<p>How has your college experience been?</p>
<p>I doubt it would be any different from a non first generation…</p>
<p>I’m first generation. About the only difference I’ve seen is that my parents have no annoying “When I was in college…” stories/advice. The big difference was before college (ie having no knowledge of college admissions or FA or any of that stuff).</p>
<p>i am. Its so different when i tell them, their like “really? huh”</p>
<p>First generation student right here!</p>
<p>It’s tough! I mean, I’m loving school, but my parents don’t really know how to answer a lot of my questions, from “How do I go about asking my prof about such-and-such” to questions about campus life, how to deal with my roommate, etc…</p>
<p>I’ve wished on more than one occasion that SOMEBODY in my family had gone to university so that I’d have someone to ask about it…</p>
<p>I’m first generation as well. The toughest thing about it has been having to take care of everything on my own college-wise, but it’s also nice not to have to worry about disappointing my parents by not living up to some level of expectations. I don’t have to worry about running my class schedule by them, or not going to a prestigious enough school. The fact that I am going to college and getting good grades, no matter where it is or what I’m studying, makes them happy. Which is good, because I have transferred and switched majors twice. :D</p>
<p>A sibling of mine is currently first-gen, and I will be in 2 months :D. I, of course, can’t tell anyone how it is from pers experience because I haven’t started. But from observation of my sibling and my parents, it’s obvious that my parents can’t help her with advice or most things that is related to college. For ex: fin aid, advice with classes, etc. When she asks for insight, they usually say “Do what you think is best”.</p>
<p>It’s not very different from any other students’ life, but I guess the main thing is that my parents aren’t bugging me with advice all of the time since they have no experience.</p>
<p>I am*! It makes things a bit difficult, but it’s still college. It’s essentially navigating the waters without anyone in your family before you having any clue about most of what’s going on.</p>
<p>*Well, kinda. I’ve had 3 older cousins go to college, but drop out anywhere between the end of the first semester or after a year and a half.</p>
<p>I’m a first generation and it’s not too much different than a non-first generation. Maybe the only difference is that my parents didn’t really know how to fill out the FAFSA, so they stalled with filing their taxes and the whole financial aid process was rough. My parents also don’t have a ton of motivation, so I had to do all of the research of colleges, and had to make sure that I wasn’t forgetting anything when applying.</p>
<p>While I don’t know if it would make a difference if either of my parents attended college, I’d like to think they would have been a little more helpful if they had.</p>
<p>I will be in just under two months.</p>
<p>First generation High School graduate too.</p>
<p>I’m also a first generation college student and besides the fact that my parents aren’t familiar with the college selection and course planning processes, there is not much of a difference.</p>
<p>I am a first generation college student, and I agree with uwrobi that my parents also stalled with the income tax forms, mostly because my mother could not get her employer to give her what was necessary to fill our her income tax forms until 2 weeks before my FAFSA was due for my school. She now saves up all her financial information that is needed to fill the income tax form instead of relying on her employer so she can get it filled out ASAP because I feel that I didn’t get the extra FSEOG money was perhaps due to a first come, first serve basis of who hands in their FAFSA the earliest.</p>
<p>My experience has been similar to a lot of experiences here, beyond being a first generation student, I’m also now a nontraditional student as I was away from college for about 10 years before going back this summer.
I missed out on a lot of opportunities for scholarships and grants the first time around because my parents didn’t realize that there were some things you could only do at specific points during high school, like the PSATs. I never took the PSAT, just finally took the SAT in May, yeah, wonder how I would have done if I would have taken it DURING high school instead of ten years later? I had a 4.0 in high school but didn’t get a single scholarship because I hadn’t taken those tests. Didn’t take those tests because my parents didn’t want to drive me to a different school or pay for them. Because I hadn’t taken those tests, instead of getting to go to a regular state university I went to a community college which I dropped out of because my parents made too much one year and I just couldn’t afford to keep going because they didn’t contribute anything and I lost my pell grant.
Fast forward ten years and now fortunately their income can’t screw me out of financial aid anymore, but, almost every scholarship had to be applied for while still in high school. They don’t value college at all. My mom used to spend a bit of time with my daughter everyday, but, now she doesn’t want to see her at all because it might help me get school done which my mother doesn’t approve of. Sigh. I’m really envious of people who have parents that went to college and more importantly place some value on an education.</p>
<p>I agree – filling out the financial aid applications was pure torture. My parents threw the tax papers in my face and I had to fill out FAFSA and the horrid CSS Profile.
FAFSA wasn’t that bad, but the CSS Profile was extremely annoying to fill out.
But hey, at least you learn :)</p>
<p>I just finished school as a first gen, and it was very frustrating the first few years. My parents vastly underestimated the work load and stress level of college, and had unreasonably high expectations. They also had it in their heads that going to school full time was completely outrageous and that nobody should take more than a couple credit hours at a time-- and at first very nearly refused to ALLOW me to – but also threatened to pull financial support if I didn’t graduate in 4 years (in the form of cosigning my loans, because they didn’t actually believe in college and didn’t save for it). It got a little bit better in that my parents started to realize that I wasn’t going to get an A on every assignment and that my workload really was as heavy as it was, but they were still pretty clueless in general. I don’t blame them, but I imagine it’s very difficult to parent when you don’t really understand what you’re child is doing, and that difficulty can manifest in some very frustrating situations for the child!</p>
<p>JenniferinFL, your story sounds a lot like how I almost ended up. I feel your pain! Good for you for going back!</p>