First-generation students, who make up 24% of the college student population, graduate at a 50.2% rate in six years as opposed to 64.2% for their continuing generation counterparts (DeAngelo et al., 2011). College costs rose at 3.4% per year beyond the rate of inflation, while family incomes in the lowest 20% of the population decreased 1% in the last two decades (Ma et al., 2015). This qualitative exploratory study examined the barriers and success factors to college completion for eight first-generation college students who entered college as traditionally-aged undergraduate students and completed their degrees on time. The study compared the results across four decades to determine if the factors changed. Having a mentor and self-efficacy behaviors were the keys to success for all of the participants in the study, regardless of when they were in college. The cost of college was a barrier for all participants; however, figuring out how to pay for college was a success factor as each participant created solutions based on his or her particular circumstance. Colleges should collect first-generation student data more consistently at admission, and they should give students a self-efficacy test at orientation to determine if the student needs extra support to develop self-efficacy behaviors. Additionally, the participants revealed that parents wanted to help their students, so an effort by colleges to incorporate programming for parents should be considered.