Neither of my parents graduated from highschool but my Grandpa gained a degree online. Am I considered a first gen ?
Yes, if your parents did not attend college, you are a first generation. Grandpa does not count.
I know of a young woman who was considered both first generation and a legacy. Her grandmother went to an Ivy, but neither of her parents went to college.
You’re first generation
How does this make sense? I’m not picking on you specifically, Gumbymom, or even asking you specifically to answer - I’ve seen this around before and it baffles me. I’m not disputing that there are certain colleges out there that may believe this, but a generation is a step in the line of ancestry. If someone’s grandparent attended college, they are - by definition - not the first generation in their family to attend college (because someone in a previous generation in their family went to college).
The truth is that different colleges and scholarship programs define “first-generation college student” differently. Some mean that no one in the generation(s) above you went to college, so the attendance of a grandparent or an uncle would disqualify you. Others simply mean that your parents didn’t attend - so a grandparent, an aunt or a cousin would be fine. And still others have looser interpretations of the degree - so a parent or grandparent who didn’t go to college as a traditional-aged freshman, or who got an online degree, or an associate’s degree, don’t “count” in terms of the definition.
So the point is that you need to check the eligibility guidelines for whatever it is you’re applying for. If it’s a scholarship, it’ll have guidelines. If you’re just asking more generally because you want a first-gen bump n applying - well, that’s more about how you talk about it than the specifics of the situation.
^It makes sense because it is English terminology with a meaning, there is no point picking on the logic. Why stop at grandparent? If you ancestor graduated in 1766, are you really first generation?
I think it’s mostly the sense that your parents/guardians, who are (presumably) helping you through the search and selection process, may not have information that legacies take for granted. So, you’re at a little bit of a disadvantage.
Example: My dad got a BS from University of Phoenix when I was about 10 because his employer offered to foot the bill. But, because he didn’t have a traditional college experience (he got so many CLEP credits he only had to take a couple of actual classes,) I’m considered first-gen.
My parents aren’t even really helping me with my college stuff.
Schools define “first-generation” differently. As the article linked below indicates, even among Ivy League schools there’s wide variance. Some schools and government reports (e.g., NCES) define first-gen to mean a student whose parents never enrolled in post-secondary education. On that definition, it appears that if either parent ever took so much as a single class in welding at a community college, even as a non-degree-seeking student, you wouldn’t be first-gen.
Princeton defines first-gen as the first person or generation in one’s nuclear family (parents & siblings) to pursue a bachelor’s degree. On that definition, you can be first-gen even if one or both parents attended a community college and got an associate’s degree, but not if either parent ever enrolled in a 4-year institution as a degree-seeking student but later dropped out before completing the requirements for a bachelor’s degree.
Brown, Cornell, Harvard, and Yale consider a student first-gen if neither parent graduated with a bachelor’s degree. On that definition, you can be first-gen even if one or both parents enrolled in a 4-year institution as a degree-seeking student, so long as neither actually graduated with a bachelor’s degree. Dartmouth considers you first-gen if neither parent received a bachelor’s degree from an institution offering a 4-year college experience similar to Dartmouth’s. On that definition, Dartmouth would probably consider you a first-gen even if one or both parents had acquired bachelor’s degrees through courses taken online.
Notice that none of these definitions is concerned with the educational experiences or achievements of grandparents (or even earlier ancestors), aunts & uncles, etc. And most of these definitions aren’t concerned with whether a sibling might have enrolled in or attended college. It’s mostly about the parents. It’s possible that some college out there might take a more literal approach and say you’re not first-gen if a grandparent got a college degree, even an online degree. I’ve never heard of any school using that restrictive a definition, but that doesn’t mean it’s not out there. To be safe, however, it’s probably worth checking on what definition any school you’re applying to uses.
http://thedartmouth.com/2014/10/15/colleges-differ-in-first-generation-definitions/
For Federal TRiO programs, you qualify as first gen if the people who raised you (parents OR stepparents OR even foster parents) did not graduate with a 4 year degree. They could have 2 year degrees and you’d still be first gen.
No.
But that wasn’t my point. In the strictest, nit-pickiest sense of the word you aren’t; but since different scholarships/programs/institutions define it differently it’s best to just look up what they want. But I think the spirit of the term is what @HisGraceFillsMe said:
The whole idea behind even asking if kids have parents who went to college is predicated on the fact that children of college grads are often better prepared: their parents, besides being savvier about what it takes to get into college, can often offer an atmosphere at home that’s more conducive to academic achievement. In other words, kids of college grads can have advantages their first generation peers don’t.
So if grandpa lived with the family and could truly enhance this child’s education/opportunities, etc. you could quibble that the kiddo isn’t “really” first generation. But how common is that?
BTW, I mentor a young woman whose mom did finish college. She had a master’s degree, in fact. But she died when the girl was 7 and this young lady was raised by a working class dad who didn’t go to college, and who in fact has been fairly passive about his daughter’s education. Thank god the schools we’ve toured consider her first generation. She’s received very little guidance at her large public high school, and if it wasn’t for some support from her late mom’s friends, I doubt she’d be heading next fall to a 4-year residential college at all.