Not sure if First Generation College student?

Sikorsky
Tue, 09 Jul 2013 12:11:10 +0000

With the possible exception of some scholarship programs, you never have to answer this question, nor do you get to.

You enter information about your parents on the Common Application: their names; their addresses, if different from yours; their occupations; their post-secondary education, if any. And then the colleges that care whether an applicant is “first generation” (and a lot of them don’t care) will decide whether you fit their definition of the term.

If you’re asking for the purposes if college admission, you might as well (IMO) figure you’re not, and if you ever get an admissions benefit on account of your parents’ education, be pleasantly surprised.

Except, even if you do get some benefit, you’ll never really know it because (1) the benefit is usually pretty small, and (2) they’re never going to send you a letter that says, “Congratulations! We admitted you to [name of university] because you’re a first-generation college student.”