Dear First Gen Twenty Year Olds,
At this moment in 2025 in the ol’ US-of-A, traditional higher education is seen as overvalued and even suspect. Not everywhere, but the view is spreading.
My advice about pursuing higher-higher-ed is this: the long standing deal of trading money for stability and freedom is not on the table anymore in this country and you should know that before diving in to graduate school or academia. Higher education will continue, but its career preparation purpose is overtaking any broader notion of knowledge seeking in its own right. I’m not happy about this, but I think it’s true and someone should tell you.
As someone who didn’t come from a wealthy family, I still believed this country valued education, but that was in the year 2000 (25 years ago?!!). I decided to sacrifice my money making potential after earning a CS bachelors degree, instead pursuing many years of grad school, and then make an even bigger financial sacrifice to begin as an non-tenured professor, then as a tenured professor, and now as a post-tenured professor. I understood the deal to be: I was trading monetary profit for stability and freedom. And I was OK with that because I thought that we would always need academics that care about teaching, learning and knowledge because that is who we are as a country. I FEAR THIS IS NOT TRUE ANYMORE.
I’d like to talk about the challenges (and some opportunities) about being a “First Gen” academic. Even though we shouldn’t think about this as a zero-sum game, you should know who you are up against in grad school admissions, job searches and promotions. Like all professions, it is quite common for the children of professors to become professors. In fact, it has been reported that the best way to predict someone’s occupation now a century after the family farm, factory or coal mine is to look at what their parents did for a living. So for all the disadvantages a kid without college educated parents faces when thinking about an academic job (which I will outline below), there are people out there with an unbelievable well of resources: professors-as-parents. I have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder about this, sure I’ll be honest. But I think highlighting the stark contrast between someone whose parents never had a professor—with—someone who never knew parents who were not professors is very illuminating, even if a little class-warfare-like. Some of my favorite colleagues and students are the children of professors. And I love my kids.
ASIDE: What’s a blog? OP-ED or Diary?
I remember having a conversation with a friend when BLOGS were the new rage (I’m old). My colleague saw them as an online OP-ED, a vehicle for argument and persuasion. I saw them more as a public diary, more of a vehicle to offer subjective experiences (RIP livejournal). I’m taking this latter view. There is lots and lots of writing out there about lots of things. Clearly. One thing I (and you!) can add to the discourse is my (your!) own perspective because: no one else can do that. Even if it’s very low in terms of immediate impact and generalizability (another issue I have with academia!). Much of what I say here has been seriously discussed by scholars of education and sociology elsewhere.
ANOTHER DISCLAIMER: I am incredibly fortunate & privileged to have the career I’ve had, so don’t take this post as an ungrateful screed. Many individuals and institutions have helped me. Thank you, village!
DEFINITION: FIRST-GEN
First off, the “first generation” label, yuck!
I feel a little funny saying I’m first generation, since my dad did some community college part-time while working, but he didn’t graduate with any degree. And my parents worked blue-collar jobs by necessity. But by the common definition, “first person in your family to GRADUATE from college,” I meet that definition. And just as impressively as anything I accomplished, both of my parents were the first in their families to graduate high school. And my dad had an uncle who went to college and even started a PHD program, so those dudes would probably hate me saying I’m a “first generation” college student. So, the term is complicated for me, so let’s complicate it some more!
I think the underlying factors and consequences of what we mean, and what we want it to mean, when we say “FIRST GEN” fall on a graduated scale, and less of a binary distinction. In fact, like most real social phenomena it’s multi-dimensional, but for now let’s think of it as a single sliding scale.
On the one end, you have a student who is the first in the family to attend college. Neither of their parents went to college, and maybe they didn’t even finish high school, and maybe those parents don’t see the value of a college degree. On the other hand, you have a student whose parents and (their grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on) attended Harvard despite their merit, and some of them are professors, doctors and lawyers. But in reality there are so many other common occurrences that have their own place in the scale in between:
- Neither parent attended college, but maybe an influential older brother, sister, or cousin did;
- Neither parent attended college, but a close mentor like a coach or teacher helped shepherd them along;
- Both parents attended college, but are just shitty parents;
- And multitudes more.
“First gen” is an identifier, a stand-in for all the economic, intellectual, and cultural comparative disadvantages that likely exist for a student with parents that did not graduate from college. And of course, a parent can help and harm in these three categories, regardless of their education level. For example, although my parents were humble economically, they encouraged me intellectually by taking me to libraries, public talks, plays, etc. And they instilled the value of an education, not just for a job, but just generally. They were ecstatic about the potential of me getting a good job, but provided no pressure in terms of major or what courses I sought. Continued education was just a good idea in my house.
Let’s take a look at three underlying factors of the first-gen experience: economics, intellectual and cultural support that might be lacking or plentiful.
ECONOMIC SUPPORT
This one is the most obvious, often college educated folks make more money than those without degrees. Clearly this is not always the case, electricians earn a great living. But the idea, broadly, is that people without financial means can not live in better school districts, go to fancy summer camps, play on expensive private sports teams, hire tutors, pay for SAT prep sessions, etc.
I was lucky enough to benefit from a state (beautiful NJ) that believed in funding its public institutions even if they weren’t the elite ones. Although my Rowan full scholarship was “merit-based,” and not based on financial need, the fact that a regional state school could offer that kind of scholarship reflected a different reality in 1998 than we have today in 2025, where really only elite colleges offer such generous financial aid. Rowan no longer has this scholarship.
Honestly this is one place where professors-as-parents doesn’t help as much (other than that sweet undergraduate tuition remission!). Most professors are doing OK financially, but not millionaires.
INTELLECTUAL SUPPORT
College educated folks help their kids with their homework (in high school, in college, and in grad school). I’m overly-animated by this fact, but it is under-reported. While non-college educated parents can also do this, having had college Calculus makes it a lot easier to help your high-schooler in math than someone that didn’t have any college-level math. Moreover, some parents might know the best colleges for their child’s intended major, they might have colleagues there. My dad, the truck driver, couldn’t tap his social network from his frat to find me a legal clerkship. Further down the line, professional social networks and specific social competency are incredibly important; doubly so in academic circles.
CULTURAL SUPPORT
You can argue folks that go through college value the experience having done it themselves. Although, I realize there are exceptions to this, and more importantly, many non-college educated parents will value higher education (either for career or just generally). But, more interesting than thinking about who values the benefits of higher education, is to consider who can STOMACH THE SACRIFICES. I think this is the biggest one in terms of first-gen college faculty. The idea that your parents are OK with you moving away for college and probably taking on debt, then spending your twenties in a lab also farther away, and then taking a job that doesn’t pay that well (god knows where) to then get tenure (and forever be away) is something that professor parents would totally be OK with—and, in fact, could offer great advice and support—but at least my parents were NOT OK with this deal. And in truth, I’m not OK with it either; great to be back, Philadelphia! This was always a bad part of the deal.
TWO COROLLARIES
One interesting consequence of writing this, is that it forced me to think of other professions that rhyme. Positions that value the work, beyond the remuneration, like the services (army, navy, air force and marines) and the clergy. Theirs is a higher calling beyond a wage. Also, trade and craft workers like electricians, welders and carpenters have a job, and they get paid for it, but theirs is a broader pride in the work. On the other hand, you have the drone work you might see farming on a commune or corporate robot pushing paper, interestingly on both sides of the ideological spectrum. The worker is just a useful cog, and the real only higher virtue is supporting the “SYSTEM” whether be communism or capitalism.
A second important point worth highlighting is that while First-Gen folks face many challenges in academia, they pale compared to other kinds of discrimination. After all, everyone loves the underdog story, especially when it’s a white guy pulling himself by his blue-collar bootstraps. Other folks are implicitly and explicitly discriminated against (and have been a while) for their race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Imagine doing all that and ALSO being First-Gen.
But one silver lining that I’ve seen in my experience over the last twenty years, is that the children of professors in these excluded categories can use their super powers to help overcome all types of crazy (disgusting) discrimination. So for that reason alone: I AM NOT PROPOSING we should discriminate against the children of professors. Let’s use that power in a productive way. Again, I only use the professors-as-parents crowd as a foil to highlight the challenges for folks with very few of those advantages.
OPPORTUNITIES
In closing, my advice is to only be a professor if you are ready to accept the bad new deal. It’s risky. But you have your own super powers too: you can code switch; you are scrappy, resilient, and resourceful; you can deal with the ever-changing reality of modern higher-ed because you never knew the old one; you can make real change. And of course, the best reason to be a professor: you really want your future kid to be one ;-)!