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    "result": {"data":{"nodeDarReports":{"title":"First-generation status in context: Research series","field_report_author_source":"Data Analytics and Research","field_summary":"The First-generation status in context research series examines how defining, tracking, and understanding \"first-generation\" college applicants shape equity, access to higher education, and degree completion.","field_link_to_full_report":null,"relationships":{"field_image":{"localFile":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"fixed","backgroundColor":"#085898","images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/c13095e7e47386f9c5f0b395aaf774e3/acde8/first-gen-series.png","srcSet":"/static/c13095e7e47386f9c5f0b395aaf774e3/acde8/first-gen-series.png 300w,\n/static/c13095e7e47386f9c5f0b395aaf774e3/5284d/first-gen-series.png 600w","sizes":"300px"},"sources":[{"srcSet":"/static/c13095e7e47386f9c5f0b395aaf774e3/3dc06/first-gen-series.webp 300w,\n/static/c13095e7e47386f9c5f0b395aaf774e3/939e2/first-gen-series.webp 600w","type":"image/webp","sizes":"300px"}]},"width":300,"height":197}}}},"field_components":[{"__typename":"paragraph__breadcrumbs"},{"__typename":"paragraph__fixed_content","field_enable_wide_view_mode":false,"relationships":{"field_items":[{"__typename":"paragraph__plain_area_text","field_title":null,"field_text":{"processed":"<!-- heading -->\n<h1 style=\"margin-bottom: 1.1rem;\">First-generation status in context: Research series</h1>\n\n<div class=\"publishing-author\" style=\"color:#4a4a4a; font-size:18px; font-family:NeutrifStudio-Bold; margin-bottom: .4rem;\">Data Analytics and Research</div>\n\n<div class=\"publishing-date\">October 7, 2026</div>\n"}},{"__typename":"paragraph__media_with_caption","field_title":null,"field_images":[{"alt":"Report chart."}],"relationships":{"field_images":[{"localFile":{"publicURL":"/static/c13095e7e47386f9c5f0b395aaf774e3/first-gen-series_0.png","childImageSharp":{"fluid":{"src":"/static/c13095e7e47386f9c5f0b395aaf774e3/ee604/first-gen-series_0.png"}}}}]}},{"__typename":"paragraph__plain_area_text","field_title":null,"field_text":{"processed":"<p>The <strong>First-generation status in context research series</strong> examines how defining, tracking, and understanding \"first-generation\" college applicants shape equity, access to higher education, and degree completion.</p>\n\n<p>By analyzing millions of college application records alongside postsecondary enrollment and completion data from the National Student Clearinghouse, this series offers a comprehensive look at the nuances behind parental education and college success.</p>\n\n<h2>Reports in this series</h2>\n\n<h3><a href=\"https://www.commonapp.org/files/23-24_Common-App-Brief-First-Generation-Part-1.pdf\">Part 1: Trends in parental education and family structures over time</a></h3>\n\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: -8px\"><strong>Focus:</strong> Family backgrounds &amp; changing demographics</p>\n\n<ul><li style=\"margin-bottom: 12px\">Tracks how applicant family backgrounds, parent education levels, and household setups have shifted over ten years of application data.</li>\n\t<li style=\"margin-bottom: 12px\">Explores real-world family setups—like single-parent homes, missing parent details, or degrees earned outside the U.S.—that complicate standard labels.</li>\n\t<li>Shows why standard application questions don't always capture the full picture of a student's family support at home.</li>\n</ul><h3><a href=\"https://www.commonapp.org/files/23-24_Common-App-Brief-First-Generation-Part-2.pdf\">Part 2: Differing definitions and their implications</a></h3>\n\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: -8x\"><strong>Focus:</strong> Rules for who counts as \"first-generation\"</p>\n\n<ul><li style=\"margin-bottom: 12px\">Explains how colleges and federal programs navigate over 100 potential definitions to decide if a student counts as \"first-generation.\"</li>\n\t<li style=\"margin-bottom: 12px\">Demonstrates how the overall count of first-generation applicants on Common App can swing from roughly 304,000 to over 709,000 applicants depending on definition choices.These rule changes directly affect who gets fee waivers, extra counseling, or spot-based support programs.</li>\n\t<li>Highlights that first-gen students are not a monolith, instead showing a diversity of economic circumstances, academic achievement, and application behaviors across definitions.</li>\n</ul><h3><a href=\"https://www.commonapp.org/files/23-24_Common-App-Brief-First-Generation-Part-3.pdf\">Part 3: Exploring the complexities of detailed parental education</a></h3>\n\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: -8px\"><strong>Focus:</strong> Looking beyond “Yes” or “No” labels</p>\n\n<ul><li style=\"margin-bottom: 12px\">Compares students' economic circumstances, academic achievement, and application behaviors across specific parent education combinations, such as having one parent with a 2-year degree versus a single parent who never finished high school.</li>\n\t<li style=\"margin-bottom: 12px\">Shows that financial need and college application behaviors vary significantly among students who are all lumped together under the same \"first-generation\" definition.</li>\n\t<li>Suggests a more continuum approach rather than strict binary definition may help colleges and other supporters better understand first-generation students’ experiences.</li>\n</ul><h3><a href=\"https://www.commonapp.org/files/DAR/Common-App-Brief-First-Generation-Part-4.pdf\">Part 4: Enrollment, persistence, and completion by first-generation status</a></h3>\n\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: -8px\"><strong>Focus:</strong> College starts and graduation rates</p>\n\n<ul><li style=\"margin-bottom: 12px\">Tracked first-year applicants over six years using college enrollment data to see who starts college and who finishes a degree.</li>\n\t<li style=\"margin-bottom: 12px\">Highlights small gaps in enrollment, larger gaps in earning a degree once enrolled. Nine out of ten applicants enroll in college. Still, first-generation students are slightly more likely to start at a 2-year community college or delay their college start date.</li>\n\t<li>Documents a smaller graduation gap for first-generation students with stronger academic records and those enrolled at more resourced colleges. Still, even among these groups, first-generation students are twice as likely as their peers to leave college without a 4-year degree.</li>\n</ul><h3><a href=\"https://commonapp.org/files/DAR/Common-App-Brief-First-Generation-Part-5.pdf\">Part 5: Enrollment, persistence, and degree completion by detailed parental education</a></h3>\n\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: -8px\"><strong>Focus:</strong> Parent education pairs and graduation patterns</p>\n\n<ul><li style=\"margin-bottom: 12px\">Combines exact parent education pairs (over 30 categories) with long-term college graduation records to see who earns a degree.</li>\n\t<li style=\"margin-bottom: 12px\">Groups students into four plain-English categories (Striving, Emerging, Advancing, and Established) that reflect their rates of finishing college.</li>\n\t<li>Shows that single-parent first-gen students face the steepest hurdles, while students in the middle range of outcomes, where first-gen and continuing-gen groups overlap, graduate at nearly identical rates.</li>\n</ul>"}}]}}]}}},"pageContext":{"drupalNodeId":54756,"breadcrumbCategory":null}},
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