The Power of Private Scholarships to Fuel Systemic Change for First-Generation College Students

Andrew Davis & Sam Ritter

Each year philanthropists invest $6.1 billion in private scholarships for more than 1.6 million students on their way to earning a college degree. Many of these scholarships were created to help level the playing field for first-generation and underrepresented students. But scholarships alone cannot remove all obstacles faced by first-generation students both in accessing higher education and graduating on time.

College completion has proven to produce better economic outcomes and job prospects, higher wages, increased satisfaction levels, and a higher quality of life. However, when college scholarships are awarded without a focus on completion, promising young people often struggle to navigate the road to graduation. Before a first-generation student can take advantage of the professional and social mobility a college degree can provide, that student must first graduate. But graduation is not only the result of academic commitment; it also requires a student to deal with the social, emotional, and financial strains of pursuing a degree. While this is true for all students, the problem is more pronounced for students who are the first in their families to attend college.

A scholarship is not just a prize for a job well done; rather, it is a resource that empowers students to attend college and ultimately make meaningful change in themselves and their communities.

Inclusivity initiatives, students’ hard work, and the availability of scholarships have unlocked access to higher education for some students. But once enrolled, those students are often left to navigate college without the on-campus support they need. First-generation students often struggle to find an on-campus community that looks, acts, and speaks like them or understands their background. Even the hardest-working student relies on numerous factors, including community, to successfully graduate. Due to longstanding institutional blind spots, colleges and universities can overlook or underestimate the challenges of being a first-generation student. The result? Lower graduation rates despite sufficient academic ability.

When scholarship programs ignore these additional factors affecting the graduation of first-generation students, student outcomes suffer. Most providers of private scholarships see data on the distribution of the funds they award, but few are analyzing the impact of those dollars on graduation rates. Even though receiving a scholarship means students have an increased likelihood of graduating from college, still only 45 percent of scholarship recipients nationwide graduate in four years. Given that first-generation students and those from low-income families are less likely to win scholarships than their peers from more affluent backgrounds, it is clear that private scholarships without a focus on completion do not provide a clear path toward the benefits of a college degree.

A scholarship is not just a prize for a job well done; rather, it is a resource that empowers students to attend college and ultimately make meaningful change in themselves and their communities. The goal of improving first-generation student outcomes to create better futures is laudable. However, additional investments must be made in the systems and structures that support college completion. Private scholarship programs spend a lot of time vetting students but very little time vetting the institutions that receive their investments. Philanthropists, community foundations, and other scholarship providers need to put more effort into evaluating and understanding how their dollars move the needle on college completion before writing the checks.

Private scholarship programs spend a lot of time vetting students but very little time vetting the institutions that receive their investments.

Ultimately, if well-meaning philanthropists are interested in truly creating successful fist-generation student outcomes, it is imperative that we invest in schools and programs that support student success. We need to reexamine how scholarships dollars are allocated. In addition, we must partner with practitioners, programs, and higher education institutions that focus directly on college completion. By investing strategically, we can help not only to improve first-generation graduation rates but also to elevate the future of our communities.

This article originally appeared in Philanthropy News Digest. Click here to read it in full.