As a topic for my dissertation, I conducted a two-year study to explore the experiences of women who achieved highly in academics and who were also disadvantaged as children (LePage-Lees, 1997a). The women were considered high achievers since they had earned advanced degrees or were currently enrolled as advanced graduate students with at least two years of graduate work completed. Women were considered disadvantaged if they were raised in low-income homes, were first-generation college students, and had faced stress as children (e.g., family dysfunction or instability, illness, or death, etc.). From this definition, the women's resources had been limited in three categories: financial, informational, and emotional.