Successful Students
Successful First-Generation College Students
at ISU
Recently, research was conducted to explore factors that help explain
the academic success of first-generation college students enrolled at
Indiana State University. First-generation college students are
individuals whose parents do not possess a four-year college degree.
Although national research shows that first-generation college students have a greater chance for dropping out of college (due to various reasons) as compared to their non-first-generation college student peers, many ISU first-generation students nonetheless successfully complete their studies and attain their degrees. The research conducted at ISU on successful first-generation college students sought to discover the barriers to success that students encounter and the strategies they use to overcome them. This research was conducted by Dr. Tom Rios, director of the Indiana State University Career Center. While the population studied was first-generation college students, the findings are applicable to all students.
Some of the insights gained from this study included:
- Students’ peers had a considerable affect on their success or potential failure, and successful students surrounded themselves with positive influences.
- Parental involvement and support were both helpful in getting students to ISU and in keeping them here.
- Successful students learned how to master the University system and use it to their benefit.
- Successful students understood the importance of their social and academic integration into the University and sought ways to become connected to the ISU community.
- Successful students drew upon incidents where they were criticized as being incapable of succeeding and used this as motivation toward their goal of graduation.
- Successful students were motivated by their desire for enhanced economic and career opportunities, and approached their studies with a practical, career-oriented focus.
Successful strategies that students used included:
- Learning professors’ classroom expectations and tailoring their study accordingly.
- Going to class.
- Surrounding themselves with positive peer influences.
- Setting high standards for themselves.
- Physically removing themselves from distractions and negative peer influences (i.e., finding places in the library and elsewhere to study).
- Being “good consumers” of University resources and services by actively seeking them out.
Your role of parent or guardian of a student
beginning their college career is critical to their success. Thus, much of
the material in this Handbook provides specific actions you can take to
increase your student’s chances for success.
200 North Seventh Street, Terre Haute, Indiana, USA 47809-1902
Copyright
© 2013
Indiana State
University. 1-800-GO-TO-ISU | 1-800-468-6478 | Privacy Policy
