The literature on first-generation college/university students (students whose parents or guardians have not completed university) in the United States and Europe tends to emphasize the considerable obstacles they face and how those obstacles often obstruct success in higher education, post-graduate studies, and professional choices. Focusing on deficiencies such as the absence of role models in the family of origin, weak social and cultural capital upon arrival to university, minority racial and ethnic markers and lower “disadvantaged” socioeconomic status, often results in characterizing first-generation students as “others.” Otherness is the foundation of a social categorization that reinforces negative characteristics and distances first-generation students from the mainstream university community. Students themselves corroborate this distance through narratives documenting struggles in self-confidence, social frustration, and uncertainty for the future — a general failure to thrive in higher education. Too often the unstated goal of a “successful” first-generation student is assimilation to dominant cultural and class behaviors. Such a goal exacerbates the “imposter syndrome” for first generation students—a fractured set of identities constantly demanding adaptation to multiple environments without feeling full agency in any one of them. The association of the first-generation student social category with negative connotations of the “other” is a global phenomenon with potential for transformation. The strength of an evolving first-generation social identity is its potential to integrate disparate identities of class, ethnicity, and race into an overarching positive identity that asserts resiliency and competency accumulated from diverse social and personal experiences. That identity in turn can be leveraged as the first-generation student moves into less structured and more self-directed post-baccalaureate and professional settings. Far from disadvantage and deficiency, first-generation students actually possess knowledge and skills acquired through adapting multiple identities that allow them to cross symbolic and transnational borders. In crossing these borders, the default “us” versus “them” dichotomy of otherness morphs into values such as diversity and adaptability, which are crucial to negotiating and thriving in an increasingly complex world. There is need for further research on how first-generation college/university students integrate and leverage multiple identities in higher education and post-baccalaureate social and cultural settings.