In the background information that is requested, there is a section for parental information. For occupation, my Parent was laid off. There is no option for unemployed so would I list “Homemaker (full-time)” or the former occupation? I could also write unemployed under “other.” Also, is all of this exceedingly nosy information like this that The Common Application begs for necessary just to submit one solitary essay?
Edited – never mind.
I thought only FAFSA is used for financial aid
I know it’s been a while since you’ve posted this, so you may have figured something out, but I figured I’d offer my opinion.
The common app is not affiliated with your financial aid. I think in the FAFSA is where you can put that your parent is unemployed. However, because the common app is used pretty much solely for making an admissions decision, admissions may not like to see that your parent is unemployed, simply because that means they’ll have to give you more financial aid. For that reason I would put their former occupation.
I think schools are interested, not for FA reasons, but partly to put your app in context. Honestly, they expect to see a different quality of app from a kid with a couple of professors as parents than they would from someone who had a manual labor job. Their expectations would be higher from the faculty kids – and the kid who maybe didn’t have as many intellectual advantages growing up might be more impressive with the same accomplishments. Also – occupation can have longer connotations than just what job do they hold. Someone who is a computer programmer still has that occupation even if they are between jobs.
I didn’t think about that, thank you! @dragonfly26
Oh okay, thank you @intparent