<p>My son has been putting his father's name on the applications and leaving all the other info blank. His dad lives in another state and they don't communicate. We don't know his dad's address or employer or other info. </p>
<p>He got to the Syracuse application this weekend and they want the parents' professions, degrees, etc (this is more than others have requested). He again is leaving that info all blank. </p>
<p>I'm not sure why the college is requesting so much info about the parents. Is this an issue?</p>
<p>He might want to put "unknown" in the answer space so it doesn't appear that he overlooked the questions. Colleges use this info in a variety of ways, i.e., is mom or dad a corporate or society big shot with deep pockets or if parents didn't go to college they might view the app in a different way (they seem to be big on first generation college applicants).</p>
<p>First of all, all of my applications ask for detailed information about my parents. It's there to put the applicant in a context. They want to know where the applicant is coming from: Are the parents struggling? Are they lawyers? Did they graduate high school? Community college? Yale? Is there one parent? Lesbian mothers? etc. Mine also ask if my parents are married, divorced, separated, or other with room to write the date of the divorce or separation and any additional information. If his applications have this spot, just write it in there. Otherwise I would follow sarap's suggestion and write unknown. If you'd like, you could just type a quick explanation in one of the "additional information" sections.</p>