More Than One Way to Be First

Abstract

Chapter 1 introduces the reader to existing research on first-generation college students and argues that institutions need to learn more about the heterogeneity among first generation students to better serve this population. The authors describe their three broad questions: First, what are the different ways that first-generation students organize their social, extracurricular, and academic lives at selective and highly selective colleges? Second, how do first generation students sort themselves and get sorted into these different types of campus lives? Third, how do these different patterns of campus engagement prepare first-generation students for their post-college lives? The authors then provide an overview of their arguments and explain how their concept of campus geographies provides a new and useful lens. Finally, they describe their methods and provide an overview of the chapters in the book.