Participants, peer contacts and staff of Student Support Services gather before the start of classes in August 2019 to help first-year, first-generation students get off to a good start in their college careers.
Ripon College ranks highly in percentage of first-generation students NUMBERS HAVE GROWN TO MORE THAN 46% OF STUDENT BODY
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ore than 46% of Ripon College’s student body self-identifies as firstgeneration college students. Some come to Ripon on a journey having big dreams like law school or medical school. Many come to Ripon needing a high level of information to help them make important decisions about their college educations. Some first-generation students come to Ripon having questioned whether higher education was in their future and many come having thought a private college was
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not possible based on their background and family finances. In all, more than 340 Ripon students are first generation, meaning neither parent earned a four-year degree. The percentage of firstgeneration students at Ripon continues to inch upward — the percentage of first-year students in the first-year class has increased from 40% in 2014 to 48% in 2019. Ripon’s 46% first-generation students is higher than 19 of the 22 institutions in the Wisconsin Association of Independent
