St. Louis Fed’s Center Looks at First-Generation Graduates’ Financial Boost from College

St. Louis ― Does holding a higher education diploma guarantee upward mobility for first-generation graduates? New research shows that as the share of first-gen graduates declines, the mobility-boosting rationale for college becomes weaker. In a recent publication of In the Balance, the St. Louis Fed's Center for Household Financial Stability found that without a healthy flow of first-gen graduates, college may become as likely to perpetuate intergenerational inequality as to reduce it.

Key takeaways shared by the Center’s research include:

• Growing percentages of U.S. adults have bachelor’s degrees, but the share who are first-generation college graduates has declined.
• College degrees boost income and wealth for first-generation graduate families more in percentage terms than for families with several generations of graduates.
• The college degree boost is not enough for first-generation graduates to overcome the head start provided by having college graduate parents.

In their latest research, the Center focuses on financial outcomes of first-generations college graduates to see if it is delivering on its promise. They also compare first-gen graduates with two peer groups: continuing-gen grads where at least one parent is a college graduate and adults with no college education whose parents also have no college education.

On Sept. 24 at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Ana Hernández Kent, policy analyst for the Center, will share some key findings of the research. She will be joined by Julie Stackhouse, executive vice president at the St. Louis Fed, who will share her experience as a first-generation college graduate. A panel discussion and audience Q&A will follow. Reporters are invited to attend and can register by contacting Matuschka Briggs at Matuschka.L.Briggs@stls.frb.org.