Hello. I am curious about how important family backgrounds tend to be on college applications, especially elite colleges. Is it more “impressive” to come from a family with a poor background? Such as: Parents who dropped out of high school, were not married, have low-income, or were alcoholics and/or drug-users?
You can’t change your family. It is what it is. The colleges are looking at you not your family unless your last name is Obama… Lol??
Statistically, despite efforts to diversify and endowments large enough to help them do so, elite colleges are still filled primarily with upper and upper middle class students.
Then why do they ask? Other than identifying if any other members of the family are currently in college or if there are any alumni, why does it matter? It seems like this should be off limits, as it is in a job interview. I’m always wondering why it is so important to know where step-dad works, or any other parents.
Yes, it can make a difference at some schools. They are looking for certain things. Like if you are first generation. Schools like Duke love first generation. They also can get a good idea of the advantages you enjoy with educated parents, living in certain neighborhood with parents certainly earning well enough to buy experiences, test prep etc.
It also can show the truly well to do families more likely to donate to development.
The schools like to get a picture of who you are and what you bring to the table. Parental information helps. These days with social media, they can find a heck of a lot s out you and your family.
Just as they consider applicant’s transcripts in the context of the school they attend, family demographics also factor into AO’s “holistic” admissions. First gen, low SES, coming from “sparse country” on one side, legacy on the other side for schools that consider legacy. Even if a school does not give overt “bonus points” for certain factors, it does compare students across similar demographics. The chances for a kid growing up poor in rural flyover land who has a 3.9 and a 1500 SAT are much better than a Bay Area kid with PhD parents with the same stats by the mere fact that there are so few of the former.
I would agree though that since so many applicants will be upper/upper middle class, their family demographics will unlikely tip the scales since that pool is so large (unless they are being directly compared against an applicant with very different family demographics in the final cut).
It will be one of many many things considered in a holistic admissions review. How much or how little your family background will impact an admissions decision can vary from college to college, from admission officer to admission officer.