<p>I have parents who graduated from a foreign country, but upon moving here to the US they have trouble finding jobs and are stuck in retail for the past 4 years. We assume it's because employers think foreign degrees are inferior to US degrees and/or do not recognize it. How can I put my circumstances in my application?</p>
<p>Also, would I be considered a "first-generation student to go to college"--a US college, that is? </p>
<p>I think what defines a "first-generation college student" is that they usually have less academic preparation because their parents can't help them, as opposed to parents with college degrees. Although my parents have degrees, I am in a similar situation -- I am self-motivated when it comes to school and getting into colleges. Can I call myself a "first-gen" student if I have a similar situation?</p>
<p>You’re stretching it a little. Don’t lie because you think that 1st gen status will boost you so much. It won’t.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the disapproval of strangers like me or the “hey go for it” justifying posts some others may give to you condoning your action – how much should this affect your evaluating your ethics and the consequences of a life quibbling over them?</p>
<p>In posting your question, were you hoping for a poll of answers? </p>
<p>Decide on your own. Learn to live with the consequences.</p>
<p>You are not first generation. It’s not the huge advantage most think it is anyway unless you’re also a minority. Lots and lost of US college grads work in retal!</p>
<p>You are an immigrant. For the kinds of institutions where being a first generation college student counts, that would probably count as well. If you end up applying to those kinds of institutions, think through your own immigration experience, and that of your family, and you may well come up with an interesting essay topic.</p>
<p>It is hard to get a good job in the US if you are an immigrant. It isn’t just the foreign degrees and work experience, it is the language issue, the culture issue, and the lack of local contacts all rolled together. Happydad was fortunate to have 1) US M.S. and Ph.D. and 2) strong local contacts when we moved back to the US. We know plenty of folks who lacked one or both of those who are working retail, in maintenance, or in positions in their fields that are lower than originally hoped for. But, I also know plenty of people with US degrees who have for one reason or another ended up in those kinds of jobs as well including Ivy graduates who are in retail, and an Ivy Ph.D. who now is a high level administrative assistant. People make different choices in their lives that send them down unexpected paths.</p>
<p>In your parents’ case, part of the issue may also be the local economy. Depending on where you live, this may be the best job, period. There is no shame in working retail. They are bringing home paychecks. They are rearing their family. There may also be the possibility of advancement in the future when the economy picks up again. The immigrant experience is a tough one, but your family isn’t the first to go through it. If you chat up the librarians at your school or public library, they can point you to multiple works by authors from different periods in US history, and different parts of this country.</p>
<p>I know smart people born in the U.S. with U.S. degrees who work in retail. The economy is horrible. </p>
<p>The small advantage that first gen college students get is because having uneducated parents means they weren’t exposed to educational experiences/knowledge/perspectives that kids get when their parents have been college educated anywhere in the world.</p>
<p>This is true. A good deal of the smartest people I know, however, have never gone to college, yet they maintain a wonderfully complex worldview that speaks to their intellect.</p>
<p>To OP:</p>
<p>My parents have foreign degrees, and I am also an immigrant. Like yours, my parents worked in jobs that in no way pertained to their course of post-secondary study; my father delivered newspapers for 10 years while going back to school, and my mother worked as a secretary while also attaining a U.S. professional degree. However, the fact that your parents’ degrees are not taken seriously - my father, a former calculus teacher, was turned down for a job by the local Board of Education because he had a foreign degree - does not make you a first generation college student, because you will not be the first to attend.</p>