Research that has examined the complexities of within-group difference as they related to socioeconomic diversity has been necessary to fully understand the myriad of factors that affected college experience, persistence, and graduation rates of Black students not just at predominately White institutions (PWI's), but also at the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The purpose for this current study was to explore what factors first generational students (FGS) in comparison to non-first generational students (non-FGS) use to inform their perceived social status in an HBCU community. One-hundred and thirty-four (57 males and 77 females) economically diverse Black American emerging adults, were recruited from 7 classes to participate in a descriptive survey. A series of Pearson's Product-Moment correlations revealed that FGS' perceived status in the community was related to both academic performance (r = 0.31) and esteem (r = 0.44) in comparison to non-FGS; their sociability (r = 0.32) (including their appearance esteem (r = 0.38)) was related to their perceived status. Findings suggest that FGS used tangible forms of capital to infer status, whereas non-FGS used more intangible forms of capital.