Framing the Search: How First-Generation Students Evaluate Colleges

Although college access has increased, first-generation college students are still less likely to enroll in postsecondary education, and when they do enroll, are more likely to attend less selective schools compared to their peers whose parents are college-educated. In order to understand how first-generation students end up where they do, we must consider how they decide which colleges to apply to. Using interview and observational data with 29 first-generation college students and 22 school counseling staff members at two high schools, I examined how students evaluated colleges during the search process. I find that first-generation college students employed three frames to evaluate colleges: incidental, limited and personal fit. Evaluative frames are informed by cultural knowledge about college and social networks and the most common frame that students with limited knowledge used was the incidental frame. Students employing this frame focused on college attendance and deemphasized differences between colleges. Although few first-generation college students evaluated colleges using the personal fit frame, this was the frame most counselors used. Employing different frames meant that counselors and students approached the search with different purposes, making counselors less effective during a critical component of the college process.