As degree attainment remains one of the more accepted pathways toward upward social mobility, first‐generation students are pursuing post‐secondary degrees despite being uniquely vulnerable to obstacles that undermine their higher educational enrollment, retention, and later attainment. Universities have introduced scholarship programs as targeted intervention strategies to reduce some common educational obstacles; however, little is known about how first‐generation students utilize university‐sponsored scholarships and whether these scholarships are enabling relative to student success or reproduce existing stratification mechanisms within higher education. Drawing from longitudinal qualitative data with 61 first‐generation students at a large public university, I elaborate in this article on the types of inequalities first‐generation students encounter during their college years and whether or how institutional intervention strategies matter. Findings suggest that first‐generation students struggle to balance both their educational aspirations and the vulnerability risks (i.e., academic, social, and financial barriers) to remain enrolled. This suggests, relative to existing literature, a complicated relationship between first‐generation student vulnerability, decision making, and university‐sponsored scholarships. These results contribute to broader sociological concerns of inequality by speaking to the current limitations of institutional support mechanisms and their impact on first‐generation student socialization, integration, and later educational attainment.
Jasmine L. Whiteside (Wed,) studied this question.