. My parents couldn’t offer the kind of advice and hints given to many of my peers by theirs, and it wasn’t part of the normal experience of the people we interacted with.

I definitely felt this lack of advice/preparation as a disadvantage: from little things like having no idea what “polly sigh” was the first time I heard it, to bigger things like the lack of access to AP courses, which my rural school didn’t offer but which my suburban peers, with mostly college-educated parents, had had access to.

Now, I often did better than my suburban peers in my courses, because the rural school I attended did do a good job of training me on the basics, and because I really didn’t want to have to go back home; I was extremely motivated and focused on academics because I saw them as my ticket out, and luckily I only had to work my one, work-study job.

However, not only is that not always the situation for non-white students or first-generation students, I was still aware that having parents who know the process can help you judge yourself and your skills, take risks, aim higher, and free you from many tedious tasks like learning how financial aid works. Additionally, if your parents aren’t college educated, there’s virtually always some shame/distrust involved in speaking to professors, which can cut these students off from getting mentoring that way.

That stuff must be balanced against the independence that some students like me are able to develop by having to figure a lot of stuff out on our own. I did it, but I could have pretty easily failed.

Given all the shifts that are occurring in our culture—with norms of parental involvement increasing at the same time that college costs are also rising, financial aid other than loans are decreasing—I am sure that today’s first generation students of all ethnicities feel this disadvantage quite keenly.

Lori, associate professor, at 7:10 am EST on January 24, 2008

Study Time

It’s interesting to me how the article seems to praise today’s student for spending more time on “homework and studying than on social networks.” A close look at the table provided shows that even though this is true, more than half (51%) of the students surveyed reported that they spent 1-5 hours per week studying. If these are the study habits that first-year students are accustomed to (and we have to ask ourselves how they define the work “study"), they could be in serious trouble during their first semester of rigorous college coursework—even if they spent less time on Facebook than they did reading real books.

Bryce, at 10:15 am EST on January 24, 2008

Clearly, there is still WAY too much partying going on.

But hey...I’m a drag anyway...my opinion probably leans a little right.

kgotthardt, at 11:20 am EST on January 24, 2008

I direct my staff to encourage parental involvment in the Financial Aid process. According to our survey, students feel comfortable taking out the necessary loans if their parents proof read the terms and sit for entrance couseling.

Nedi Goga, Chief Financial Aid Officer, at 12:15 pm EST on January 24, 2008

Missing Data?

The article has some interesting statistics, but there seems to be missing data to support the conclusion that “perhaps today’s students are happy with the hovering”. The ‘right amount’ of involvement in key activities is subjective; if the student felt that zero or little input was the right amount then the survey questions would still receive high percentages, but that wouldn’t mean that they had hovering parents.

The second question regarding students who see ‘Too Little’ Parental Involvement in Key Areas has a flawed title. Instead of ‘Too Little’; a better fit would be …”Who want More Involvement” (which is in the text above the survey results, and also in the second paragraph of the article). Similarly to the above paragraph, this question needs context due to the subjective nature of parental involvement. In effect, a question that asks how many hours were your parents involved in each of the following key decisions is necessary in order to provide a more meaningful baseline conclusion of too little, or more involvement needed amongst different ethnic groups.

My guess is that the survey did include these types of questions, but the article didn’t include them due to space constraints.

R.S., at 4:00 pm EST on January 24, 2008

Saying their parents were involved “the right amount” does quantify that amount which is a flaw in the study — or just the result reporting. That statement simply confirms that the student was satisfied with the amount their parents were involved. For some kids, that would mean little involvement; for others it could mean a lot of involvement. Really, without discussing definition of amount, this study does not reveal much about helicopter parents and their children’s relationship to them.

R. Sims, at 4:35 am EST on January 25, 2008