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In my diversity statement I briefly mention overcoming the challenges of being a first generation college student on my mother's side of the family. Does that make ANY sense? Although my father is college-educated, he was absent for most of my teenage years because he switched jobs several times and had to work in different cities. Should I send an addendum explaining those circumstances, and that my mother and I knew nothing about college when I first enrolled? I don't want adcomms to think I am being disingenuous.

ct352 wrote:In my diversity statement I briefly mention overcoming the challenges of being a first generation college student on my mother's side of the family. Does that make ANY sense? Although my father is college-educated, he was absent for most of my teenage years because he switched jobs several times and had to work in different cities. Should I send an addendum explaining those circumstances, and that my mother and I knew nothing about college when I first enrolled? I don't want adcomms to think I am being disingenuous.

How are they going to know he went to college? I really do not see this as a big issue

1. No it doesn't make sense.
2. Yes, it sounds disingenuous. This assumes, of course, that you did not clarify that you were raised in a single-parent home at some other point. If you did, then it makes sense and is less disingenuous.
3. Do not update them.

Davidbentley wrote: Yes, I'm going to quote myself here, "never hand the executioner the rope".

ManOfTheMinute wrote:

ct352 wrote:In my diversity statement I briefly mention overcoming the challenges of being a first generation college student on my mother's side of the family. Does that make ANY sense? Although my father is college-educated, he was absent for most of my teenage years because he switched jobs several times and had to work in different cities. Should I send an addendum explaining those circumstances, and that my mother and I knew nothing about college when I first enrolled? I don't want adcomms to think I am being disingenuous.

How are they going to know he went to college? I really do not see this as a big issue

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. A lot of applications ask for the education level of each parent. But I hope you are correct in that it won't matter much. The phrase "first generation college student on my mother's side of the family" felt fine before I submitted, but now I'm second guessing myself.

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Regulus wrote:

ManOfTheMinute wrote:

ct352 wrote:In my diversity statement I briefly mention overcoming the challenges of being a first generation college student on my mother's side of the family. Does that make ANY sense? Although my father is college-educated, he was absent for most of my teenage years because he switched jobs several times and had to work in different cities. Should I send an addendum explaining those circumstances, and that my mother and I knew nothing about college when I first enrolled? I don't want adcomms to think I am being disingenuous.

How are they going to know he went to college? I really do not see this as a big issue

Answer:

Berkeley Application, Section 15 (Socioeconomic Information), Questions 12 & 14 wrote:12. Were you raised by a single parent?
14. What is the highest level of education attained by your father (parent 2)?

OP, how did you answer the aforementioned questions?

I didn't apply to Berkeley, and I didn't have to answer the first question on any of my applications. For the second question, I answered honestly that he attained a college degree. Also, nowhere in my applications do I mention growing up in a single parent home. What would you advise?

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Regulus wrote:

ct352 wrote:I didn't apply to Berkeley, and I didn't have to answer the first question on any of my applications. For the second question, I answered honestly that he attained a college degree. Also, nowhere in my applications do I mention growing up in a single parent home. What would you advise?

Whoah, shit I fucked that up.... for some reason I thought you were talking about Berkeley. Sorry - total brain fart on my part. Berkeley is the only school of the T14 that asks about the single parent thing, but as you know, many schools ask about your parents' highest level of education.

Either way, as the others have said, I wouldn't say anything because the schools likely* won't make the connection and you'll be fine.

*If the schools do make the connection and you get denied for being disingenuous, sorry.

It's only one half of one sentence, but I doubt it will slip past T-14 adcomms. Would an honest explanation be more detrimental to me than helpful?

ct352 wrote:

Regulus wrote:

ct352 wrote:I didn't apply to Berkeley, and I didn't have to answer the first question on any of my applications. For the second question, I answered honestly that he attained a college degree. Also, nowhere in my applications do I mention growing up in a single parent home. What would you advise?

Whoah, shit I fucked that up.... for some reason I thought you were talking about Berkeley. Sorry - total brain fart on my part. Berkeley is the only school of the T14 that asks about the single parent thing, but as you know, many schools ask about your parents' highest level of education.

Either way, as the others have said, I wouldn't say anything because the schools likely* won't make the connection and you'll be fine.

*If the schools do make the connection and you get denied for being disingenuous, sorry.

It's only one half of one sentence, but I doubt it will slip past T-14 adcomms. Would an honest explanation be more detrimental to me than helpful?

In all honesty, I did grow up in a single parent home and I am the first person on my mother's side of the family to attend college. I definitely didn't make that up to give myself an advantage.

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Regulus wrote:

ct352 wrote:

Regulus wrote:

ct352 wrote:I didn't apply to Berkeley, and I didn't have to answer the first question on any of my applications. For the second question, I answered honestly that he attained a college degree. Also, nowhere in my applications do I mention growing up in a single parent home. What would you advise?

Whoah, shit I fucked that up.... for some reason I thought you were talking about Berkeley. Sorry - total brain fart on my part. Berkeley is the only school of the T14 that asks about the single parent thing, but as you know, many schools ask about your parents' highest level of education.

Either way, as the others have said, I wouldn't say anything because the schools likely* won't make the connection and you'll be fine.

*If the schools do make the connection and you get denied for being disingenuous, sorry.

It's only one half of one sentence, but I doubt it will slip past T-14 adcomms. Would an honest explanation be more detrimental to me than helpful?

I misspelled the name of the company that I work at on all of my resumes and had a grammatical error in my "Why Penn?" essay, but these didn't have any effect on the outcome of my cycle. Forget about it and wait for your decisions. Chances are they won't notice, and if you literally wrote "first-gen college student on mom's side" in your essay and selected "high school" or lower for her highest education in the other section, you still aren't at a total loss.

Thanks, Regulus. I literally did write that word for word and entered her education level as high school. Hopefully they will understand where I'm coming from and refrain from thinking I'm a manipulative jerk. FWIW I have received an acceptance and large scholarship from a school ranked in the low fifties. I'm just worried that T-14 schools will treat the claim with skepticism.