I disagree with preppedparent on this one. I agree that principals and guidance counselors are often dedicated professionals, but in a typical public school with 4 GCs and 2000 students, and something as not visually obvious as 1st gen status, there is no way they actually know this about many or even most students. That doesn’t even account for GC turnover (at least one GC has turned over every year we’ve been here).
So my guess is if self-reported and not readily verified first gen status continues its growth in importance to the admissions process, expect stories about taking advantage of this system to follow.