Class Confessions: Analyzing the Voices of First-Generation Low-Income (FLI) College Students

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

"I'll say I'm busy when my friends go out so I don't feel pressured to pay for anything"

— Stanford Class Confessions, "#280

  "It was until last week that I found out what a "safety net" or a "trust fund" are. No wonder, my family has never had them. Perhaps, I am my family's safety net." 

— Stanford Class Confessions, "#243

"I always had a dream of getting into Stanford [...] Its my attitude and personality that changes the final results"

— Stanford Class Confessions, "#146

"As a first generation college student I feel sadness and happiness" 

— Stanford Class Confessions, "#22

These anonymous posts are from the First-Generation Low-Income Partnership's (FLIP) Facebook page, "Stanford Class Confessions." Through this platform, students from varying socioeconomic backgrounds have the opportunity to express their true feelings and grievances about themselves, Stanford University, and/or anyone associated with the elite institution. Although the site welcomes students from all income brackets, the majority of posts on this site are from first-generation low-income (FLI) college students.

For some background, this FLIP public page is not unique to Stanford University. In fact, having a "Class Confessions" page is an opportunity that many elite, private universities (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Yale, etc.) provide for students to interact with ("Class"). This begs questions such as "Why does the FLIP find it necessary to provide anonymous class confessions pages at these specific universities," "Who posts on these pages," and "What is expressed on these pages?" To answer these questions, we need to first look into the FLI portion of FLIP. Who are 'first-generation low-income' (FLI) college students and why we should care about them? 

FLI college students represent students who are the very first people in their family to go to college. Therefore, these students tend to come from low-income backgrounds. For these students, college is a way for them to better their family's situation, earn a high paying job, and seek higher status. Admission into four-year universities is often seen as a pinnacle moment in a FLI student's life, a moment that says, "Your life will be changed forever. Your family's life will be changed forever. You are going to college." Yet, attending a university as a FLI student, as exciting as it sounds, does come with difficulties, such as the few mentioned above with Class Confessions.

The necessity of having a class confession's page and the weight of going to college as a FLI student seems to show that FLI students have distinct experiences in comparison to  'normal' college students. However, current literature varies greatly in understanding this student population and in recommending FLI-specific resources for colleges to implement. On one hand, the majority of researchers report that FLI college students have difficulty socializing, dealing with mental health, and succeeding academically and recommend increased counseling (Covarrubias 2031-2032, Jenkins 129, Katrevich & Aruguete 40, Petty 258-259, and Piorkowski 620); on the other hand, a minority group of researchers report that FLI college students do not have any more difficulty socializing, dealing with mental health, or succeeding academically than 'normal' college students and recommend increased peer mentoring and general outreach & support programs (Azmitia et al. 95-96, Hébert 106, and Tate 80). In an effort to better understand and locate the needs of this student population, this case study provides an analysis of Stanford's Class Confessions' page. Through this analysis, we should be able to find why FLIP provides this page, what are FLI college students saying on this page, and what conclusions can we draw about this student population's identity and needs moving forward.