Embracing “non-traditional” capital for bachelor degree attainment: first-generation-transfer student negotiations of self at a public four-year university

This research is based on qualitative interviews conducted from the spring semester of 2012 to the spring semester of 2013 with 12 first-generation-transfer (FGCT) students and 3 transfer students on the Humboldt State University campus. The thesis addresses FGCT student's postsecondary navigation experiences in relation to their self in transition from pursuing a bachelor degree. Analysis captures multi-dimensional understanding of a primary tension in self of being both similar and different as a college student, through FGCT student's understanding of their postsecondary transitions from the intersection of institutional categories of First-Generation College (FGC) and Transfer student. A secondary tension in self of being both confident and doubtful of one's place in the field of higher education arises as a means of persisting and navigating across institutions to a bachelor degree. Bourdieu's conceptualization of field (1993) and habitus (1984) provide a theoretical lens for the analysis of data, representing the distinction held within the symbolic capital of a bachelor degree for both society and the self. The analysis also draws attention to the various "nontraditional" student categories of higher education as embodying new forms of symbolic cultural and social capital (Bourdieu 1986), represented through college student's lived experiences. FGCT students straddle more than one cultural sphere of reality creating tensions in self. This research adopts intersectional multi-dimensional models as a means of studying college and university students in the twenty-first century who straddle multiple cultural spheres of reality, and offers recommendations for future approaches to educational research on both FGC and transfer student experiences. This thesis concludes with specific recommendations for Humboldt State University to assist FGCT students in their transition to the university by developing and enhancing current transitional programs and resources available to transfer students on the campus.