<p>My dad has a few credits from Towson University but never graduated, and does not hold any kind of degree. My mom went to the local community college and has a few credits, but, again, no degree.</p>
<p>My grandfather, on the other hand, attended the University of Baltimore and got a J.D. My stepdad also went to the Art Institute of Dallas and got an AA. Due to my grandfather and stepdad's status, I don't know if I'm considered first-generation.</p>
<p>Any consensus?</p>
<p>You are not first generation as your parents went to college.</p>
<p>You don’t need to know. You will never (as far as I know) encounter a box that says, “Check here if you’re ‘first generation.’”</p>
<p>On the Common Application, you will fill in information about your parents: their names, their addresses (if different from yours), their occupations, and their post-secondary education, if any. Then colleges will make of that information as much or as little as they want to.</p>
<p>Most colleges and universities won’t make anything of it. Most colleges and universities don’t care one whit whether you’re “first generation” or not. A smallish number of colleges do care, but they all have different definitions of what “first generation” means. They’ll look at your information on the Common App, and they’ll decide whether you fit their definition of what it means to be “first generation.” If you do, you may get a slight boost in admissions, but probably not a lot more than that.</p>