7 Tips to Excel as a First-Generation Student in Community College

Do you want to know how to excel in community college as a first-generation student? If yes, keep reading.

By first-generation student, I mean you’re the first in your family to attend college. You’ll face unique obstacles to academic achievement and to full integration into your campus community. Yet you’ll be under tremendous pressure to succeed because you’re a pioneer in your family when it comes to higher education. 

First, define “success” for yourself based on your desires, goals, and dreams. Then build the necessary skills for your desired achievements while surrounding yourself with a support system. 

For me, success meant lifting myself and my family out of poverty. I had to secure a decent-paying job in the near future, a job that would reflect whatever level of education I acquired.

I carried that pressure to succeed from my community college years all the way to earning my master’ s degree. And at every level of my education, both the pressure to succeed and the stakes of success or failure were higher and more intense. 

Here I share 7 Tips for excelling as a first-generation student in community college.

Tip # 1: Always Remember Why You’re in School

Your “why” will carry you through many dark days in your educational journey. There were so many days when I questioned the sacrifices I was making to study while having no guarantee that my education would pay off at some point in the future.  The temptation to quit was an ever-present thought in my mind. I stayed the course because I kept reminding myself that if I quit, I didn’t quit only for myself but also for my family – that I would be signing myself up for a lifetime of poverty, and maybe my children along with me. 

If you’re able to remind yourself often why you’re in school and the consequences of dropping out, that will help you stay focused on your long-term vision instead of your day-to-day hardships. Persisting as a first-generation college student is really hard, because many of us fall short in academic preparation, familiarity with college life, and financial means, and in addition have other personal responsibilities, such as family and work, that make it a struggle to fully belong to our new world of higher education. So you need something bigger than yourself to motivate you to remain in school. 

1. What is the reason you decided to attend college?
2. Besides yourself, who else are you going to college for?
3. What do you want your life to look like 10 years from now?

Tip # 2: Value Your Time

Get things done today like there is no tomorrow. Because you juggle many responsibilities simultaneously as a community college student, every minute counts. Your worst enemy is making excuses or procrastinating. Whatever you need to do, “Just do it.”

Write down your short- and long-term goals and display them somewhere you can see them on a daily basis. With the help of your academic advisor, estimate how long it will take you to either graduate or transfer to a four-year college, and register for your courses accordingly. If you know you want to graduate in two years’ time, make sure you’re taking enough courses each semester to fulfill that goal and that those courses are the right ones for your major.

Don’t drop out of any course unless you have an extremely exceptional reason. Dropping out of a course wastes your time, money, and energy. For every class you drop, you delay your graduation day by an additional three to four months. In most of my courses while in community college, the classrooms were full during the first month, but afterwards, they got emptier as the semester progressed and more and more students dropped out. Don’t give in to the temptation to drop a demanding course. 

Outline your daily priorities as a to-do list in a notebook, and check off the things you accomplish as you get them done. This activity pushes you to commit to your goals and stick to your priorities. Spend your time and energy only on people and activities that align with your priorities.

1. What are your top three priorities while a student and how are you prioritizing them in your day-to-day life?
2. What activities do you plan to drop from your schedule?
3. How do you plan to incorporate study time in your daily schedule?

Tip #3: Know Your Professors and Their Expectations

Getting to know your professors and their expectations is directly linked to your academic performance. During the first two weeks of your classes, learn about your professors through their syllabi and their lectures. Read the syllabi to understand their expectations of you throughout the semester. 

Create a study plan for each of your courses and execute those plans. For each course, review the syllabus and write in your online or paper calendar the deadline for all of your assignments. If some things are unclear to you, ask your professors, the earlier the better. 

Learn about your professors’ teaching styles. Do they lecture in an organized way? Do they allow you to express your thoughts? Do they provide support outside of class? How will they test you? What kind of assignments are you expected to complete? ​​Is there anything about those assignments that is unclear to you? What is the best way to consult with your professors to clarify their expectations –  after class, during office hours, or by appointment?

The more you understand your professors’ teaching styles and expectations, the more prepared you will be for their classes. While a student at community college, I never had the same professor twice, and each professor had a different teaching style. It’s part of your responsibility as a student to adapt to your professors and their teaching styles, which will position you to perform well in their classes.

Tip #4: Tap into Your Support System

Build a support system around your learning in and outside of school. I wrote about how to ask for help at community college in the article Scared to Ask for Help at Community College? Here Is How to Do It. Seek support outside of school as well.  Your supporters can help; talk to them! By the time I enrolled for classes at community college in 2012,  I was the mother of three children, aged ten years, eight years, and seven months. During the summer of 2012, I visited a family friend who happened to be a babysitter at the time. I told her about my upcoming school year plans and asked if she could watch my baby boy when I started classes. She agreed; however, she herself was going to school to learn English. So I signed up for class times that accommodated her schedule and mine; this way my baby was in good hands while I was at school and my husband at work.

I coordinated with my husband every day about taking care of our family. Every morning, I dropped my two older children at school, prepared my baby boy and his diaper bag with all his needs, took him to the babysitter at around 11:15 am, and then went to school, later my husband picked up our two children from school and stayed with them, and after I finished class, I got our baby from the babysitter. My husband and the babysitter were the two most important people outside of school who helped me pursue my studies without worrying that I was neglecting my family. 

Getting help outside of your school could allow you to stay on track with your studies. It doesn’t take many personal supporters to pursue your studies. Maybe you can reach out to a close friend, parent or grand-parent, other family members, a local daycare, or a community group. The clearer you are about what kind of support system you need and who is available to help you, the more likely you are to stay in school.

1. Who could help you manage your life so that you can stay in school until you graduate?
2. How could those people support you?
3. How do you intend to reach out to those people and tell them about your academic plans?

Tip #5: Engage with Your Readings

Learning reading comprehension will position you for academic achievement across your courses at community college. During my first two English courses at community college, which were remedial, I learned how to annotate a text, and that skill helped in almost all of my courses.

Approaching a text as if you were having a conversation with someone helps you enjoy, remember, and understand your readings. In the margins of your books, using a pencil, interact with your text by summarizing every paragraph in your own words, raising questions for sections you don’t understand, figuring out the meaning of unfamiliar words by using context clues or consulting a dictionary, then writing the definitions down, and responding to some sections by noting your opinion, either in words or with a symbol, such as a smiley or sad face. 

Annotating may sound like a slow and involved process, but it pays off in the end. By the time you finish annotating your text, no matter what assignment your professor gives your class, you will be more than prepared to handle it. Being a skillful reader allows you to tackle just about any text, knowing that you will understand it and be able to tackle any assignment related to it. And this skill will serve you in every class in college that has reading assignments, regardless of the subject. 

1. Which professor or tutor can help you strengthen your annotating skill, and how will you ask for their support?
2. What texts in your current course will you annotate?
3. After annotating a text, how do you feel about your comprehension of the reading?

Tip #6: Learn to Write

Strive to become a solid writer. It’s usually said that “Practice makes perfect.”  Since I don’t believe in perfection, I say, “Practice makes better.” Use every essay assignment as an opportunity to improve your writing skills. Edit and re-edit your papers by yourself and with the assistance of an English tutor – even the most brilliant writers need editors. Over time, you’ll be able to identify on your own the majority of the grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and sentence structure errors in your papers. Writing well will put you in a much stronger position when you apply for admission to universities, for scholarships, and for jobs. 

After practicing on multiple papers, you’ll become faster, clearer, and more concise as a writer. Finishing your papers faster will allow you to focus on other courses or other aspects of your life.

As a community college student, I practiced my writing skills both in my classes and as a reporter for the college newspaper. I graduated from community college as a solid writer because of consistent practice and have not stopped practicing to this day. I know that writing is hard and at times frustrating, but I also know that it’s a necessary and rewarding skill that can help you in your academics, in your future career, and in advocating for yourself and others.

Tip #7: Take Care of Yourself

Remember, without your physical and mental well-being intact, it will be even harder to focus on your education and achieve your academic, professional, and personal goals. You could go on walks to decompress, take short naps to relax your mind and body, eat a meal you enjoy, talk to someone you trust for guidance about some challenges you’re dealing with, spend time with people who uplift you, boost your confidence and resolve by reflecting with gratitude on your progress, and celebrate your wins along the way.  By taking care of yourself, you’re investing in your life today and tomorrow. Also, stop to thank the people who are supporting your educational journey. 

1. How do you plan to take care of yourself?
2. Who is one person you can turn to for guidance during challenging times?
3. What is something or someone you’re grateful to for contributing to your academic progress?

I hope that these tips can help you excel as a first-generation student in community college and enhance your learning. I’m someone who lives in the present but plans for the future. I function with the mindset of, What can be done today? This approach allows me to manage my day-to-day responsibilities while maintaining a long-term vision for my life. Ultimately, nothing is more important than the first tip I gave you: Always remember why you’re in school. If you want to stay the course, even when it gets really difficult and overwhelming, make sure you have a clear concept of what this educational journey means for you and others connected to it.

What topic discussed in this article would you want me to elaborate on and why? Is there a topic I didn’t discuss that you think is important to excelling as a first-generation student in community college? Your feedback will help me further support you in your learning.

Reflection Exercise of the Month

Each of the seven tips discussed above was followed by a series of questions. For each tip, select two of those questions, get your notebook and pen, and reflect on those questions in the weeks to come.

Week 1

Monday: Write a five-minute reflection on the first question you selected for tip #1 and a five-minute reflection on the first question you selected for tip #2.

Tuesday: Write a five-minute reflection on the second question you selected for tip #1 and a five-minute reflection on the second question you selected for tip #2.

Week 2

Monday: Write a five-minute reflection on the first question you selected for tip #3 and a five-minute reflection on the first question you selected for tip #4.

Tuesday: Write a five-minute reflection on the second question you selected for tip #3 and a five-minute reflection on the second question you selected for tip #4.

Week 3

Monday: Write a five-minute reflection on the first question you selected for tip #5 and a five-minute reflection on the first question you selected for tip #6.

Tuesday: Write a five-minute reflection on the second question you selected for tip #5 and a five-minute reflection on the second question you selected for tip #6.

Week 4

Monday: Write a five-minute reflection on the first question you selected for tip #7.

Tuesday: Write a five-minute reflection on the second question you selected for tip #7.

Wednesday: Put together a plan based on your reflections.

Thursday: Start implementing your plan for excelling as a first-generation student in community college and maintaining the momentum for your learning.

If you find this article helpful, share it with other community college students and invite them to subscribe to my newsletter.

Do you want to know more about how I went from a high-school dropout to a master’s degree? Grab a copy of my memoir, Destined: A Story of Resilience and Beating the Odds, set for release in February 2025. I would appreciate your review of it when it appears on Amazon!

Thank you for reading. Wishing you all the best.

Keep going!

Hi, I’m Aminata Sy. I’m the author of the memoir Destined: A Story of Resilience and Beating the Odds, in which I write about how I started out in America as a high-school dropout and non-English-speaking immigrant and yet went on to earn a high-school equivalency diploma and associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees and to land a dream career. All that time, I was a wife and mother too and had plenty of family responsibilities. Through my blog, I offer tips to community college students on how to excel in their education.

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