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Boror, Guadalupe

Jennifer Rodrick

English 115

October 21, 2017

Students from Low Income Communities Adapting to College

Have you ever gotten ready for a big event and then got that feeling that people wont

like your outfit? Its the effect of feeling left out because of who you are or want to be. College

can be such a fun experience as it can also be nerve wrecking for students who didnt have the

luxury of attending big 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 dont come from places where

they are motivated and pushed to go to college. These students from

low income communities sometimes face counselors telling them to

look for a job and when students are advised to go to college, it is very

brief advice. I came from a low-income community, South Central Los

Angeles, during my senior year I was told to apply to college but I was

never really taught how. 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. The transition to California State University


Figure 1 Statistics of Low Incoming students
Northridge has been tough because I wasnt prepared very much to going to college
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become 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 get at the level of my classmates.

Darris R. Means and Kimberly B. Payne study incoming 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 adopt 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 financial problems plenty of times. College can

be very expensive for people who arent used to paying for their education. In college teenagers

are exposed to seeing wealthier kids not worrying about paying dues. 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 (National
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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 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. 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 m=by their parents

they might sometimes be a factor in choosing a 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 have to try their best to pass classes to make

someone happy.

As a result of attending college low-income 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 CutsJournal of Hispanic Higher Education - Justin Akers Chacn,

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

Means, D. R. & Pyne, 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.

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