I’m applying to Harvard, and my father went to Tsinghua(number 1 school in China), while my mother could’ve went to Tsinghua, but chose another prestigious Chinese university. Will college admissions officers even take note of this? And if they do, how will it affect my college admissions chances?
Irrelevant.
No. Only your academic and personal extracirruculars will be relevant to admissions officers. It’s your essays they’ll be reading. On the flip side my husband and I only went to basic state schools but our D18 is attending a Top15 … it didn’t hurt her chances of getting into top schools (she got into several).
The only way parents’’ college would help you is they graduated from Harvard College, which they did not. So it is irrelevant.
If they graduated from Harvard, so you were a legacy, or if they didn’t go to college at all, so you were a first generation college student, then it would matter. Otherwise, as in your case, it doesn’t.
Yes same here. My dad went to Tsinghua and I’m applying to Stanford ERA. Worried that it might hurt my chances
No, no effect.
I believe it COULD have an effect. AOs look at applications in light of the advantages a student has. Being First Generation to go to college, for example, can be an outright hook. An applicant from a family with two well educated parents is privileged. In that regard, and something that might be taken into account as ones address, parents’ jobs, the school you attend and other advantages you enjoy. It’s not as simple as “aha! Kid’s parents went to #1 School in China!” But it’s part of the profile that is built for you in contrast, to some other applicant very similar to you in stats who does not have these advantages.
Nobody here can predict how any particular admission officer or any particular college views one small fact in an application. I suggest you stop stressing over something you can’t change.