College pioneers?

[jjquantz]

I agree with braumeister, this is an interesting collection of stories.

[EastWest Gal]

Dad's family had 3000 acres in California, some from 1850, some bought in 1980, when he was born. So no college for the farmers. Two of his mom's sisters were teachers, but my grandmother was a housewife/farm wife. Dad went to Berkeley, then worked for big Oil. Mom went to Berkeley for one year, then dropped out. A couple of years later they met. Mom stopped working to have my sister. Mom's side, one of her brothers went to college, the other was military but no college.

Sister has engineering degree and nursing degree. I'm the only one in either side of the family with a doctorate. DH has a music degree, his adoptive parents were teachers.

So, not a long line, but not a short one either.

[Meadbh]

I was an only child and my parents, both of whom were very intelligent, did not have the resources to attend third level education. However they placed great value on education and made quite sure that I went to university (even buying a home next door to one when I was a toddler). I earned three university degrees over the course of 26 years, two of them at that university.

I had eight cousins, seven of whom were older than I, and five of them attended third level colleges or universities. Our generation was the first to be college educated, but I was not the flagbearer. Almost all of us have had successful and interesting careers.

[Asher Aion]

My parents rode the immigration wave from Europe in the early 1950's. Cousins from Dad's and Moms side mostly went to college, both here and overseas. Definitely not my grandparents and previous generations. Sister and my brother both have Masters, I have a business degree. DS in college and planning to continue on. DD planning for college in 2 years.
DW has two years of college, despite zero support from her parents. They valued someone's worth by how hard they worked with their hands, not their brain. They immigrated from a very poor area and had that old world view. I don't think any of her siblings graduated HS and have suffered because of this attitude.
On the other hand I also know people who have far excelled me in terms of wealth yet have not darkened a classroom since the day they turned 16.

[FIREd]

I was the first one in my immediate family to attend college and only the second one in my extended family (my older cousin beat me to it). Even among family members of my generation (gen-X), only 2 out of 8 of us attended a 4-year university. The other 6 attended trade schools. Some of them live large, so business must be good. I bet that my cousin, who is a cabinet maker, makes more money than I did as a scientist with a PhD. He drives a $100K SUV.

[Senator]

My father got his BA degree in his late 40s, maybe 50s. He was a retired USAF flight engineer before that. My mother, who got divorced from my dad when I was very young in the 60s had a nursing degree.

I was definitely living in the low-income arena. I got my BS degree after 4 years in the USAF in 1986 at 28 years old and my MBA in 1996. All paid for by myself or my companies.

My only sibling finally finished her degree at ~50, since she dropped out of school after getting pregnant, raising three kids and getting a divorce.

Here in the USA, only laziness or the deliberate decision not to go to college prevents people from going to college.

There are plenty of grants, scholarships, military, ROTC etc. programs for everyone. And there are student loan programs too.

[Katsmeow]

Neither of my parents attended college (my father didn't go past 9th grade, mother graduated high school). But, they always intended me to go to college and I simply grew up with that expectation. No one in their families had gone to college either -- either due to lack of means or inclination. On my mother's side, though, I had a cousins a few years older than me who attended college. By the time I started one had graduated and two had dropped out (one quitting in her senior year to get married!).

I was the first one to go past a bachelor's degree. This created some conflict with my mother. She felt I wanted the best of everything and thought that when I wanted to go to law school, I was doing something risky.

In her view, she had wanted me to go to college..but she thought I should train as a secretary "to have something to fall back on." But, I never considered that line of work since going to college had been so drummed into me. She felt that me wanting to go to law school was setting myself up for potential failure particularly since she felt no one would want to hire a woman (this was in the mid-70s).

So, she saw my going to law school as doing something risky when I could have simply gone to college and then gotten a nice, safe job with my bachelor's degree.

[travelover]

MIL, now 85, graduated from college after the war and was very naive about her prospects for a career. Back then the glass ceiling was at basement level. Everywhere she applied, they assumed she wanted to be a secretary. She finally did what most like her did, and became a SAHM. My own mom became a teacher, which was one the few careers open to college educated women. So glad most of that is behind us.

[poorcarver]

I was the first so far as I know. I was awarded an ROTC scholarship the first year they were offered. I remain grateful to this day.