Two scientists, Catrina G. Murphy and Terence Hicks, published an academic research paper entitled, "Academic Characteristics among First-Generation and Non-First-Generation College Students". The study investigated the differences in academic expectations of first-generation and non-first-generation undergraduates at an historically Black university in Maryland. The sample was divided into three sub-groups: two first generation groups and one non-first-generation group. The first sub-first generation group was students with both parents having no college education and the second was for students with at least one parent having some college experience, but no college degree. The non-first-generation group was students having parents with at least a bachelor's degree. Research has found that first generation students are less prepared for the academic rigor and lack academic integration of a college education (Murphy and Hicks).
What are they missing?
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Expectations
This study was geared less at the factual outcome of the students, but the students' expectations for their futures and current college experience based off their parents' education status. The subject with the most expected difficulty for all three groups was mathematics, as seen in Table 1. Confidence in all groups was low for this subject.
The study also observed the students expected highest degree intentions where all three groups had a higher percentage expecting their highest degree to be a master's degree. Oddly enough, there was no deviation in expected grade point averages of the given groups. The students perceived their grade point averages to be less than a 3.00. The status of their parents' education did not affect this expectation if judged by these results. (Murphy and Hicks, p. 6-16) |