The Double Whammy of Disadvantage: Data on College Success for Low-Income, First-Generation Students

Students who come from low-income families and are also the first in their families to attend college face a “double whammy of disadvantage,” according to data complied by researcher Jennifer Engle and Colleen O’Brien at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education. The data, presented at June’s Student Financial Aid Research Network conference and slated to be released as a report in September 2008, illustrate the high hurdles low-income, first-generation students must clear both to attend college and to succeed there. The researchers conclude that, despite many recent initiatives to increase representation of low-income and first-generation students at four-year colleges, there is still much work to be done in both recruitment and retention of such students.

Data were drawn from several National Center for Education Statistics data sets, and included a newly defined variable, LIFG (low income, first generation) that characterized “low income” as income of $25,000 or less, and “first generation” as a student with neither parent holding a bachelor’s degree.

FINDINGS

Where LIFG Students Attend College

• In 2003-04, more low-income, first-generation students attended two-year public schools (52 percent) and for-profit schools (21 percent) than four-year public schools (13 percent) or four-year private schools (6 percent).
• In contrast, students who were not low income or first generation attended two-year public and four-year public schools in equal numbers (35 percent each), followed by four-year private schools (19 percent) and for-profit schools (4 percent).
• LIFG students and their non-low-income, not first-generation peers were about equally likely to attend more than one institution (5 percent versus 6 percent)

How LIFG Students Fare

• LIFG students are much more likely than their non-LIFG peers to leave college after the first year—26 percent versus 7 percent—based on data gathered from 1996 to 2001.
• First-to-second-year attrition rates were highest for LIFG students at two-year public schools (32 percent), followed by for-profit schools (26 percent) and four-year public schools (12 percent).
• Six years after enrollment, 43 percent of LIFG students who started college in 1996 were no longer enrolled in higher education. Thirty-two percent had attained an associate’s degree, 13 percent were still enrolled, and 11 percent had attained a bachelor’s degree.
• Among non-LIFG students from the same data set, 55 percent had attained a bachelor’s degree after six years, while 20 percent were not enrolled in higher education, 15 percent were still enrolled, and 11 percent had attained an associate’s degree.

Financial Need

• Seventy-nine percent of LIFG students still had financial need after receiving all the financial aid for which they were eligible in 2004, compared with only 34 percent of their non-LIFG peers.
• The average amount of LIFG students’ remaining need after aid was $5,039.

While the complete data from the Pell Institute study has not yet been released, an article in Inside Higher Ed reviews the findings presented at the Student Financial Aid Research Network conference.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Low-income, first-generation students are more likely to be older, be female, have dependent children, be financially independent, need remediation, and work full-time while enrolled in college.
• Eighty-nine percent of non-LIFG students at two-year schools expect to earn at least a bachelor’s degree, while only 63 percent of their LIFG peers expect to earn at least a BA degree.