What is "first generation" exactly?

Applying to College
1

<p>For a quick background, my mother and father went to college but never finished and never earned degrees (not even associates, they went to 4-yrs but never finished). My sister graduated from UGA in 2006.
Am I still a first generation student?</p>

2

<p>The term “first generation college student” has no definitely defined meaning.</p>

<p>

<a href=“http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/first_generation2[/url]”>http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/first_generation2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>According to that quote, you would not be a first generation student.</p>

<p>

<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/admission/guidancecounselors_report.php[/url]”>http://www.smith.edu/admission/guidancecounselors_report.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Here you would be considered a first generation student.</p>

3

<p>What if your parents went to college outside of the US, and never finished because of whatever reason? And your sibling attends a community college - not graduated.</p>

4

<p>Your siblings don’t matter first generation wise, neither does the location of your parents’ universities.</p>

<p>The discordance is about whether students whose parents studied some time at a college but never finished their degree are considered first generation, but there is no answer to that. Everybody defines it the way he/she likes best. The study (first quote above) wanted to show that first generation students are disadvantaged when it comes to post-secondary education and that’s why specified “students whose parents have had no college or university experience”; I guess those students are even more disadvantaged than kids of parents who studied 3 years at Wharton and then dropped to start up their own business without finishing their degree. Smith (second quote above) in contrast wants to highlight how they help disadvantaged students and that’s why define first generation more loosely to produce a higher rate of first generation students.</p>

5

<p>The location of your parent’s university does matter as many students have parents who completed degrees outside of the U.S. although they may not be using that degree here. Students whose parents who have degrees from other countries (or even attended college as the process varies from school to school would not be a first generation college students.</p>

<p>Different schools use the first gen tip differently. Some schools do not consider you first generation as there are some jobs you can get with an asssociates degree (for example RN and the student decides whether or not to get a BSN to further his/her career). other schools use first gen if a student has not completed a bachelors.</p>

<p>In most cases the first gen tip is also used in conjuntion with other factors; poverty (low income), low performing school, etc.</p>