University can be a crucial tool in supporting social mobility, but research from North Carolina State University highlights how the income of one’s family plays a crucial role in determining whether someone goes to college for the first time.

“A college degree is often a ticket to the middle class, but not everyone has the same chance to obtain one,” the researchers explain. “We know that parents’ education matters, as the children of college-educated parents graduate from college at higher rates than the children of parents without a bachelor’s degree. What differentiates the students who become first-generation college graduates from those who don’t?

“This study shows that it is mostly students whose parents have high levels of resources for their educational background who graduate from college—hardly a ringing endorsement of an open system or a meritocracy.”

Meritocratic system

Utilizing information from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a comprehensive and representative longitudinal survey tracking individuals from adolescence through adulthood in the United States, the researchers analyzed the educational outcomes of two distinct groups of students.

The first group comprised 5,752 students whose parents did not obtain a college degree, while the second group consisted of 3,128 students with at least one parent who attained a college degree. In addition to academic performance, the researchers also examined each student’s family resources, which were determined by their parents’ income and occupation.

“First-generation college graduates are often the advantaged members of their disadvantaged class,” the researchers explain. “Their parents, although did not graduate from college, are disproportionately from higher-income families, work in jobs with more authority and autonomy, have higher expectations that their children go to college, and live in higher income neighborhoods.”

Difficult pathway

The researchers explored some of the factors that underpin why those who have graduate parents failed to themselves graduate from college. This analysis revealed the opposite of what emerged among first-generation students.

“Students who do not graduate from college, although their parents did, are often the most disadvantaged segment of the advantaged class,” the researchers explain. “Their parents tend to have lower income and work outside the most authoritative jobs.”

Indeed, they also found that there are numerous things that we commonly think help to contribute to a child going to university and graduating, but actually play a minimal role.

“The study finds that it doesn’t matter if parents who did not graduate from college talk to their children about school and work, or work on school projects with them,” the authors continue. “It also doesn’t matter if these parents put their kids in schools with low class sizes, more experienced teachers, or in schools that have more funding. And for children of parents who have a bachelor’s degree, it doesn’t matter if their parents put them in schools with high achieving peers, small class sizes, and more experienced teachers.”

The study reminds us that even among first-generation college students, there is far from a level playing field and that people with access to greater family resources have a clear advantage, regardless of the educational background of their parents.