First-generation college students in the United States

First-generation college students in the United States are college students whose parents did not complete a baccalaureate degree. Although research has revealed that completion of a baccalaureate degree is significant in terms of upward socioeconomic mobility in the United States, a considerable body of research indicates that these students face significant systemic barriers to postsecondary education access, academic success once enrolled, and degree completion. Many of these obstacles result from systemic racial, cultural, social, and economic inequities.

Compared to their continuing-generation counterparts, first-generation college students are more likely to be older than their peers, have dependents, come from low-income families, attend college part-time, live off campus, have more work responsibilities, and hold traditionally disadvantaged ethnic and racial identities. While first-generation college students are less likely to complete their postsecondary education than their peers, those who do graduate often incur more debt to pay for their degree and accumulate less lifetime wealth than students whose parents completed a baccalaureate degree.