Colleges can’t agree on how to define “first generation” students. And maybe that’s OK, according to a team of researchers. But institutions must be aware of even small differences in backgrounds — because a narrow framing of who’s first-gen might cause colleges to miss students who need additional support.
That’s the central takeaway from the latest report in a series from the Common App, which has spent the past five months examining the complicated effects of students’ different parental situations on their academic preparedness and success in college.
Brian Heseung Kim, director of data-science research and analytics at Common App and principal author of the report, said “it would be great if everyone could align on one definition for first generation,” but “the reality is that different contexts kind of require different identification methods.”
Higher ed is devoting more attention to first-generation students after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision ending race-conscious admissions and new state bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Administrators are looking for ways to support disadvantaged students without running afoul of the law.
There has been a flurry of activity on college campuses to create “first-generation offices,” and Tarleton State University, in Texas, even has a vice president for “first-generation initiatives.”
While it’s true there is a correlation between parental education and student success, there is much less of a correlation with race. Over all, about half of first-generation students are from underrepresented minority groups, according to the second report in the series.
The term “first-generation student” was defined in a 1980 federal law as a student with parents who do not have a bachelor’s degree. Today, this is the definition used by the Common App and many other colleges. More than half of students in the 2015-16 academic year met that definition, according to the NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.
Students who meet those criteria are eligible for support through the federal TRIO program in high school and college, many state grants, and potential preferences in admissions.
Even within a single college, different programs and offices might need to define the term differently to meet distinct needs.
Some colleges use different approaches. It can even vary within a state’s own public-college system. California, which has one of the highest populations of first-generation students in the country, uses three different definitions across its community-college system and its two four-year university systems. The community colleges use the most stringent definition: Both parents must not have attended college at all. The University of California system has one of the most liberal: Both parents must not have earned a bachelor’s degree.
Kim said that even within a single college, different programs and offices might need to define the term differently to meet distinct needs.
Between 2013 and 2022, just over 300,000 students met the most stringent definition, in which both parents never attended any college. That group grows to over 500,000 applicants if the definition changes to students whose parents never received a U.S. bachelor’s degree.
What’s most important for colleges to keep in mind, Common App researchers said during a webinar on Thursday, is that students are not a monolith.
If just one parent attended college, that student will not be placed in the first-generation category, even by the most liberal standards. But students from single-degree households struggle more academically compared to their peers with two college-educated parents.
The report largely shies away from making recommendations, but researchers do argue that colleges should consider adding a new category: students of single parents. A whopping 30 percent of college applicants don’t live with two parents, according to the Common App’s data.
For colleges, figuring out how to proceed depends on their goals, researchers said.
If the intent is to support students who don’t have the same family support as their peers when navigating the college-admissions process in the United States, the researchers suggest that it’s sensible to exclude non-U.S. colleges.
If the intent is to create a category that tracks the most disadvantaged students, the most stringent definition — which includes only students whose parents never attended college — makes more sense.
Regardless of how the information is used, a granular view of parents’ level of education is valuable. According to the researchers, it can predict a student’s college readiness to the same level of accuracy as “their first-generation status, underrepresented racial/ethnic-minority status, high-school type, and fee-waiver eligibility combined.”
