"Do-It-Yourself" University: Institutional and Family Support in the Transition Out of College

How do students engage with the multitude of services and resources offered by their institutions? Our findings, based on interviews with 62 college seniors, indicate that in the context of ample opportunities and limited guidance, students rarely make use of institutional resources. Instead, continuing-generation students turn to family resources, while first-generation students rely primarily on self-directed research and planning. Reliance on personal as opposed to institutional resources is an important, yet often ignored, consequence of the increasing individualization and marketization of higher education, and a notable contributor to social inequality.