Less Than One in Four African Americans Entering Higher Education Today Are First-Generation College Students

A quarter of a century ago a large number of black students entering college were the first generation in their family to enroll in higher education. But this is no longer the case. The parents and sometimes grandparents of today’s college-bound black students often have had college experience of their own.

In 1971, according to data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the University of California at Los Angeles, 38.5 percent of entering college students of all races were the first in their families to enroll in higher education. By 2005 less than 16 percent of all first-year college students were the first generation in their families to enter college.

For blacks, in 1971 nearly 63 percent of all black students entering higher education were first-generation college students. Today 22.6 percent, less than one in four African-American students entering college, are the first in their families to enroll in higher education.

Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.