@shortnuke When I read Brown’s description it sounds like they are talking about getting extra assistance with basics at school - help with dorming, finding jobs, homesickness, and figuring out college life, etc. It seems that anyone there can join that group if they want extra help and I applaud them for that.
I have serious doubts as to whether they would look at an application where the parents graduated from Oxford or Cambridge and consider that lad/lass first gen for admissions in the same way they would a lad/lass from my school whose parents work at the local food factories. Both students might need help figuring out US college life though, and that’s ok. It’s what the program is there for. I’m glad colleges provide those types of programs because for many first gen students, the acceptance is the “easy” part. Successfully negotiating a whole new life takes far more guidance.
I can’t imagine that my kids would have had the cheek to assert that they were disadvantaged by their parents having PhDs from Cambridge. And where they’ve had to state details of their parents’ education, it has just been the degree level achieved, never which country it was from.
From the Brown link - A: The formal definition of a first-generation college student is a student whose parents did not complete a four-year college degree. At Brown, we think of it more as any student who may self-identify as not having prior exposure to or knowledge of navigating higher institutions such as Brown and may need additional resources. For example, if a parent attended a four-year college in a different educational system outside of the United States; if a student has only had close contact to people with minimal college experience; if a student and/or parent feel that they are unfamiliar with college culture at Brown-- these are diverse ways in which students might identify with the first-generation identity.
Being first-gen may also have greater saliency for some students more than others and at different phases in their education – from a first-year undergraduate through the final stages of doctoral or medical education. First-gens are diverse in myriad ways and span socio-economic classes, international, domestic, religions, races and ethnicities, sexual orientations, etc. Our program, student organization, and community do not require students to share their familial background or their reasons for joining the community.
The definition above is used just to identify who can use the First Generation Center at Brown.
It does nothing to support your absolutely bizarre contention that a kid whose parents went to Oxford would be “first gen” for the purpose of admission.
@Twoin18 - yes, correct. I had to dig out the address of the Indian college DH attended when filling out all the forms that request information on the educational experience of parents.
Believe me, if Indian parents thought there was a way to argue that their IIT educations didn’t count and their US kids were first gen - I would have heard of the argument. It is NOT happening.
I saw that Brown link earlier. After admissions, this center helps a admitted student to settle in Brown and considers a student first generation but not the admissions office.
My sons are first gen, it must mean something at some schools. They calculate figures for first generation students. I believe they both noted it on their applications. That said, their grades and ACTs were in range for the schools they applied, so we’re not sure how much it factored in admittance.