<p>Am I a first generation if both my parents have only some college?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/568331-can-you-precisely-define-first-generation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/568331-can-you-precisely-define-first-generation.html</a></p>
<p>But I might also call the schools you are applying to and ask for clarification from admissions. Not sure if different schools define it differently.</p>
<p>Isn’t a lot of that arguing about whether one is or isn’t “first generation” if one’s parents attended college briefly really moot?</p>
<p>I don’t remember ever seeing an application that asked specifically whether the applicant is “first generation.” I remember seeing a lot of applications that asked for family information, including parents’ college (if any) and degrees (if any). I suspect that each college interprets that information as it chooses.</p>
<p>But if we’re going to debate for the sake of debating, I really don’t see how you can be the first generation to go to college if your parents went to college–whether they finished or not. And I sincerely doubt that “first generation” means first generation to finish college. For a college to ask high-school seniors, “Will you be the first generation in your family to complete college?” seems to be making a huge assumption about a high-school senior’s college career.</p>
<p>My experience has been that when they ask about first generation, they want to know if either parent has earned a bachelor’s degree. In Florida, there are extra grants available to students who are considered “first generation” by that rule.</p>