Read full article written by Angelena Salvadge on NACE Website
What, if any, effect do internships have on the career readiness of first-generation students? Similarly, how do study abroad experiences impact first-generation students’ career readiness? In this article, we examine data from NACE’s 2018 Student Survey to compare and contrast the effects of these activities on first-generation students with those of their non-first-generation peers, detail implications, and suggest avenues for further investigation.
Diversity and First-Generation Students
First-generation (FG) college students, defined for purposes here as students whose parent(s) do not hold a bachelor’s degree, are more diverse racially and ethnically than their non-first-generation counterparts (NFG). (See Figure 1.)
The demographic breakdown of bachelor’s-level students from NACE’s 2018 Student Survey follows this pattern, with FG students of diverse racial backgrounds outpacing their NFG counterparts. (See Figure 2.)
In addition to FG students being racially and ethnically diverse, socioeconomic status also distinguishes them from their NFG peers.
According to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 27 percent of FG students in 2002 came from households earning $20,000 or less annually, compared to 6 percent of NFG students, and 50 percent of FGs came from households earning $20,001 to $50,000, compared to 23 percent of NFGs.1 Not surprisingly, income plays a major role in whether to attend college: According to a report published by the Pell Institute, in 2016, 78 percent of high school graduates from the highest family income quartile enrolled in college, compared with 46 percent of those in the lowest income quartile.2 Additionally, a greater number of FG students take out student loans— and of higher values—in their first year of college than do NFG students.3
College-readiness also plays a role. According to one study, FG students who are not college-ready will drop out after their first year at a rate greater than equally un-college-ready NFGs.4 Another study found that only 20 percent of FG students earned their bachelor’s degree compared to 42 percent of NFG students.5
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