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135 Chapter 4 Access, Success, Egress: The Collegiate Experience Many of the first-generation college students in this study could not depend on their high schools to help them with the process of getting to college. Instead, they depended on their own resources or on their communities since their parents often knew less about the subject than they did. Most were blessed with the pioneering spirit, but for those who had never heard of a college entrance exam, had no understanding of where to get—let alone how to complete—college application forms, had no money and no concept of how to attain financial aid, and believed the message from others that they were not college material, the college-going process posed a serious problem. Getting into college can be a frightening process for anyone, even those students who are given the best that their schools can offer in terms of academic preparation and college advising. Students who have the benefit of family members with college degrees, ample financial resources to cover college costs, and familiarity with the college milieu may still be insecure about the college-entry process. Many parents who send their children to elite high schools where they receive excellent educations expend additional funds on test preparation courses and private college counseling to give their children an extra edge in the college acceptance competition. Yet these students from privileged educational backgrounds find that during their senior year of high school, “April”—when they can expect acceptance or rejection letters from the colleges to which they have applied—“is the cruelest month” (Eliot 1952, 37). How, then, did many of the first-generation college graduates in this study, those at the opposite end of the spectrum, not only gain access to college but also manage socially, financially, and academically once there? How did they navigate between the two worlds of home and college? What were those qualities that they and others displayed that aided in their success? I address these questions in this chapter. 136 One Heart, One Love Getting in the Door My first choice was the college of engineering. My second choice was surveying. They assigned me to English because my best high school English teacher had given me a good report. I loved him. He couldn’t stand the torture by the students during the Cultural Revolution so he ran under a truck. — Chang How did the interviewees in this study succeed in gaining access to college? For many of them, the routes to college entry were alternative ones. Creative, lucky, resourceful, resilient, and intentional, many of the participants frequently battled their own ignorance along with the indifference of others in the college -going process—and won. They were able to create for themselves the possibility of getting into college despite their fears that they had not been adequately prepared for the rigors of college academics, that they just were not smart enough to go to college, that they could not amass enough money to pay for college, and that they would not be able to figure out the maze of the college entry process. In this section I explore two basic issues of college access that were of great concern to most of this study’s participants: institutional support, or the role of the high schools in providing these individuals with the college counseling that they needed; and peer support, or the role that fellow students played in providing the participants with what the high schools did not. The case histories are rich with examples of how the interviewees successfully countered barriers to college entry. Clara, who did not receive the academic advising in high school that one might expect, provides such an example. As she related, the idea that she would go to college came to her late in her high school career: The whole time I was growing up, we had to sit down and do our homework , but we didn’t talk about college because my parents didn’t have that kind of experience. College wasn’t expected. Upper-class families had that idea. My parents didn’t think along the lines of sending us away to school. We were made to feel that our homework was important, but we were never told to go beyond high school. I guess I never even thought about going to college when I was in high school until almost senior year when I realized, “Wow! I actually have somewhat decent grades, and I have...

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