Against All Odds: First-generation Hispanic College Students Find Success On College Campus

Although more and more Hispanics are enrolling in college and making it through to a degree, they're proportionately falling behind their peers.

In 2007, for instance, Hispanics represented about 15 percent of Americans and 12 percent of the nation's college students, according to a recent study by the American Enterprise Institute.

That same year, however, Hispanics earned only 7.5 percent of all bachelor's degrees.

Nationally, Latino students are dropping out at faster rates than whites, Asians and blacks.

Less than 52 percent of Latino college students nationwide earn a bachelor's degree in six years. For whites, that number is closer to 60 percent.