The colleges I’m interested in define a first-generation college students as a student whose parents didn’t earn a bachelor’s degree. My biological father (he hasn’t been involved in raising me and we don’t talk much) earned a bachelor of business degree. My mom and my step-dad (I refer to him as my dad), were the ones who raised me, and neither of them earned a bachelor’s degree. Would my biological dad earning one disqualify me from being a first-generation student?
It’s really hard to say, but I would go with no. Ask the admissions offices of the colleges you want to apply to first before going with my word.
There isn’t a box you check for first gen status. You don’t need to decide this. You just fill out the information about your parents and each school will individually decide whether or not they consider you first gen based on their own criteria.
The school decides it but mostly likely its a no.
You probably received some sort of monetary aid/child support from your biological father (most likely after the divorce from your mother, that was part of the legal arrangement). Even if he didn’t raise you, he probably did help you in other indirect ways.
Usually, 1st gen college students come from poor economic backgrounds. By having a biological father with a college education that was most likely forced to financially support you in some form, I would have to say no. But, the real decision is up to the college and you won’t know until the school decides.
I wish the Common App did not require kids to list their biological father and mother, but instead allowed them to list their actual father and mother (the people that raised them). The only way around the whole biological/actual issue is if the biological parent relinquishes his/her rights and the “parent” who raised the kid adopts him/her. OP, if I were in your shoes, I’d list your step-parent in the additional information section of the Common App and specify that he is the person you consider your father, and that you have had very little contact with your biological father. Each college can then have a better understanding of how you grew up.