For certain Hispanic students, family backgrounds can raise another type of barrier other students may not experience. Students raised in barrios or in areas of high Hispanic concentration explained the importance of family in their culture and how leaving this environment affected their success in college. The reason was because the extended family and Hispanic community they lived in tended to be extremely close-knit. Students entering large universities, coming from this type of environment, experienced feelings of separation and isolation, intensified by a lack of understanding of their culture on the part of the Anglo faculty and students.

Those who came from high schools that did not provide them with adequate educational background in computers felt behind that they began college behind other students. Even those students who earned respectable grades in science and engineering courses felt inadequate and lacked self-esteem, feelings brought on by a highly competitive, individualistic, and assertive Anglo culture.