I looked at the application and there are some errors I just noticed. For one, the AGI for parents was listed as $140,000 which is just one parents income not both.
Further under education of parents it was listed “do not apply”. It wasn’t clear how to fill these in as the degrees are not from US institutions.
How to proceed?
Probably not going to be an issue. The income is only relevant for financial aid, since a household income of 140K certainly doesn’t put you into a category of low income, and you can fix that issue by giving them the true total household income. The fact of the parents’ degrees not being from US institutions is somewhat relevant, since the issue is whether or not the parents received higher education, but it’s usually not a deal breaker for admission.
I suggest that you email the admissions office and notify them of the true household income, and of the degree of education of both of your parents, including where their degrees are from, along with a brief note saying that you misunderstood the application’s questions. I suspect that this will not affect your application outcome.
If the parental income was only used for financial aid, then I wont even mention that. No FAFASA was filled out. I can’t remember what the education level of the parents was. I recall ticking ‘don’t know’ but in the application it lists ‘does not apply’.
Well, it’s a bit more than that. Some advantage is given to first gen to college, and low income. You’ve presented your household income as being lower than it actually is, and you’ve not given them the info regarding your parents’ true educational level. Really, it is better to be straightforward with them, so send them the email with the corrected info. It probably won’t even make it to your file, and probably not in time to affect decisions, and probably wouldn’t have any effect, anyway, but this way, if it’s ever questioned, you can point to the fact that you did send the correct info a couple of weeks before common reply date.
So I ticked “does not apply” rather than specify College/HS/Some-HS so it’s not untrue.
If the MCA is still substantially unchanged, no advantage is given for first gen or low income per se. Students get a boost if they are from a Hayden Partner School. This is a proxy for disadvantage. Students also get a boost if one or both parents did not finish high school.
I agree, being straight forward is the best approach.
This doesn’t sound like a big deal to me at all. Small mistakes, not deception or intentional misrepresentation (or even substantial unintentional misrepresentation). I would call admissions and ask - you can even do so more or less anonymously just to see what they advise you do. Likely they will say something like, send us an email with the updated info and we will make a note of it, or something fairly minor like that.
Do they still use MCA? I’m not from a Hayden Partner School. I specifically did not tick the option did not finish high school.
Parent Income on the CSU application is only used to determine if you get a fee waiver. The FASFA information is what will be used for financial aid determinations. First generation is a consideration based on the CSU supplemental factors and the CDS but how much of bump is not known. As noted, you can email admissions but highly doubt it will make a difference this late into the decision process.
Yes, but what it looks like now, no one knows. If you didn’t check did not finish high school, it probably won’t make any difference.
Ditto the financials. It would only impact aid.
If your parents have a degree, even in a different country, than it does actually apply.
My kid’s dad earned his undergrad in a different country and she entered it on all her apps (Common App even had the school listed). If a college thinks neither of your parents have a degree (i.e. ‘does not apply’) then you are considered 1st gen, and this does make a difference in admissions.
Will it make a difference in this case? Probably not, but I agree with other posters that you should definitely be forthcoming.
It actually depends upon the school’s definition of “First Generation.” For example, UC Riverside and CSUSB web pages both state a student is still considered First Generation if their parent received a four year degree in another country.
Also UCSB and UCLA have a similar definition for First Gen. This definition is not an across the board statement for all UC’s and CSU’s.
Good to know as that situation applies in D23’s case, and for future reference, thanks!
Notice, he didn’t define it. It has a specific definition in the MCA: Father’s Education (some or no high school, Mother’s Education (some or no high school). It may have changed since 2013 though.
