Hi, I’m currently a HS junior and after looking at some college apps that I’d be filling out next year, I noticed that there was a Parent’s Education Level part. Growing up (with only my father & grandparents), none of them went anywhere past highschool. However, recently my dad went back to college and just graduated this year. Does this mean that I have to tick the option that one of my parents attended college? How does this affect my chances?
You do need to put in on the app. If I remember correctly there’s also a place to put the year they graduated so adcoms may see that and consider his recent graduation as different from a parent who attended college directly out of high school.
If he hadn’t gone back to school then it sounds like you would have been a first-generation college student (which is often considered a hook in admissions). It gives you a slight edge over someone who is unhooked. It won’t drastically change your chances.
Of course the OP needs to put it on the app. Explain how the dad is not a college graduate. There’s no stop watch on it.
If anything, the recent grad dad can better guide child thru the admissions process better than parents who went thru the ordeal 3 decades ago.