<p>How do universities determine this?</p>
<p>Neither of your parents attended any college. That would include community college. Whether they graduated does not count…if they attended at all you are not first generation.</p>
<p>^pretty much.</p>
<p>From the University of California, San Diego:
“First generation college attendance
Applicants for whom neither parent is a college graduate (2 year or 4 year).”</p>
<p>I would recommend checking each college for this information. Most of them are usually like this.</p>
<p>I think it does matter if you’re parents graduated from college or not. If one of your parents went to college for only a semester and dropped out and the other never went to college to begin with, you can still consider yourself a first generation college student. </p>
<p>The whole point of giving slight preference to first gen. students is because the admissions officers know that kids whose parents have college degrees have a lot of advantages growing up. </p>
<p>Having a parent who attended college for a little while but then dropped out isn’t going to give a child any sort of advantages. The advantages come with the degree.</p>