The following set of questions were asked in regards to the students’ personal demographics. Questions include the students’ age at the time of the survey (2020), ethnicities they identify as, and the number of dependents they are responsible for taking care of. They were also asked about parents’ education, which will help us identify first generation college students.


Age

The following was determined by taking the difference between birth date and the time at which the survey was completed (n=120, 98% of 123 reporting). Figure 1.1: Student Age Distribution

The age for participants in the survey range from 20.1 to 47.8 at the time of completion, with the majority of participants being between 20-30 years old. The average age of a participant in this survey is 24.7 years old.


Gender Identity

What is your gender identity? (n=119, 97% of 123 reporting).




Figure 1.2: Student Gender Identity

Of the survey participants, 72 of them identify as a woman, 47 identify as a man. There are also 4 survey participants who preferred not to answer this question.


Ethnicity

In the US Census, Hispanic Origins are not races. Do you identify as Hispanic or Latino or Spanish Origin? (n=116, 94% of 123 reporting).



Figure 1.3: Hispanic Origin Identification

The Basic Needs Survey defines Hispanic Origin to include: Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano, Puerto Rican, or another Hispanic/Latino/Spanish origin. The data indicates that the majority of survey participants identify as of Hispanic Origins (88 people), while approximately a quarter of them do not identify as being of Hispanic Origins (28 people).


Race

What race do you identify as? Select all that apply (n=70, 57% of 123 reporting). Note that races were collapsed from an original 14 options down to 5 broad groups defined by census.gov.

Table 1.1: Student Race Identification
Yes (%)
White 43 (62.3%)
Black or African American 40 (58.0%)
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 12 (17.4%)
Asian 11 (15.9%)
American Indian and Alaska Native 10 (14.5%)

Dependents

If you have dependents, then how many of them receive more than 50% of their financial support from you? (n=116, 94% of 123 reporting). Figure 1.4: Number of Dependents

The majority of survey participants claim to have 0 dependents (92 people). 15 survey participants claim to have only 1 dependent, and only 9 claim to have 2 or more dependents.


Dependent Ages

What is/are the age(s) of these dependent(s)? Figure 1.5: Dependent Age Distribution

From figure 1.8, the data indicates that the majority of dependents are under the age of 18. The ages of these dependents ranges from 0 to 53 with a standard deviation of 10.81. The average age for a dependent is 11.53 while the median age is 7.5. The most common dependent age is 6 years old, with 5 survey participants having dependents of this age.


Parents Education

What is the highest level of education completed by your parents/guardians? (n=118, 96% of 123 reporting). Figure 1.6: Parents Highest Education

Note: Variables filled with yellow above are used to show the conditions used to build the First Generation variable–see figure 1.7 for further information.

The highest level of education completed by most survey participants’ parents is “Less than high school” (55 people). 33 survey participants claim their parents highest level is “High school diploma or GED”, and 12 claim their parents highest level is “Some college”. Only a minority of the survey participants have parents who have some type of college level degree.


First Generation

Note: students with parents education identified as “Other/Unknown” were not marked as first gen or not since they could not be determined. (n=113, 92% of 123 reporting).




Figure 1.7: First Generation College Students

Figure 1.11, shows that 110 survey participants are considered First Generation College students and 3 survey participants are not considered First Generation College students.

As defined by the University of California, we define first generation students as “working to be part of the first generation in their families to earn a four-year university degree”. As such, students in the data set are considered first generation if their parents do not have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree from a four-year university. From the Parents Education graph (figure 1.6), all bars highlighted yellow are considered first gen, while all bars in blue are not (excluding Other/Unknown).


Student Demographics

Click here to go to the Student Demographics page.