Many factors can affect a student's transition from high school to college. Some students feel unprepared academically. Maricela Cisneros explains:

I think the teachers in high school [should help] students get prepared in high school to go to college. In high school students don't do papers. They don't even know how to start an essay. It [the skill] has to come from high school.*

Many students complained of lack of guidance, or outright discouragement from high school counselors:

--Some counselor's just kind of give you whatever right? Just to get you through high school.

--Right, because my counselor in high school, she just gave me the classes she wanted. She never said, "Oh, this is a college course. Ohm this not going to help you". Basically I got it myself. I guess she had something against me. Every time I went to see her, she was really angry, .... and I think she treated me bad.**

Mario X

Some students create their own stumbling blocks. When they begin college, they have to make up for careless mistakes made in high school. Benjamín Jiménez advised his younger brother to avoid the mistakes he made in high school:

--Would you advise your brother on college prep classes?

Yeah, like my brother, I try to tell him do other stuff, take college prep classes, upper math classes and Spanish and just electives. Just be careful in choosing classes because that's like the main thing. You choose the right class so you can get good grades and stuff. Like I mean there is some classes that don't even count. I took like a cafeteria class, it was just for credit, it was a class where I would just mess around. It didn't count nothing for college. It was just a waste of my time.

In high school you enter 14 or 15 you don't know your counselor says, "If you want to go to college I recommend you take this that." And you're like, "No I don't want to take this, I want to take this." They're like, "Okay, then." And that's it. High school is like you do your own little thing and if you pick something, "Okay, that's good, all right, just get out, I don't want to see you."

Family expectations sometimes conflict with a desire to attend college. When asked, "What path did you take after graduating from high school?" Judie Swarz replied:

--What path? Well, I grew up in this family that really stressed marriage and family life. I'm sure you can imagine being a Roman Catholic Italian girl-- that's pretty much the message you get, so I was really kind of looking for a husband [laughs]. Because I thought, that's what you did, so I got married and it was not long after high school that I had my first child. And it was not long after that, that I got divorced. [laughs]

Sometimes the people who students trust most discourage them. Boyfriends and school friends can lead a person away from college. Mireya Albarrán responds:

--Did any one discourage you?

--Yeah, my ex-boyfriend

--The one you were going to marry?

--Yeah, He was a typical guy. He did not want me going to school because he thought we would break up. And that's what happened. He just wanted me to stay home, get married and have kids.***

The fear of going to college, fear of the unknown, can be a serious hurdle for many students. It's a big life style change. College readiness programs geared toward low income and first generation college students like Upward Bound and Educational Talent Search inspire students to choose college. They familiarize them with college life, and help with the application process. Krishna Suggs, fromUpward Bound, explains how the program helped her think about college:

--It's given me a really good look on the college environment and life. Because we go to different colleges and stay there like UCLA, San Diego State and we get to visit it and see how everybody does things, So it's given me a really good look on that. Plus it helps me with tutoring and SATs', its really helped me a lot.

--Do you think this program helps a lot of kids?

Sure, because I've seen certain kids, they didn't have a life set for themselves. And they just come and get involved in the Upward Bound program and it just shows them a different way of how they can set goals for themselves, and it helps me too. It's just a great program. I wish everybody could be in it, or have a chance to get in it.****

Educational Talent Search makes contact with prospective, low income, college students as early as middle school. The process of applying to college can be intimidating. Organizations like Educational Talent Search can help students cope with the unfamiliar application process. Merlyn Calderón agrees:

I think that ETS served a really good motivational part of me... When the application period came and I was really busy, they really helped me.

Other programs, like the Migrant Education Program, have played an important role in orienting and guiding students. One student remarked:

I was part of the Migrant Program. I was even in the Migrant Student Association Program, which is the club, and they do help you a lot. It seemed like I was moving away from my friends, what seemed to be the right thing to do. I think that the Migrant Program helped me to focus and say, "You know, I am going on the right track," cause they kept pushing me and saying, "Here are people like you. Even though your friends are not doing it...these people are." ...So I had that support from them and they were always there. ...I'm very thankful for it. I don't know what I would have done if they weren't there. Cause they did help me in a lot of situations when I needed it. I needed someone to be there and talk to. Another example is when I was applying for colleges and universities, they offered a lot of workshops and even for my parents. When I had to...make the application for financial aid, they had offered a workshop in Spanish for them [my parents], and had someone sit down with them and go through the whole application, fill it out, and you know, get it done. It was something that had to be done, and we kept putting it off cause we didn't know how to do it. No one knows on the first tim what to do. [You] look at those applications and its like "Okay, what do I do?

With the proper encouragement and guidance first generation college students can overcome whatever obstacles they face. Many who never considered college a realistic option have gone on to become successful college graduates.