<p>The answer is no, but that does not negate the fact that parents who obtained their degrees overseas have more challenges helping their children get to and stay in a US college than those who have first hand experience with the system. </p>
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<p>But the foreign educated parents still have a HUGE cultural advantage over the uneducated parents who scrub toilets and pick lettuce for a living.</p>
<p>I am not disagreeing, just saying that we are in a category of our own that is not really acknowledged.</p>
<p>There are tons of Asian American students applying to colleges with parents that got their educations overseas. They can certainly note that they are first generation Americans, but nor first generation to go to college. Yes, that is a category acknowledged, but not necessarily given any special consideration outside of maybe a tip. Certainly fodder for essays. </p>
<p>It seems like the kind of sneaky stuff that the Michelle Hernandez guide talks about – I read an interview where she told the kid to put down that her mom “worked in a hospital” rather than that her mother was a surgeon, in the hope that the adcomm would assume mom worked in the laundry or the cafeteria and that therefore she was underprivileged. Wondered how that would work, since adcomms tend to know what zipcodes are wealthy. (Of course maybe they’re supposed to assume that your parents are live-in domestics in a good neighborhood when they’re not working in the laundry at the hospital . . . )</p>
<p>Infoquestmom, parents whose children are " first gen college", * do not* have experience with " the system", that’s what the first gen is about.</p>
<p>The fact that OPs kids are first gen American, WILL be noted on their application, its not like its being ignored.
But if say, both parents are physicians, that will be noted as well.</p>
<p>“It seems like the kind of sneaky stuff that the Michelle Hernandez guide talks about – I read an interview where she told the kid to put down that her mom “worked in a hospital” rather than that her mother was a surgeon, in the hope that the adcomm would assume mom worked in the laundry or the cafeteria and that therefore she was underprivileged.”</p>
<p>YES! This is exactly what it feels like to me, too. </p>
<p>InfoQuestMom, if you and your husband are highly educated, skilled professionals, why do you need to be put into a separate category just because your education happened outside the US?</p>
<p>I don’t know why you’d assume that US-educated parents have “first hand experience with the system.” Not only is the landscape of college admissions nothing like it was for those of us who were in elite schools 20, 30 years ago, but the majority of college educated people in this country didn’t “work any system” - they sent in scores someplace and they were in. Comparatively few parents in general are “experienced” with the elite college admissions system.</p>
<p>Admissions offices can see when student is first generation US. There is a big divide among those in that category, when there are students who not only are first gen US, but ALSO first gen college. </p>
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<p>The Common Application will include information about your education and your profession. Why would you need anything more? Your kids will be acknowledged as first generation in the US, but they are not the first generation in your family to go to college. To suggest otherwise is misleading.</p>
<p>@GMTplus7 - Not every first generation college student comes from a poor family of unskilled laborers picking lettuce in the fields or doing hotel laundry for a living. Neither of my parents attended college; I am a single parent who never attended college. I earn a six figure salary at a law firm in Northern Virginia as an Administrative Assistant, and the only outside labor I find myself doing is occasionally cutting the grass when my son is working. </p>
<p>I apologize if I come across as snarky; however, not all first generation families are poor, unskilled and uneducated. The word college was never uttered in my home growing up, but I made sure I encouraged my son and let him know it was an option for him. We researched early on what he needed to accomplish during his high school career so he would be well prepared when it was time to begin the application process. Hopefully, he will be the first of many in our family to attend college going forward. </p>
<p>Tiger, of course there are exceptions to EVERYTHING. Neither of my parents attended college and we’d have been solidly middle income had it not been for a drunk driver who took my dad’s ability to work. Before that, he owned his own company and we were doing very well for ourselves.</p>
<p>Your son is lucky to have you and I’m sure your income and his privilege is reflected in his ECs, his school district, and/or where he lives. Most children of lower income/not well educated parents don’t have those advantages. For me, while college was encouraged, my parents didn’t know the first thing about applying or tests or anything. I had to figure it out on my own. I lived in a middle to upper middle class district and all of my friends had at least one parent who went to college. They were able to get guidance through that process that I didn’t have. </p>
<p>NO ONE thinks that all first gen families are poor/unskilled/uneducated. That doesn’t mean it’s not true for the majority. </p>
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<p>Of course they all aren’t poor. U shd see what my plumber charges for odd-hours emergency service. </p>
<p>What do *you *charge for odd emergency service?
We’ve lived in our 1900 era house for 30 years & we’ve never called a plumber.
Too many other places for that money to go.</p>
<p>Additionally, your plumber may have a degree but just like working with his hands.
A UW friend of my dads is a plumber. He lives on a houseboat on Lake Union, unless he is flying up to Alaska in his plane. ( I think his degree was in engineering)
He also has a summer house that he designed & built on Hood Canal, where our family stayed after my fathers sudden death.
Another friend of my dads ( he was a neighbor that attended Reed) also like working with his hands, he had a company that made printing ink. ( his degree was in chemistry) He also was well known for growing rhododendrons from seeds he had collected during his trips to China and Japan.</p>
<p>Don’t assume those who work with their hands are necessarily uneducated.</p>
<p>Please don’t think I am advocating considering our children First Generation College students. They are not, I agree. All I am saying is that we, as parents, have extra challenges in our hands with respect to US educated parents (US citizens or not, some First Generation American students have parents who were educated in the US at the University level).</p>
<p>But everyone have their particular challenges. Where I live, the majority of parents are US born but that doesn’t mean they have any experience or knowledge about the college system. Quite a few parents either did not go to college or “only” have an Associates’ degree. They earn a comfortable living driving for UPS, selling/repairing vending machines or copiers or elevators. Others are bus drivers, hair stylists or yes, plumbers or electricians. Even the college educated parents may not know how to navigate the college search or preparation these days. I will go out on a limb and say for most parents, this whole process is different from their own experience.</p>
<p>When your daughter notes she is first generation American with college-educated parents, she will be effectively put into a different pile than non-first generation Americans college-educated parents. There is no need for a single box for each particular combination.</p>
<p>“All I am saying is that we, as parents, have extra challenges in our hands with respect to US educated parents (US citizens or not, some First Generation American students have parents who were educated in the US at the University level).”</p>
<p>But you’re assuming that even being educated in the US gives some special knowledge of the elite college admission system. I don’t think you’re listening to what we are saying. The majority of colleges in the US are either open-admission or plug-and-chug stats-based. The people who attended those have NO MORE special knowledge of the elite college admissions process than anyone else. Attending East Directional State U where anyone with a certain GPA or SAT got in doesn’t provide you any special knowledge of how to get into a selective school. </p>
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<p>Who doesn’t have challenges? I’m curious–what challenges do you face that are different then that of any other immigrants whose kids are applying to colleges? You’re better off then most because of your education–granted many parents with college educations don’t have a clue about college admissions, but the point is that you have knowledge and resources to figure it out and help your kids. What makes your being educated in a country other than the US a hardship for your kids to apply to college? </p>
<p>Wait, I thought those foreign-educated parents–at least those living in the United States–had all sorts of advantages over the lazy American parents who don’t make their kids study hard enough?</p>
<p>Seriously, the applications will reflect the background of the student, and the colleges can evaluate it as they see fit.</p>
<p>There are certain presumptions made about a lot of categories that colleges consider that may not hold true to some applicants. You are so much advantaged if you get a boost you did not need.</p>
<p>I knew families who made very little money, but the parents were highly educated and know how to get the most advantages for their kids in terms of opportunities, culture, programs, education. They certainly were not typical. But, yes there is that generality, and what they missed out on pure money, they got from their parents provided the background for selective opportunities, and a boost from being an economically challenged applicant. </p>