For most minorities in the U.S., getting a college degree seems like it is almost impossible to achieve. The main objective of my project proposal is to take a look what is the most frequent cause or causes that tend to have an effect on minorities withdrawing from universities. A few positions or viewpoints about my research topic that will be discussed are different in a few of my sources. A few of my sources talk about how being a minority on a college campus really does have an impact on the morals of that particular student sticking around. Some components that were agreed upon in the sources about minorities face, first off, is racism. Students’ not fitting in the environment on campus is another issue that I will be discussing. In one of the sources it even discusses how faculty in different institutions have a very low percentage of minorities. This could be argued about improving the success and boosting minority percentage rate if they are able to interact with people of the same being and that would have a better understanding. A couple of the articles mentioned that getting involved on campus is a major key to adaptation and amenability. Students ‘who are not as involved tend to feel lonely which is a big part of what causes students not succeed academically. Two more of the articles discuss how Latinos are not able to pursue college since they are undocumented and the law here in the U.S. does not require it a law that Latinos attend post-secondary education. Overall I will be able to compromise and show that ultimately there are several different reason that minorities’ dropout from higher institutions. A few key reasons are they can’t adapt to the college life and feel isolated, they are more likely to be first generation students and/or they are just not financially qualified.

Transitioning from high school to college is not rocket science but it is also not as smooth for some students like minorities as it may be for their counterparts. As we all know, when a person seeks help, we see it as if that person may be slow or that they are not as smart as the average. This is a major issue that plays a role in why students who have no college experience are not successful academically and result to dropping out. Students on college campuses tend to think that being mentored by just the academic advisor is enough so they overlook the help that is available for them on campus. Receiving help from on campus resources, theoretically, strengthens “involvement in learning, academic and social integration, social support, as well as social and cognitive support” (Davis 145).  It is natural for students going from high school to college to do what is commonplace to them when they get to college campuses. With college being so diverse, minorities are more likely to try and reach out to “peers and others who share the same identity or interest” (Perez, Cortes, Ramos, Coronado, 42).  Since minorities are normally a particular group at predominantly white institutions, they are more likely to not find a peer or assistant on the staff of their same interest and identity that can personally help them. This then results to why minorities’ grades are lower and why they emerge toward dropping out. First year college minorities too are discouraged because they arrive to college with certain attitudes and expectations that are or will more than likely be confirmed or disapproved through their experience on campus. Students that “form connections to professors are likely to be more engaged in their coursework…” (Fischer 137).  Being interested in the classroom and what you are learning betters the student overall for the college environment. If a student comes to college not prepared then ultimately they will need to seek help from someone who has had experience with college before and receive some tutoring. Often with minorities being from lower income families and having not had anyone with college experience in their families, things like reaching out to the professor on your own, scheduling appointments with a tutor or talking to other students to schedule study times are foreign to them. They don’t make these things a priority because they have not been prepared for them mentally or hadn’t even mentioned so they could at least have some sort of anticipation. Just the simple fact of being a minority marginalizes the confidence of the student in the classroom which will also diminish them from reaching out to the professor who already barely notices you because the institution is pre-dominantly white. 

Minorities who are first generation college students are nowhere near prepared as they need to be for college. They are at a bigger disadvantage than their white counterparts because they are more likely to have had someone attend college besides themselves so they will at least have some sort of idea of what to expect. This is the reason that minorities “on average have lower grades and are more likely to college” (Fischer 128). Even though the background information of a minority may be checked, it still vaguely shows the differences and difficulties that minorities face on college campuses.

Black and Hispanic students are more than likely to be first generation college students and rely abundantly on financial aid to attend college. Since this is the case, the difficulties faced on campus and adjusting to the environment put this specific group at a high risk of negative outcomes at school, especially at predominantly white institutions. Being in the minority category in an environment that is predominantly white, many stereotypes of minorities are bound to happen. These stereotypes tend to affect this group of students academically by their fear of confirming these ideologies from their counterparts which inclines underperformance to happen. 

A lot of the times money is not the main issue for minorities. In the “Cursed and Blessed” article by Perez, Cortes, Ramos, and Coronado, a minority by the name of Guillermo was accepted into California Berkley but could not attend right away because of “limited prospects due to…” his “…undocumented status”. Even the government marginalizes minorities after their high school years. The government does not provide many opportunities for minorities like Latinos to seek help so that they can attend college after high school. This affects the academic endeavors and the willingness of minorities to engage socially by causing them not to fully dedicate themselves. 

Social participation is a major concept for adjustment to college. When students want to interact on campus, they “do so via involvement in campus organizations” (Fischer 136). Involving into campus organizations helps a student benefit in many ways. This can help minorities in particular by helping them feel not as alienated or different and feel like a part of their university.  Being able to communicate with people that you have been communicating with affects students’ transition from high school to college. Not all students are affected but there is a variance “…in how much contact they maintain with past ties during the academic terms” (Fischer 135).  This is an impediment for campus integration for minorities in particular because this is another issue can cause ant-socialness or cause the student not to partake in on campus organizations and activities. “Blacks had the highest average…with Hispanics just slightly lower…” for the number of trips that they make home during the year and the number of friends they have off-campus as a sophomore. This shows that minorities, since they lead in percentage, had the most academic ties off campus which reflects back on their involvement on campus.

Latino students of the minority category particularly face more hardships than the average. Other than poverty, discrimination and lack of resources, Latinos face “systematic barriers that prevent them from enjoying all of the social and financial benefits that society has in place for legalized individuals and American citizens (Perez, Cortes, Ramos, Coronado, 38).  Latinos who are undocumented cope with more stress and anxiety because they live in fear. They are scared of being asked for their identification at internships and also loosing scholarships due to their undocumented status. This makes transitioning on to a college campus ten times more difficult for Latinos. With them already guaranteed to face the typical triumphs that minorities face like exclusion or being first generation, it is not promised that they will be able to receive a job or keep a scholarship they received through the school academically.  Three Latinos that were undocumented expressed the same problems that they were dealing with, which is “dehumanizing episodes…and the overwhelming exposure to rejection…” (Perez, Cortes, Ramos, Coronado, 38). Experiences such as these cause Latinos have anxiety and fear which affects the way they react to their surroundings in college. The uncomfortable feeling cause the minority students to be very cautious of their surroundings and to not really trust anyone because of fear. Particularly this makes it hard for higher level officials such as a student affair professional or faculty member to help or reach out to them. Specifically in the minority category, Latinos face more hardships as college students. 

A lot of the articles that I came across during this research frequently touch base on ways minorities can help themselves be prone to more likely succeeding in a collegiate career. College is not just an experience that anyone can jump into, especially students who are more likely to be of the first generation such as blacks or latinos. These students particularly have to learn that “universities are part of unique social and academic sub-culture with complex hierarchies that have to be learned” (Lukosius, Pennington, Festus). With a lot of major universities throughout America being predominantly white, campuses typically have their different sub-cultural groups. This is how a lot of students of the minority category attain their social well-being and comfort at their school. Things like student organizations, any social clubs, setting up meeting appointment to have lunch with your professor, and taking advantage of utilities like office hours or the student writing center are solutions to helping out students, particularly of the minority category. These the solutions will aid the student in perspective of social support systems which are known to benefit students from “negative emotional tendencies…” that “may build a student to either change the academic institution or abandon it altogether” (Lukosius, Pennington, Festus). There is honestly no way around the fact that African Americans and Latinos must take advantage of every resource provided in college. Considering the fact that “African American, Latino, and Native American students have substantially lower test scores, grades, high school completion rates, college attendance rates, and college graduation rates than nonminority students”, the racial achievement gap still has not shrunken much at all over the last two decades (Fairlie, Hoffmann, Oreopoulos). Another solution to the disparities amongst minorities on college campuses is to expand the number of minorities represented in the staff such as the instructors. Since there is a “general lack of minority instructors, especially at the postsecondary level…” there is a lack of role modeling for the minority student besides an advisor who is majority of the time a white lady. Also the likelihood of stereotyping is increased and the likelihood of facing discrimination. This too causes a lack of presentment of different language and culture for minorities with “only 9.6 percent of all full-time instructional faculty at US colleges…” being “…black, Latino or Native American…” (Fairlie, Hoffmann, Oreopoulos). The possibility of having someone in college that can relate personally on the staff is not very likely for minorities. Studies done in the research of this article I came across suggested that “Black students who attend PWIs experience less satisfaction with their academic environments and perceive more difficulty with institutional fit…” (Bentley-Edwards, Chapman-Hilliard). With this being said, this alters a protégée’s ability to perform academically and this is why the attrition rates are one and a half time greater for blacks vs their counterparts. This article also talks about “students that participate in community-based or possess a strong sense of social commitment during college achieve greater academic success and experience better overall adjustment to college than those who are not involved with the community” (Bentley-Edwards, Chapman-Hilliard). As some of my other sources mentioned, social participation with the student body for minority students is mandatory because that is the only way that a student won’t feel isolated or racially profiled at a university, particularly predominantly white institutes. 

One other factor I found in some of my research was that demographic disadvantages that students cannot do anything about plays a big role in the graduation and drop out ratings amongst latinos and blacks. Things such as race and ethnicity, quality of education, parent’s education level, and parent’s socioeconomic status have “been shown to correlate with obstacles to degree attainment…” (Jackson 21).  College Institutions cannot really help the fact that student backgrounds are different. This is a fact that most people do not realize and it takes a toll on the universities because then it makes it worse on the already lacking utilities or lack of diverse staff that are needed so that every student’s success is equally achievable. 

For the most part, achieving a collegiate degree for minorities in the United States is achievable but it comes at a costly price that honestly based upon the student’s willingness. There is not really many different factors that cause minorities to drop out of higher institutions but it is all based upon how they utilize their surroundings. Since Latinos and Blacks are pretty much at a disadvantage from the time they start school in kindergarten and grade school, it is insisted that they have to get involved socially when attending a higher institution. African American and Latinos are more likely to be first generation college students too which puts them in a hole even more. They are not likely to have anyone to refer to for help about school which makes them like a leaf in the wind on predominantly white campuses. Referring back to minorities being marginalized from the start of k-12, there is a fear created amongst them when they arrive at the college institutions. This fear is what plays into the role of first generation students failing because they don’t know how to handle or utilize their resources on campus. They tend to be scared to get to know the professors and reach out to other students of whom they could become good study partners with or someone who could become a social outlet for them. The lack of non-diverse staff at major college institutions is also a factor that plays out in the equality for student’s success. Ultimately, there are too many barriers for college institutions to try and make opportunity equal for everyone. With the rate of latino and blacks increasing yearly at major universities, colleges will have no choice but to adapt as much as possible but until then minorities have to utilize the help that is available to the best of their ability.  
