What's the criteria for "first generation college" as a hook?
Awesomekidsmom
204 replies13 discussionsRegistered User Posts: 217 Junior Member
Hi - I've seen it mentioned here and elsewhere that being the first generation in your family to go to college can be a hook. My sister's granddaughter is an excellent student (currently freshman in HS) who has been raised in a low income single parent household. None of her parents or grandparents attended college, but one great-grandparent, her grandparents' siblings, and an uncle have graduated from college. Is she considered first generation or not?
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Replies to: What's the criteria for "first generation college" as a hook?
It gets slightly murky once your siblings start or have completed college.
The common app asks for details on your parents and siblings which tells the reviewers whether you have been exposed to anyone in the family with prior college experience.
This only works with tippy top colleges which seem to have a goal to ensure everyone has access to college despite their surroundings. If she is applying to State colleges, it won't be of any help.
It may be a "tip" factor, particularly if it's coupled with URM status, coming from an underrepresented state, etc. I wouldn't consider it a hook.
There are school districts like Houston Independent School district which are building entire programs around this concept to push kids through into many of the CC darlings at the top end.
http://www.houstonisd.org/Page/112999
Although it says underserved communities, it goes without saying that the low income status is tied to the lower education levels of the parents in a majority of these cases.
This site has some useful info, a list of colleges that are interested in first-gen students, etc: http://www.imfirst.org/
At some top schools, if there is a first-gen, low-income applicant, there may be some special consideration when compared to another who has similar stats, but lived in the lap of comfort (first gen or not). Not all first-gen are also low income. There are a good number of middle/upper middle and upper class income people who never went to college.
If it intended to refer only to immediate family, the question would be worded: "did your parents go to college?". But it isn't.
To be first generation to do something, no previous generation of mine did what I am about to do, as I see it.
Here's an example I use, just to show what I mean. If Olivia Newton-John was applying for college and asked that question, what would she say? I don't think either of her parents attended college, but her grandfather was Max Born!
If I were in admissions and saw she answered she was first-gen, then with that HUGE falsehood I'd throw her app out.
However there is sure a difference between first generation to attend college and first generation to graduate college.
Perhaps the confusion comes from the various definitions of first generation: the NCES (Nat'l Ctr for Educ Statistics) defines it as a student whose parents had no more than a HS education; the College Board defines it as a student whose parents didn't finish a 2-year degree; federal programs define it as a student whose parents didn't complete a 4-year degree. What they do seem to agree on is that it's based on parents, not grandparents or other relatives.
Marquette's counseling documents define "1st-Generation College Students" as "those whose parents and grandparents did not attend or graduate from college."
Cleveland State includes grandparents in their definition as do Southern Utah and the Univ of Houston.
Maybe it's one of the things students have to ask each college individually...
The OP asked about defining "the first generation in your family to go to college". I gave my opinion on defining it, and gave a hypothetical to support my definition. If the OP had asked: "what does the common app mean when it asks..." I might have answered differently. If the OP had asked the price of gas in my region, I might have answered differently. In my hypothetical, I said if ONJ was asked... I made no mention of actual questions on the common app. I answered with my opinion about the question asked, no more, no less. If, how, when, why, to apply it can be very different than merely defining it.
An example also demonstrates that asking about parents' level of education does NOT determine "first generation of college.." but it does answer parents' level of education.
What exact question is used on the common app, or any other college app isn't what I addressed because it isn't what the Op asked.
And yes, Max attended more than 1 college, earned a PhD and won Nobel prize in Physics. If I were his grandchild I might honestly answer that my parents did not graduate college- but I could not answer that I was the first generation in my family to attend college. Certainly the answer one gives depends on the question asked.
The definition is wider at colleges where the large number of applicants don't have parents with a 4-year degree. However there's no question about being first gen - students must list their parents' education and colleges can then decide what to do with the information.