UCLA

First-generation (FG) students comprise an increasing population that has been studied at the undergraduate level. Extensive empirical research is available on FG undergraduate behaviors, challenges, and support programs. However, little research traces their experiences through to graduate study, a line of inquiry especially needed for FG students of color whose intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) suggests an increasing need for support across all disciplines. Because of the varied degrees and disciplines that comprise graduate study, investigators are encouraged to focus on specific disciplines (Miner, 2021). This phenomenological study illuminated the lived experiences of 12 first-generation law graduates of color (FGSOC) and how they made meaning of their most significant challenges and the institutional and non-institutional supports they accessed during their studies. Framing the investigation using Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth theory made clear the community-based assets participants accessed to succeed during law school. Participants experienced a rough social transition upon enrollment. This period was marked by impostor syndrome and a heightened awareness of racial and class differences between participants and their classmates. Affinity groups helped smooth the social transition to law school, but intra-group stratification resulted in participants’ alienation within these spaces. Participants’ rocky academic transition forced them to contend with complicated faculty relationships and the intense, unfamiliar rigor of the law school classroom. Outside of their law schools, participants encountered changes in family dynamics. With the realization that their families no longer understood their path, participants became more self-reliant while understanding their future family financial obligations. Unable to find consistently effective services within their institutions, participants felt mostly unsupported by their law schools and described their overall experience as “self-directed.” Recommendations are made for practice and future research to improve the law school experience for FGSOC and expand the body of literature on FG graduate students.