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I know this is probably a little bit of a strange question, but here goes . . . I've heard that being a first-generation college student can help a person's college admission along a bit, and being a future prospective transfer applicant to two Ivy League schools, I need all the help I can get. Here's my situation.

My mother apparently became pregnant with me when her and my father were in some local sort of community college, so they both dropped out after around a year. First of all, would this is in itself qualify me as a first-generation college student?

If so, however, does that change if both my mother's sister and brother are college graduates? My grandparents are immigrants from the Acores, so they themselves don't factor into this.

Thank you for reading and please reply if you have any info at all.

By Lucifersam (Lucifersam) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 12:49 am: Edit

Bump. I mean can't someone at least guess?

By Editrix (Editrix) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 01:08 am: Edit

Whether you "qualify" as a first-generation student probably depends on what the application actually asks. If they ask about your parents' college degrees (they won't ask about your aunt and uncle), it sounds as if they don't have those degrees and you'd be considered the first generation. If they ask wheter your parents ever attended college, you should put down the community college--which still demonstrates that you don't come from an educationally privilege background. That might help your application to stand out slightly.

By the way, be careful about grammar, as sentences like "my mother apparently became pregnant with me when her [sic] and my father were in some local sort of community college" will make you stand out in the wrong way.

By Lucifersam (Lucifersam) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 01:18 am: Edit

Yeah, I should have caught that. But frankly I've seen plenty of Columbia students and Yalies post some things that are probably thought uncharacteristic of them, (your/you're, that sort of thing), and all I had was the wrong pronoun. Thanks for the reply, though.

By Jamimom (Jamimom) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 01:36 am: Edit

First generation is a "tip" factor at some schools that tend to have many students with advantaged and well educated parents. It is not a big factor like legacy, nor is there a special pool for first generation college students. As Editrix says, the question is answered as asked. The usual question is what is the highest level of education your parents have achieved with boxes to check. If there is a "some college" box, that is for you, and then you are not a first generation college student and most colleges. As a "tip" factor, the impact is not that large unless there are other strong indicators of disadvantage in the app such as an inner city or backwater highschool with few college goers, low income, etc. A student who comes from a millionaire family whose parents did not finish college, but sent the student to an expensive private school, provided all kinds of costly EC and experiences is not going to viewed the same way as a first generation student working part time to meet expenses with parents working at low paying jobs. It really is the whole package that counts.

By Rladbsgh (Rladbsgh) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 01:45 am: Edit

im also 1st gen immigrant but i came here in Nov 2004. do i get any advantage of this? i learned english in korea but it was just some grammar stuff.

here is my specific stats
{I came from Korea when i was about 17 and went right into 2nd semester Junior

i never took ESL because i learned some english in Korea and instead i took two AP which resulted in one A and one B.

Now in my senior year i'm going for 4 APs
my SAT score isn't that high(1290) because of the Verbal section.grr but im thinking about improving it into 1350(i hope)
taking german club, multicultural club (wanted to be in the NHS but i didn't had the scores yet and also ec's at that time)

i heard that Asians are actually hard to go to top colleges by being a minority but admitted into good colleges.
Does this apply to me? }

By Lucifersam (Lucifersam) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 02:00 am: Edit

Jamimom- In that case, how might that college know how good my high school was? (In my opinion it was horrible and probably one of the worst in the state.) I'm at the University of Kentucky right now, and UK itself isn't that good, but it definetly isn't bad either.

I just have a great lot of concerns about my transferring. Sometimes I get the feeling that even pulling a 4.0 and being so involved in all the thing I'm involved in still won't get me in.

Rladbsgh - I don't think your being an immigrant in itself really matters too much, but that you are a URM (UnderRepresented Minority) does. You probably need to take to TOEFL. And your last question doesn't seem to make any sense. If you're a minority you're usually more likely to get accepted, and for the most part, if you don't factor in the exact policy of the specific school you are applying to, it's that simple.

By Garland (Garland) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 08:48 am: Edit

The federal educational program i work for considers first generation to be a student neither of whose parents attained a four year degree. So the definition varies.

By Jamimom (Jamimom) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 05:19 pm: Edit

If you are a transfer student the two things a college examines the most carefully are your college grades and why you want to transfer. It is not a surface examination they give to these items. Not only are the grades examined but in which subjects you are taking and the difficulty level. The best reason to transfer is if you have developed an interest in some area that is not adequately addressed at your current college. You should be showing intense interest and work in that academic area. My neighbor went to a small Catholic college and decided to go into the graphic arts. Since she had exhausted the art resources at her school, she wanted to transfer to a school that provided what she needed. She ended up at NYU. This is a picture of good transfer reasons. Also you should know a lot of about your prospective school and exactly why you want to transfer there. Unlike regular admits, you have already had your exploration years and should be directed in an academic area.

By Lfill (Lfill) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 08:20 pm: Edit

Lucifersam, if you're counting on intramural sports and being first generation to help you transfer to an ivy, you're barking up the wrong tree. You need to focus on having a great reason for the transfer and getting the support of one or more of the professors you hope to study or research under at your target schools. Ivies take VERY few transfers, and those they take have very specific reasons why they want to be there.

By Lucifersam (Lucifersam) on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 02:05 am: Edit

Lfill- I had a feeling that somebody would accuse me of that. As I said, I'm aware that Ivies take VERY few transfers, and it is for that reason that I'm so worried about all these other minor details. Every extra little bit might help.

Jamimom- UK has no Creative Writing Program and the only prose writing classes they offer past 100-level classes are extremely specific. I was on the waitlist for Enlgish 205 this year, and it turns out that English 205 here, although its title is "Intermediate Writing," which seemed to be the closest thing to a broad Creative Writing class here, is basically just a "how to write better research papers" deal. If Ivy League admissions are at all intensive and my high school grades and standardized test scores are taken into consideration, it will be plain to see that in relation to everything else, I am very good at writing and apparently understanding the English language as well. That is one of the main reasons I have for wishing to transfer (my passion and strength in writing and UK's difficulty in truly helping to nurture this, if it hasn't been made obvious), and I'm sure that paints a pretty good picture of transfer. If I can just make that 4.0 . . .

By Lfill (Lfill) on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 02:29 am: Edit

lucifersam, really, I was not trying to accuse you of anything. Just trying to help you understand that the little things like first generation and sports, even varsity, are long gone when it comes to being a transfer. I really don't know if any ivy league schools really excell at creative writing. Certainly they are not top journalism schools. What all of the posters here are trying to tell you is that your focus must be on the fact that a certain school has something to offer you that you can get few other places. A 4.0 at UK just doesn't matter in the absence of this. They turn down 4.0s from other ivy schools regularly. You are spinning your wheels and wasting your time if you don't get a grip on this. Forget first generation and cc and start enlisting professors at the schools you want to attend to help you. Just one professor's opinion.

By Lucifersam (Lucifersam) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 04:30 am: Edit

I wasn't taking a defensive position. I just had a strange feeling that somebody would say what you said, because I hear it all the time.

As far as the rest of your post goes, however, when it comes to Creative Writing, if nothing else, Columbia has it as a major, and UK doesn't. I don't think the premise of transferring is that what I'll get at the transfer school is something I can get "few other places." The way I see transferring, and my generalized reason for doing it, is that the other school (Columbia in this case) is simply better than the college I'm at now, in all respects.

Also, from what I've heard, Columbia has a very good writing program. I'm not really sure that I want to do journalism either but Columbia looks pretty well when it comes to that as well. It's not as if the only reason I'm interested in Columbia is their Creative Writing major.