Are you a first generation college student?

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm taking a poll for a sociology class and hope you can help me out.
Criteria - have to be a first generation college student, ANY AGE!</p>

<ol>
<li><p>What is your Race, Age, and Gender? (Demographic purposes)</p></li>
<li><p>Where are your parents from?</p></li>
<li><p>Why didn't they go to college?</p></li>
<li><p>Why are you going to college?</p></li>
<li><p>Do you feel you lack educational guidance from your parent(s) since they didn't go to college? Are (Did) you figuring out things yourself?</p></li>
<li><p>What are you studying (or have studied)? future goals?</p></li>
<li><p>Have you always wanted to go to college or was it mostly a parental influence?</p></li>
<li><p>Are your parents supporting you on this decision?</p></li>
<li><p>How are you paying (did you pay for) college? By yourself? Parents? Scholarships?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thank you so much for taking the time out to answer this survey!</p>

2

<ol>
<li><p>17 year old African-American Female. I will be attending university in the fall if that counts!</p></li>
<li><p>Detroit, Michigan</p></li>
<li><p>Mother went to a 4 year university for two years but dropped out due to family problems. She intended on returning within a few years, but didn’t. She will be attending community college in the fall. My father never graduated high school, but eventually found a well paying job. He never intended on furthering his education.</p></li>
<li><p>To gain an advantage in the career field of my choice.</p></li>
<li><p>My mother majored in accounting and worked as a bank teller. She was helpful in math and now extremely helpful in personal finance. Although I did lack guidance from them in other subjects, I still excelled in my studies by myself.</p></li>
<li><p>Double majoring in Design and Communication Studies, minoring in Business. I’m aiming for Broadcast Journalism, but my goals are subject to change. </p></li>
<li><p>Mostly parental influence, but it’s my decision. I cannot see myself not going.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes.</p></li>
<li><p>Scholarships mostly. Only a few thousand remaining and will be covered by work study. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Hope this helped! :)</p>

3

<ol>
<li><p>What is your Race, Age, and Gender? (Demographic purposes)
Race-White
Age-16</p></li>
<li><p>Where are your parents from?
SoCal</p></li>
<li><p>Why didn’t they go to college?
They had me at 18 and 19. My dad joined the Military, and my mom stayed home and took care of me.</p></li>
<li><p>Why are you going to college?
Part of it is definitely a “prove to the world that just because I came from an uneducated family doesn’t mean I am uneducated.”
The other part is, aerospace engineering is my passion.</p></li>
<li><p>Do you feel you lack educational guidance from your parent(s) since they didn’t go to college? Are (Did) you figuring out things yourself?
Yes, definitely. I feel kind of lonely, as my parents don’t really care about education. I’ve figured pretty much everything out myself.</p></li>
<li><p>What are you studying (or have studied)? future goals?
I plan to major in Aerospace Engineering or chemistry, and then on to medical school.</p></li>
<li><p>Have you always wanted to go to college or was it mostly a parental influence?
I haven’t. When I was younger, I didn’t think I would have the opportunity. Over the years, I’ve had great teachers who have influenced me and shown me that I very well can go to university.</p></li>
<li><p>Are your parents supporting you on this decision?
Yes</p></li>
<li><p>How are you paying (did you pay for) college? By yourself? Parents? Scholarships?
I will be paying myself. Hopefully I will get tons of Financial Aid and scholarships.</p></li>
</ol>

4

<ol>
<li><p>Seventeen-year-old white girl. </p></li>
<li><p>Northern Ohio. </p></li>
<li><p>My father has an associate’s degree, but neither of my parents has a bachelor’s degree. My father tried to go to college when he was younger, but both of his parents died when he was in his early twenties and he ended up never getting a bachelor’s degree. He started his own business and has been working at home for thirty years. My mother’s parents worked in factories all their lives and my mother just sort of followed in their footsteps. Both of my parents lived in rural areas and graduated in the early 1970s, so they probably didn’t have a lot of access to information about college. </p></li>
<li><p>To learn. Of course, you don’t need to go to college to get an education, but I like the structure of college and the extracurricular/cocurricular opportunities they offer (internships, study abroad, clubs, etc.). The careers I’m considering all require college, but I would want to go even if I didn’t need it for a career.</p></li>
<li><p>On some level yes, but I don’t really know what I was missing out on not having college-educated parents, so it doesn’t bother me too much. The Internet allowed me to figure out a lot of things on my own. </p></li>
<li><p>I want to major in math. I have a pipe dream of getting a Ph.D. in math (if I turn out to be smart enough) and working…somewhere. Academic or industry, I don’t know. Apparently it’s really hard to get a job in academia. </p></li>
<li><p>I’ve always wanted to go to college, but I didn’t want to go to a university specifically (as opposed to the local community college) until my sophomore year. </p></li>
<li><p>For the most part, yes. My father isn’t as financially supportive as he could be, but he helps some. </p></li>
<li><p>Mostly scholarships and need-based grants. I have a job now and I plan to continue working in college (I got work-study), but my parents will pay a few thousand dollars per year if I can’t cover it all on my own. To save money, I’m staying with relatives rather than living on-campus. It’s a private top-50 (US News) university. </p></li>
</ol>

5

<ol>
<li><p>African-American (Black) 18 year old Male</p></li>
<li><p>My mom was raised in Detroit, my Dad was born in Nigeria but came over in his teens.</p></li>
<li><p>My Dad is a little older, and so during his time he didn’t need to go to college to get a good job. So he didn’t. My Mom did not graduate high school</p></li>
<li><p>I’m going to college to broaden myself in all spheres. To meet people from all over the world, to push myself academically and socially, and of course to have fun. And of course, I’m going so that I can get a job in my chosen field (whatever that is).</p></li>
<li><p>My parent (my Dad doesn’t live with me) is doing the best that she can. My Sister also went to college (the first in my family to go to a four year University and graduate), so for some things, she could help. For newer things though like the Common App I did it myself.</p></li>
<li><p>I want to double major in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics and something else (maybe Actuarial Mathematics). I’ve been premed for a while, but I’m not doing that anymore.</p></li>
<li><p>My Mom stressed to us the importance of going to college, since she knew from not getting a High School diploma how necessary it was. So I think her pushing me and the example my Sister set for me are the primary motivators for me.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes.</p></li>
<li><p>For every school I applied too, I made sure that either the need-based financial aid would cover everything, or I would get a good combination of need and merit based aid to cover it. For other incidental fees, I’m trying to get outside, smaller private scholarships.</p></li>
</ol>

6

<ol>
<li>What is your Race, Age, and Gender? (Demographic purposes):</li>
</ol>

<p>Age - 19
Race - Black
Gender - Male</p>

<ol>
<li>Where are your parents from?</li>
</ol>

<p>Both from Detroit, Michigan.</p>

<ol>
<li>Why didn’t they go to college?</li>
</ol>

<p>My dad went to a local university when he was younger, bad dropped out when he got a decent-paying job at a manufacturing plant. He said he would eventually go back, but never did. Mom had an upbringing that didn’t really encourage college much (her mom was on drugs, she lived in a girls home for some time, etc). I would assume she never went to college when she was older because she believed she would be incapable of doing it (due to lack of intelligence, patience, persistence, or whatever else she believed). She is probably right about lacking the necessary patience and persistence; not sure about intelligence though.</p>

<ol>
<li>Why are you going to college?</li>
</ol>

<p>To get a career, rather than some dead-end, boring job.</p>

<ol>
<li>Do you feel you lack educational guidance from your parent(s) since they didn’t go to college? Are (Did) you figuring out things yourself?</li>
</ol>

<p>I guess you could say so. Neither of my parents has ever given me any non-common sense advice concerning academics. It’s not that hard to research the internet and talk to advisers though. In today’s world, you don’t really need someone with expertise to tell you what to do. The information is out there.</p>

<ol>
<li>What are you studying (or have studied)? future goals?</li>
</ol>

<p>I’m currently Computer Science. My future goal would be to just get a job in the field. My dream would be to start my own software company.</p>

<ol>
<li>Have you always wanted to go to college or was it mostly a parental influence?</li>
</ol>

<p>Both</p>

<ol>
<li>Are your parents supporting you on this decision?</li>
</ol>

<p>Yes</p>

<ol>
<li>How are you paying (did you pay for) college? By yourself? Parents? Scholarships?</li>
</ol>

<p>I got decent scholarships my first year (I’m currently a freshman). The University of Michigan does a good job meeting need for their in-state poor students. But they didn’t cover every tiny detail, and work experience is good; so I’m going to try to find a part-time job now. Hopefully, I can get a part-time job at a nearby grocery story or something. After my Sophomore year, I’ll have enough experience to do internships over the summer, so hopefully that’ll be a good source of income when the time comes.</p>

7

<ol>
<li><p>I’m white, 17, female :-)</p></li>
<li><p>My dad is from NY & my mom is from NJ but they both are in NJ now.</p></li>
<li><p>They both pursued careers that didn’t require a college degree. (Mom started her own business and Dad is a police officer.)</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve never imagined not going to college. It’s something others and I expect of myself.</p></li>
<li><p>YES YES YES it has been so hard doing this alone, and they try to help me but I’m really relying on myself for figuring out my future.</p></li>
<li><p>I’m not sure yet - probably something science related, possibly an engineer. I hope to make a good living.</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve always wanted to go to college.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, they want me to be happy and especially want me to pursue a higher education.</p></li>
<li><p>All of the above! I hope to earn some scholarships and merit aid and my parents will likely be a huge part in paying for school. </p></li>
</ol>