Real-world advice for first-generation college students FROM first-generation college graduates. Each author understands the challenges of being the first person in your entire family to attend college. This book is full of practical, common sense advice that will save you both time and money because it was gained through the struggles and challenges overcome by first-generation students. A must have for any first-generation student or for any college student whose parents have been out of school for more than 10 years.

The tools you need to overcome everyday stress! Between trying to make the grade and finding a job in a market that continues to stagnate, there's more pressure than ever before to succeed. But the stress that comes from this pressure can also keep you from achieving your goals. College Stress Solutions teaches you how to use simple exercises to overcome your anxiety and find success while at school. From completing assignments on a tight deadline to dealing with classmates to thinking about your future, this book gives you the tools and advice you need to feel more calm, relaxed, and motivated each and every day. With these easy yet effective solutions, you'll conquer any social or academic demand that comes your way as you work toward your degree. Whether you're cramming for an exam or fighting with your roommate, you'll be able to move past your worries--and score the grades to prove it!

Decoding College is a slice-of-life, college exposure guide aimed at first-generation college students and their families. Decoding College provides a comprehensive guide to the basics of the college admissions, selection and enrollment processes while specifically focusing on issues unique to students of color, low-income students, and underrepresented students. Unlike the multitude of college guides available on the market today, Decoding College utilizes first-person accounts told by students on their journey to and through college to provide readers with fresh and vibrant illustrations of each concept. Decoding College doesn't just tell the reader about college, it lets the reader live college vicariously through the experiences of real students on real college campuses. Some stories are inspirational and some are devastating, but each and every one offers an inside glimpse into the challenges, struggles, and successes of those who dare to be the first in their family to go to college. Aubrey -- "My parents don't even make $17,000 a year...It felt like I was putting a puzzle piece...like I'm jamming it into a puzzle, and it obviously doesn't work...I started to feel inadequate, like I couldn't be at Culpepper--like I was only there because of Affirmative Action." Malik -- "In our group, I was the athlete...So it was sports first and then education for me...My priority needed to be focusing on college, but I didn't realize that until the end of my senior year. And then it hit, like, 'Whoa, you didn't get enough scholarships!'" Dominique -- "Being a first generation college student, I see a lot of people only pay attention to how much the school is. My mom was against me going here, because it was $50,000 each year. But, I had faith, and my grandmother had faith, that if I wanted to go here I would make a way."

A companion to First in the Family: Your High School Years, this next-step guidebook straight from their peers tells first-generation college students how to stay in college and graduate.

Offers readers a rich understanding of the experience of students who are first in their family to attend college. This book is a theoretically informed study of the lived experience of FG students and draws on their voices to demonstrate how their insights interface with what we, as educators, think we know about them.