Who are the First Generation Students at UIC?
An Examination of the Fall 2002 Beginning Freshman Class

Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
Student Affairs Research and Assessment Committee
Nick Ardinger, Campus Housing
Pat Inman, OVCSA
Bob Lees, Counseling Center
Tony Martin, Campus Housing
Kim Savage, Campus Auxiliary Services
Julian Szucko, Testing Services
Flecia Thomas, African American Academic Network
Lee Willis, African American Academic NetworkOctober 2003

For information regarding this article, contact Patricia Inman at pinman@uic.edu or Julian Szucko at jjs@uic.edu.

Abstract
There is much discussion on campus about UIC’s role in educating first generation college students. Using data from the 2002 administration of the Freshman Survey, this report provides an estimate of the number of new freshmen who are first generation college students and some information about these students. The data suggest that students with college-educated parents consider more college options by applying to more institutions. In addition, they tend to be more confident of their academic abilities, and less concerned about financial factors in the completion of their education than their first generation counterparts.

Who are the First Generation Students at UIC?
There is much discussion on campus about UIC’s role in educating first generation college students—that is, students from families where neither parent (or the sole parent) has a college education. Although we do not have an exact figure on the number of undergraduates who are first generation, survey data provide some general indications of their number, who they are and how they come to UIC.

The Survey
The Freshman Survey is a part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. The survey was administered to Fall 2002 entering freshmen during the summer orientation program prior to the start of the term. Participation in the survey was voluntary. Response from the invitation to participate resulted in 1841 completed surveys from a freshman class of 3015 students.

Comparing First Generation students with Students of College Educated Parents
Of the 1841 freshmen completing the survey, 25% reported that both parents’1 highest educational level is a high school diploma or less. These are the first generation students who are mentioned so frequently in discussing UIC’s role and mission in undergraduate education. In contrast, 28% of the students reported that both parents1 had at least a bachelor’s degree. (In fact, more than 50% of the students reported that at least one parent had a college degree.)
Who are these first generation college students? First generation students are more likely to be female. While just less than 50% of students from families with parents who have earned college degrees are female, 63% of first generation students are female. However, both groups of students come to UIC with very similar degree aspirations. Around 80% of the first generation students and the students of a college educated (with a degree) parents aspire to earn a postgraduate or professional degree.

Does the lack of college background affect students’ college selection process? Perhaps. Two items in the survey assist in assessing issues of student choice and selection. Students were asked to how many colleges, other than UIC, they applied for admission for the same term. Students were also asked if UIC was their first, second, third, or lower than third choice when seeking college admission. Figures 1 and 2 represent the differences between the two groups in response to these two questions. A higher percentage of the first generation students applied for admission to only one college—UIC. Over 50% of the students from both groups (the students from families of college-educated parents and the first generation students) considered UIC their first choice. However, a higher proportion of the first generation students ranked UIC as their first choice (69% compared to 55%).

Note: These figures include a small number of students who reported educational level of only one parent – thus, the only parent reported in these cases.
Generally, students who enter UIC have high levels of confidence about their academic abilities and drive to succeed. As noted, approximately 80% aspire to a postgraduate or professional degree. When asked to rate themselves on various traits as compared with the average person of their age, approximately 70% of all students in the survey rated themselves ‘above average’ or in the ‘highest 10%’ in both academic ability and drive to achieve. However, there were some differences between the first generation students and those with college educated parents in self-rated academic ability. Students from college educated families rated themselves higher on academic ability, although the differences between the groups narrowed in the drive to achieve. The differences between the two groups were most apparent in self-rated mathematical ability. Only 12.9% of the first generation college students rated themselves in the highest 10% in mathematical ability in contrast to 21.4% of the students of college-educated parents. Figures 3, 4 and 5 show the differences in Self Reported ‘Academic Ability’, ‘Drive to Achieve’ and Mathematical Ability’ respectively.

When asked about their concern about financing their college education, over 30% of the students from college educated families reported no concern in contrast to 13% of the first generation families (see figure 6). These proportions are just about reversed on the other end (students indicating ‘major concern’ about financing college education) with 16.5% of college educated families reporting major concern, compared with 29.6% of first generation students.
A subset of the total sample agreed to release a student identifier to UIC for use in tracking and follow-up studies. A total of 326 first generation students and 343 students of college educated parents released student identifiers. Based on this information, we were able to compare the two groups across the academic preparedness indicators collected during the admissions process – those are the high school percentile rank (HSPR) and the ACT score. The two groups were very similar in average HSPR (76.5 compared to 75.3). However, the average composite ACT score showed a large difference between the two groups. First generation students had an average ACT composite score of 21.7, compared to a 26.6 average composite score of the student of college-educated parents. (See Table 1).

As an early indicator of student retention and performance, we examined the first year completion, composite GPA and number of hours completed of these 669 students. From initial enrollment at UIC as freshmen in Fall 2002, a total of 605 students completed Spring 2003 semester. This total revealed an 87.1% first year completion rate for the first generation students with an average GPA of 3.5 and an average of 24.1 hours completed. This compares with a 93.6% first year completion rate for the students of college-educated parents with a 3.8average GPA and 30.9 semester hours (see Table 1).

In summary, it appears that students with college-educated parents consider more options by applying to more institutions; they tend to be more confident of their abilities, and less concerned about financial factors in the completion of their education. The difference in ACT scores between these two groups suggests that first generation students may be at disadvantage from the moment they enter college. Though this information contributes to our understanding of the UIC first generation population, by no means does it offer a complete picture. There is much more to learn about these students and what services and resources we need to provide to ensure that they meet their academic goals.