Focus Groups Provide Insights on the Challenges of Transitioning to College

A college education has become increasingly important in the United States and is linked to future success with higher employment, higher income, more career options and greater civic engagement. But many students struggle with college and only about 40% finished a 4-year degree in 4 years (HERI, 2011). For low income and first generation students, about 50% dropped out within 6 years of initial enrollment without ever completing a degree (Pell Institute, 2011). In 2018, EastBridge Foundation (EBF) partnered with Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) to assess college readiness, persistence and success among Asian American youths from low income and immigrant families. Our goals were to identify factors influencing college persistence and develop interventions/programs to improve college graduation success.

In August 2018, CPC/EBF conducted 2 focus groups; one involving incoming college freshmen (n=6) and another involving rising college sophomores (n=8) to assess their perceptions and feelings about their college experience including college readiness and any challenges e.g., academic, social and financial they expected or experienced.

Key findings from the focus groups were that college transition was stressful. The major sources of stress were academic stress (navigating the college environment e.g., choosing the right courses and seeking academic help in college), social stress (fitting in with the college community, leaving high school friends/family behind, having to make new friends in college), financial stress (applying for financial aid, working while in college) and time management (tracking deadlines for specific tasks such as class registration, class projects, filing financial aid forms and balancing academic and social demands). Both groups felt having mentors (more senior students from their college) who can help with practical knowledge about college life would help with transition to college and provide social support during college. Moreover, the rising sophomores stated that they would be willing to mentor younger students who were going through similar experiences that they had gone through.

These focus groups were instrumental in informing the design of a broader survey, meant to validate what we heard and further inform what programs could be developed to help with the transition from high school to college.