“ Échale ganas ”: Family support of Latino/a community college students’ transfer to four-year universities

Families play a key role in students' school choices throughout their education. While research has explored the familial supports for high-school students transitioning to college for the first time, few scholars have examined how family engagement influences the decisions of current community-college students seeking to transfer to four-year universities. We explore how Latino communitycollege students' social ties to family played a role in the transfer process. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 56 Latino students in Central Texas, we find that families shaped students' "choice sets" and played a complex role, providing inspiration and emotional, informational, and financial supports, among others.