Princeton Strives to Help First-Generation Students Feel More at Home

While helping first-generation and low-income students succeed is a rallying cry across higher education, the challenge plays out differently at elite colleges, where they tend to make up a smaller share of the student body and where sizable numbers of their classmates come from tremendous privilege. And it may be especially acute at Princeton. After all, two prominent alumnae — the first lady, Michelle Obama, and the Supreme Court justice Sonia M. Sotomayor — have been quite candid about the challenges they encountered there.