<p>“First-generation”? It varies. Some colleges and universities seem to like that. Many don’t care at all. Nowhere is it important enough to make up for a transcript that isn’t close to the school’s standards.</p>
<p>Having a GPA under 3.0 because you took a lot of demanding classes is, rather obviously, better than having a GPA under 3.0 without having taken demanding classes, and not as good as having a GPA of 3.5 when you took a lot of demanding classes. </p>
<p>Both of these, though, are going to vary from college to college, and also just about impossible to quantify.</p>