The first.

We are mostly aware of how being the first one to go to college from your family impacts college. But let me take a moment to discuss a more nuanced case.

This student was admitted to the University of San Francisco. She was first generation, meaning no one else in her immediate family (and in her case, extended family) had gone to college. She was also being raised by a single mother. Her aunts contacted me around May when the student and her mom had already decided not to take USF’s offer of admissions and funding.

USF’s campus was about 90 minutes from home and mom wanted her to contribute to the household by working. This is one of the top reasons why first-generation students drop-out of college: obligations to the household.

One of the reasons why mom wanted her to work is because she “bought” her a car as a graduation gift. Basically, mom used her credit to get a car loan and car, but could not afford the payments. She expected her daughter to pick up the payments. She also thought it was a good gift because she was expecting her daughter to commute to campus each day so that she could live at home. This is another top reason why first-generation students are not successful at college: When they do not live on campus, they are not acclimating to campus life. There are things such as late study sessions in the lab or group work in the library that are not conducive to commuting.

So mom then figured that she could borrow as much money as they would allow. Her daughter could use the school loan to help pay rent, make the car payments, and the part-time job could be used for fun stuff. You guessed it: this is another top reason why first-generation students are not successful in college. There may be a misunderstanding or misuse of college aid.

I’ll be honest. I was super confused.

By the time the aunts reached out to me, they were initially asking how a fully-funded student could get another $50K per year. I didn’t understand why that would be necessary. Yes, there are expenses that come up that aren’t covered in financial aid, but not that much. And I understood that she even called the financial aid office to ask for more money so she could help her mom at home.

Here’s the reality: colleges are not equipped to help students with the college knowledge that the mom and daughter needed. The other major reality is that most non-profit organizations are not equipped either because on paper, the student did the thing that’s the goal: She was admitted and fully-funded. This is another reason why we incorporated social fit and what we mean when we say we’re focused on graduation, not admissions. This is also what we mean when we say we’re research-backed. We continue to add more technology to catch families like this and provide them with the answers they need.

Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened to this student and her mom. She wasn’t open to hearing advice at the time, including advice on how to defer for a year while she figured out the home stuff. I just hope that she found a way to make it all work.