<p>Why do colleges need to know my parent's information? On the common app, there are parts that are not stared should i fill them in anyways?</p>
<p>the ones that have stars on them means they're mandatory</p>
<p>^i realize that. My question is what do colleges do with the parent information? Do I or should I provide all the optional information?</p>
<p>The colleges are trying to understand you better, which is what happens when they learn about your parents' jobs and education. A student with your stats, ECs who comes from a low income, uneducated background is a different type of person than is a student with your stats, ECs, who comes from a family of wealthy persons with terminal degrees.</p>
<p>The student from a low income, uneducated background that includes 2 parents who work fulltime in blue collar jobs would have to be more self motivated, creative and hard working to be college bound than would be the case of a student with, for example, a stay at home mom with a law degree from Georgetown and a father who's a college president.</p>
<p>so then on the common app, since some of the information is optional is it better to leave it blank since both parents have masters degrees?</p>
<p>wow...my parents didn't even finish high school (which is very common).</p>
<p>If you leave the info blank, the adcoms will think you have something to hide. Just provide the info without embellishment.</p>
<p>For instance, if your mom right now is a stay at home mom, you don't need to add that she took early retirement after being a Fortune 500 vice president. No need to highlight the fact that you are extremely privileged.</p>
<p>For the people who are reading this who have different concerns, if your parent is in jail, it's OK to put that down. If you don't know who your father is, write that down. Those kind of embarrassing things that normally you probably don't tell people are things to note on a college application because being from an underprivileged background can work in your favor. Adcoms are impressed by students who overcame challenges.</p>
<p>It's not common to be a college app whose parents didn't finish high school. That's a factor that also would work in your favor since many colleges, particularly top ones, want to attract more first generation college students.</p>