Finding success in the third semester of college : an interpretive phenomenological analysis

Abstract

This Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study explored the overall experience of being an underprepared first-generation college student and, in addition, focused on the third semester and looked for how the participants overcame any negative stressors to find promotive factors that led to the participants being able to graduate from college. The findings answer the research questions: How do participants, who were underprepared first-generation college students and who have successfully graduated from college or university, describe their experiences during college? How do participants describe promotive factors (contextual, social, and/or individual factors) and/or internal strengths that helped them persist to graduation? How do participants describe promotive factors (contextual, social, and/or individual factors) from the participants' third semester of college that helped the participants remain in college or university and helped them persist to graduation? Using Resilience Theory (Garmezy, 1985) as the theoretical framework the researcher found three unique promotive factors amongst all the participants that helped them overcome the effects of the negative stressors they experienced on the way to ultimately succeeding. The three promotive factors were: support, academic selfrealization, and determination to succeed. The study has the potential to help student affairs scholar practitioners create programs, provide academic, financial, and social support, and help underprepared first-generation college students graduate college.