How many generations of your family attended college?

[Nikia]

Poll question: How many generations of your family attended college?

This is my first poll so bear with me here.
I was just curious about this. More and more people are going to college now, but a hundred years ago, college tended to be inaccessible to most. More and more careers now require college diplomas where as few careers required it generations ago.
For the purpose of the poll you may count the generation if one of your direct ancestors or one of their siblings attended. For your generation, you may include it also if you are underage and have cousins that have attended or are absolutly sure that you will attend.
Also did such an education benefit your parents, grandparents, great-grandparent, ect. Did they go more for securing a career, to become "an educated person", or to gain connection?

[Robb]

1. Kind of interesting, my dad was the first...

He won some kind of plumber's scholarship to somewhere back east to study engineering (I've heard it was Harvard, but somehow that doesn't ring true to me). He and his dad talked it over and decided it would be a waste of time to travel all that way when the local U was a ten minute walk away. :)

[Book Lover]

2. I am the first

on my father's side to go to college, and while, on my mother's side, my great-great uncle discovered the tuberculosis bacillus and thus obviously went to university, I was the first female to go to college.

[geniph]

3. One of my brothers is the first in my family to get a college degree

my parents didn't even finish high school, and neither did their parents. I, and most of my siblings, got some college, but no degree.

[SmokingJacket]

4. My father was the first

in his family, and apparently everyone mocked him for it. I'm the first on my mother's side, though they are european and it's different there.

[murielm99]

5. I put two generations, but

my parents did not finish high school. On my father's side, two of my aunts and one of my uncles went to college and finished.

I obtained a degree, and so have my children.

My aunts and uncle went to obtain a career.

I think the line between education and job training is blurring more all the time.

[TlalocW]

6. My siblings and I are the first in our immediate family

Mom was the valedictorian of her class, but she graduated in the 40s in Argonia, Kansas, a small farming community (home of America's first woman mayor by the way) and didn't go on to collge.

Dad was expelled from high school when a buddy of his and he locked the principal out of the school and then attacked him with snowballs. If he had apologized, he would have gotten back in.

My two older sisters are 14 and 16 years older than I am. One of them never went to college. The other got an associates in Nursing when I was still young. My brother and I both got full ride scholarships to the same college, and he went on to become a lawyer while I'm an unemployed computer programmer. The sister with the nursing degree then completed her bachelors in Nursing at our college while I was there (she lived relatively close). I had to help her with all her computer problems.

TlalocW

[DenverDem]

7. 4 generations now my nephew is in

and we're poor folks (3 generations of Methodist preachers).

[Insider]

8. america & college: love it

me, brother, cousins - morgan state university, fisk, brown, rutgers
mother, father - morgan state college
paternal grandmother, grandfather - morgan college
maternal grandmother, grandfather - hampton college/institute

i didn't finish there. they went to be educated, to move forward. we went to get good/better careers, and because it was fully expected.

edit:
i forgot my nieces. that's 4 generations. nieces: marymount manhattan & penn state

[Piltdown13]

9. My grandfathers on both sides attended the same college

Both graduated, AFAIK. One grandmother (maternal) came within one year (or maybe it was one semester?) of graduation...never did understand why she didn't finish. I don't know why my grandfathers went; they both died before I was old enough to start asking such questions. They did benefit, though; one became a relatively successful cotton farmer, and the other worked his way up through the ranks and ended up first managing the local copper smelter and then worked as a consultant after upper management forced him out (he had presided over the unionization of the facility).

My mom and dad also both went to college; mom almost became a teacher (but decided not to after her student teaching) and worked in journalism, banking, and now as my stepfather's office manager/paralegal. My dad did the college thing and then became a veterinarian. In my mom's case, I think the "education" aspect of it was pretty important, along with getting a job; for my father, it may have had more to do with securing a well-paying career, but it's hard to say; I don't really know him that well.

[treefrogjohn]

10. I was the first.

Now both my children have graduated so I think we have a trend here!

[trof]

11. 4 that I know of.

Great grandpa was a doctor, so he must have gone to some kind of college.
Not an unbroken chain, though. Far as I can tell, it skipped my grandfather's generation.

[Angelus]

12. My brother was the first and I am the second.

Other than that...none.

[ikojo]

13. I was the first in my family to attend college

Of the nieces and nephews, most that are college age are attending. My siblings did not attend college but went to work directly after high school (one works for the State of IL as she has since she was 19, another joined the Army and stayed in for 21 years, my other two sisters work for an insurance company in Illinois).

While my siblings did not understand my going to college, most of them have a different attitude when it comes to their kids. One sister insists that her kids attend community college for the first two years and then they can transfer to a university.

I don't think all kids are "college material" and that some may benefit from a good trade/techincal school. The trouble is that in the US those "degrees" are not valued as much as a four year degree. I have heard the attitude toward tech school is different in Europe.

[kymar57]

14. 2

Neither set of Grandparents. Dad got a degree on the G.I. bill after Korea. Mom took care of six kids. Deserving of a degree I'd say. All my sibs have degrees. 1 newspaper reporter, 1 teacher, 1 lawyer, 1 RN,1 masters in Russian Studies/Mil ret'd. I was the the black sheep and went to the SOL and became a horse trainer.

Nieces and nephews seem to be college bound (except for the one in jail):wtf:

[Lisa]

15. it's all due to my folks ...

They put themselves through school (this is on top of the Depression, and having been interned as possible enemy agents during WWII). They both went on to get professional training (Dad as a teacher, Mom as a nurse). All this before their 30s.

Everything I have I owe to them. I'm the first in both extended families to get a PhD -- but I realize that they're the ones who put in all the work to get me within scoring range. And they never let me forget that there are thousands, in fact millions, of others who never had a chance to climb the economic ladder due to illness, prejudice, and other misfortune.

[Padraig18]

16. My generation is the 1st!

:)

[NewHampshireDem]

17. First--and only--in my family.

I'm first-generation American on my father's side (and third generation from my maternal grandmother's family) and can trace my family history back to what were essentially feudal peasants in Europe ... so my college degrees represent my grandparents' dream of what it means to be an American.

[El Supremo]

18. I am in the tenth generation of my surname in this country.

Generations 3,4,5,6,9,10 and 11 of my line went to college. 7 & 8 didn't go because they lived on the frontier. 1 & 2 lived in the 1600's before there were many colleges.

[Nikia]

19. That's impressive

So did you know that you'd be going to college from the time that you were a small child? Was it expected of you?

[El Supremo]

24. My sister and I were pretty much expected to go to college.

By the way, I looked it up and generation #8 did attend college. I guess my grandfather was the only one since #2 that never even attended one. But he became a newspaper editor and publisher. Go figure.

[Guy Fawkes]

20. f*cking family of doctors and scientists

with a teacher or two, a few lawyers, and a stock broker... All but the stock broker are liberals...

[HEyHEY]

21. Attended, two...finish...that's in wait

My father went to University but couldn't finish...he was working full time and going to school. I am two course away from finishing. They wouldn't transfer a course when I switch colleges, so I don't have the introduction or the intermediate of one course

This is your first poll? Wow..you've been here awhile

[Nikia]

22. I'll answer now-4th

My great grandmother went to college to become a music teacher. Since her family could not help her in this pursuit, she taught lessons and accelerated her studies.
My oldest great grandmother's older sisters graduated from college. One became a English professor. The other became one of the first femle superitendents in Ohio.
My grandfather went to college before WWII and majored in physics and mathematics which he said were guarenteed to land one a good job. Despite help from his aunts, he still had to do a lot of hard work to pay tuition and support himself. He got an alright job with the USDA even though he only made $12.00/hour when he retired around 1980.
Both my parents went to college after they married at the same time. For a young couple with children, this was a bad idea. They divorced. My mother completed college then. My dad droppped out. He later went back and finished his degree when I was in high school.
I went to college as did/are most of my cousins. Past generations of my family generally had vocational goals in mind. It's not that we didn't/don't. Going to college is more common now. For many jobs it is required or really helps. WE knew that we were going to college and figured out what we wanted to do later in the process of being educated.

[Burma Jones]

23. On Mom's Side I am the First College Grad. third HS grad

On Dad's side, His Mother, his Brother and my Dad got degrees, none prior to my Grandma. My Grandma got her Masters in Nursing around WWII. My Pop is a PhD and so am I. My two (full) brothers did not attend college. My two (half) twin brothers (same Dad, different Moms) have just graduated from UNC and NYU, both over 3.75 GPA's. THEIR Mom's (my stepmom's) parents were both teachers.

My Grandmother was a working professional, head of Pediatric Nursing, at St. Mary's Hospital in Gary, IN - birthplace of Michael Jackson and his siblings. Her husband, my Grandfather, left school in the 8th Grade. They were divorced back in the early 60's.

[democratreformed]

25. 2 now - me and my daughter

I graduated in 1990. My daughter just finished her freshman year.

[supernova]

26. All my grandfather's siblings

all 7 of them went to college on my mother's side. (This would have been late 1890's - turn of the century.)

My mother and her siblings went to college.

My siblings and I went to college, as did all of our cousins on both sides.

My niece went to college and I assume my teenaged nephews will too.

Most went for career training, i.e. teaching, medical profession, business, law. A couple of us went for the joy of learning.

I don't know anyone who went just for sheer connections. Both sides are hardworking and industrious. My dad's family didn't get past high school and I don't think either of his parents graduated. But my dad and his brothers made sure their kids did get educated. Love you Daddy. :loveya:

[truthspeaker]

27. On my dad's side, at least five.

My great-great grandfather was the president of several colleges.

On my mom's side, one: mom was the first.