Nathaniel Ladouceur
Professor Goeller
Research in Disciplines: College!
March 20, 2014
Research Proposal
Topic
Going to college is something that is advocated by most parents, teachers, and friends. Although the rewards can be great, there are many challenges students face today when it comes to the whole college experience. Coming from a household with immigrant parents, from personal experience, I have experienced as well as witnessed the advantages and disadvantages that children of immigrants face when it comes to obtaining higher education – disadvantages unique to this group of students. While finances are the most obvious form of adversity when it comes to furthering their education, there are also many other factors to take into account when examining what these students face when it comes to college. Cultural conflicts with their original heritage and the American culture, lack of proper guidance from parents, and struggling to find themselves are a few of these problems that are unique when it comes to this group of students. What I want to explore in my paper are the challenges that the children of immigrants face when it comes to preparing to go to college, the challenges while they are in college, and their post college experiences in the three major problem areas I highlighted.
Research Question
Although all students face challenges when it comes to attaining a college degree, the challenges of the children of immigrants are usually more complicated and numerous. How does the pre-college experience, college experience, and post-college experience of students who were born into an immigrant family compare to the experience of students who were born into U.S. native families and what are the challenges that influence this experience?
Theoretical Frame
The study in the article Dimensions of Acculturation: Associations With Health Risk Behaviors Among College Students From Immigrant Families written by a large number of college professors investigates how acculturation affects the activities the children of immigrants involve themselves in all in attempt to embrace the American culture. The study outlines things such as alcohol use, sexual activities, and drug use as the harmful behaviors that these students potentially partake in.
These behaviors all directly affect just how pleasant and successful the college careers of the students can turn out to be. I plan to draw connections between these behaviors, as well as their financial situation, and how they can influence the experience of many students who come from immigrant households.
Research Plan, Case, or Additional Questions
I plan to draw statistics on first generation students who are from immigrant households as far as acceptance and retention rates, average debt levels, and average family incomes to illustrate the problems they face on a day-to-day basis. I will study how the issue of acculturation gives birth to some of these problems and how the problems they face compare to the problems students from American families face in their college experience. I then want to examine cases of children of immigrants in terms of how they obtain the money to go to college and how their financial situation turns out to be after they graduate. 
The basic topic idea is promising. I wonder if most children of immigrants are also first-generation college students, so there might be some overlap with that group and research on first-generation students. Also, you could discuss the Dream Act and its implementation in some states, including New Jersey.
ReplyDeleteRight now, though, I do not see you using enough of your research in developing your ideas, which is why they are so vaguely stated. The general question you raise is useful, and I am sure you will find that the children of immigrants do struggle at college and face some specific challenges -- many of which are similar to those faced by first-gen students. You should try to define the idea of "acculturation" and talk about why it is especially complicated for immigrant children. One question to ask further is "what can colleges do to help students in this population?" Also: how many students are we talking about? What is the scale of the issue?
Please go forward with this project, but I want to see you incorporating your research in your drafts.