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Boror, Guadalupe

Jennifer Rodrick

English 115

December 6th, 2017

Low Income Community Students Adapting to College

College can have the effect of having people feel left out because of who you are or who

you want to be. Attending a university can be such a fun experience as it can also be nerve

wrecking for students who didnt have the luxury of attending prestigious schools. College is a

place full of diversity and it can be hard for low-income students to feel like they fit in. College

students coming from low income communities are forced to adapt to the college environment in

order to have a successful educational experience.

Students coming from low income communities usually come from places where they are

not motivated and pushed to go to college. These students from low

income communities sometimes face counselors telling them to look

for a job or go to a vocational school. When students are advised to go

to college it is a very brief suggestion. Coming from a low-income

community such as South-Central Los Angeles, in my senior year I

was told to apply to college but I was never advised how to do so. It

was a situation, where if you really wanted to go to college you had to

figure out how to start the application process yourself or ask someone

to help you. The transition to California State University Northridge

Figure 1 Statistics of Low Incoming students
going to college
has been tough because I wasnt prepared for the responsibility and
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load work of a college student. I didnt have the study habits or skills I needed for college, so I

had to adjust as fast as I could. I had to ask for help and find a way to reach the level of my

fellow classmates. Darris R. Means and Kimberly B. Payne studied first year low income

students and their perception of feeling integrated in their college. In their study titled Finding

My Way: Perceptions of Institutional Support and Belonging in Low-Income, First-Generation,

First-Year College Students Means and Payne state when processing these experiences of

being othered, many students relied primarily on social support from institutional, need-based

scholarship programs, multicultural centers or offices, and social identity-based student

organizations. This proves that students from low income communities need to go through more

support systems to help them adapt to college. Students going to college from low income

communities must ask for help if they want to succeed and adopt to college because the support

might have never been offered during their earlier education.

Low income students also struggle with frequent financial problems. College can be very

expensive for people who arent used to paying for their education. In college, low-income

students are exposed to seeing wealthier not worrying about financial responsibilities. As where

kids with parents of low income dont get the luxury of having money to buy things they want or

things they need. These surroundings and circumstances make it difficult for students to adopt to

the campus because now not only do they have to worry about school work but they also must

find a way to support themselves financially. Working a job would cause a student to have less

time to spend on their education. Justin Akers Chacon the author of The Experiences of Low

Income Latino/a Students in the California Community College System at a Time of Education

Budget Cuts states Students from low-income families have to pay a larger percentage of their

income for college, making these families much more dependent on financial aid and loans
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(National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education [NCPPHE], 2008). This supports the

idea that low income students must take time away from their education to pay for their

education. College expenses arent just tuition many students have to pay for expenses such as

student housing and may also have to pay for transportation. Therefor low-income students have

to adapt to the new financial lifestyle if they wish not to worry about not affording school.

College is a place where people are introduced to a various amount of diversities. It can

be a shocking place for people who arent used to seeing and interacting with different people.

Students from low income communities arent accustomed to seeing various diversities within

their schools and nearby shopping centers. This week I interviewed a colleague of mine who is

from the low-income community of Watts, California. I asked them about their high school

experience and how diverse their campus was. They answered me with My school was basically

filled with only Hispanics and African Americans and through my whole high school experience

I think I only saw one white person. This answer showed me how closed minded some low-

income community students can be towards different races. With so much diversity these low-

income students may also feel like they arent somewhere they belong. These feelings may come

because of stereo types people are taught about certain races being smarter than others. College

is also diverse with sexuality. Where as in many low-income communities like south central Los

Angeles faces homophobia. Consequently, these low-income community, college students

should adopt to the diversities of college.

Many low-income students also struggle to adapt to college because many of the things

they are being taught in college go against their ethics beliefs back home. Lots of low income

communities have low rates of students going to college. These low-income communities tend to

value working for money rather the chasing education for money. For example, throughout my
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senior year of high school my parents strongly encouraged me to attend a vocational school to be

done with higher education faster because going to a four-year university was going to take 4 or

more years of my life. In the article The College Dropout Boom written by David Leonhardt

the author talks about how lots of students sometimes prefer to drop out of college and would

rather make money at work. The article states I enjoyed working hard, getting the job done,

getting a paycheck," Mr. Blevins recalled. "I just knew I didn't want to quit." So, he quit college

instead, and with that, Andy Blevins joined one of the largest and fastest-growing groups of

young adults in America. He became a college dropout, though nongraduate may be the more

precise term. This proves that some students prefer to have an income on money for themselves

of having to pay for school or about school finances. I felt like my parents wanted me to start

working as soon as I graduated high school and thats just something I didnt want for myself.

When people are influenced by their parents they might sometimes be a factor in the choice of

major. Many people are scared to go against their parents word or they just want to make them

happy. So, when low income students come to college influenced or not by their surroundings

they must try their best to pass classes to make someone happy.

As a result of attending college students from low income communities are faced with

many obstacles that they have to overcome in order to be successful in college. Low-income

students have to adapt to the college lifestyle faster than those of a better financial class. These

students have to mature mentally to be able to fit in with other students who dont have to worry

about anything other than passing their classes. Low-income college students have to break

more barriers than many others.

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Works Cited

Chacon, Justin A. The Experiences of Low-Income Latino/a Students in the California

Community College System at a Time of Education Budget Cuts. The Experiences of

Low-Income Latino/a Students in the California Community College System at a Time of

Education Budget Cuts Journal of Hispanic Higher Education - Justin Akers Chacn,

2013, 23 Dec. 2012, journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1538192712468158.

Leonhardt, David . The College Dropout Boom. The New York Times Company, 24 May 2005,

facultystaff.richmond.edu/~bmayes/pdf/SocialClass_college_UVa.pdf.

Means, D. R. & Payne, K. B. "Finding My Way: Perceptions of Institutional Support and

Belonging in Low-Income, First-Generation, First-Year College Students." Journal of

College Student Development, vol. 58 no. 6, 2017, pp. 907-924. Project MUSE,

doi:10.1353/csd.2017.0071

Mitchell, Michael. Higher Ed Cuts, Tuition Hikes Worsen Low-Income Students' Struggles.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 10 Oct. 2017, www.cbpp.org/blog/higher-ed-

cuts-tuition-hikes-worsen-low-income-students-struggles.