Educational Careers of Hmong American Students

Hmong American college students are an underrepresented and understudied college student population. The Hmong are often described as a preliterate, semi-nomadic, and agrarian ethnic hill tribe from Southeast Asia that have had little contact with formal education before coming to the United States some four decades ago. In this descriptive and exploratory study, we analyze the demographic characteristics and educational achievement of one hundred ninetyfour (n=194) Hmong students who were admitted to and attended a four-year state university in the Midwest from 2002–2010. We summarize their demographic data and academic achievement, and we compare their academic achievement to that of their college peers. We also examine correlations between their high school academic achievement and their college academic progress, and we report on their post-secondary outcomes.