Said I’m first-gen when I’m not?

[Doofenschmirtz]

Hey all, this is a confusing topic for me.

For background, I’m not really first-generation in the college sense. My parents went to some foreign college, so technically I’m not the first person to go to college.

HOWever, I didn’t realize that first-generation specifically meant that. My parents are immigrants here, and I am the first generation to be brought up in America. This wasn’t an intentional trick - when I googled the term for “first generation brought up in America” the term “first-generation” also popped up, so I used it like that.

So in some of my secondary essays (not my primary or anywhere else) I accidentally mentioned the word “first-gen” once and elaborated by mentioning me going back to parents home land, etc. Again, using the college definition wouldn’t even make sense the way I put it in. I didn’t say “I’m a first-gen college student” either. Luckily I browse SDN a lot and caught on to my mistake - so this has probably only been sent to a handful of schools so far. I fixed my remaining secondaries.

Is this a potentially fatal mistake or could I elaborate on this if asked in an interview? Again, NOT intentional but an honest mistake.

My stats (3.8+, 515+) are above the median for all the schools I applied to, and I mainly applied mid tier/low tier MD if that’s relevant.

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[Moko]

From a very trusted source:

The term first-generation, as it pertains to a person's nationality or residency in a country, has two incompatible meanings:

• A native-born citizen or resident of a country whose parents are foreign born, or a foreign-born citizen whose parents immigrated when that person was very young, that is, the first native-born generation.
• A foreign born citizen or resident who has immigrated to a new country of residence, that is, the first generation to immigrate.

This ambiguity is captured and corroborated in The Oxford English Dictionary's definition of "generation":
...designating a member of the first (or second, etc.) generation of a family to do something or live somewhere; spec. designating a naturalized immigrant or a descendant of immigrant parents, esp. in the United States.... (OED definition of "generation," section 6b., the term "first generation" is used to refer to foreign-born residents (excluding those born abroad of American parents).[1]
There is no universal consensus on which of these meanings is always intended.

Personally whenever someone says "first generation" I almost always think of the first definition. I suspect most adcoms think similarly as well. You'll be fine.

Also, is there a reason why you aren't applying to any schools that are a better match (or even reach) for your stats? A good school list should include a mix of 'safety', 'match', and 'reach' schools. You might be shooting yourself in the foot by applying only to schools that have a lower matriculant averages

 

[pms_testosterone]

“first-generation” is more often used to refer to (first-gen) immigrants than (first-gen) college students. If it's clear that's what you meant, it's not even going to occur to someone you might be doing anything dishonest. And even if your meaning was NOT clear, how are schools going to find out your parents went to college in another country anyway? It would have to come up in conversation, at which point you can clarify what you meant.

 

[Doofenschmirtz]

From a very trusted source:

Personally whenever someone says "first generation" I almost always think of the first definition. I suspect most adcoms think similarly as well. You'll be fine.

Also, is there a reason why you aren't applying to any schools that are a better match (or even reach) for your stats? A good school list should include a mix of 'safety', 'match', and 'reach' schools. You might be shooting yourself in the foot by applying only to schools that have a lower matriculant averages

Thank you so much - those definitions definitely cleared my concerns.

Also haha yea I do have a mix. I am either only a little above median for the schools I applied to, at the median, and in a few cases below median. I meant to say my list just isn’t top-heavy is all.

 

[Doofenschmirtz]

“first-generation” is more often used to refer to (first-gen) immigrants than (first-gen) college students. If it's clear that's what you meant, it's not even going to occur to someone you might be doing anything dishonest. And even if your meaning was NOT clear, how are schools going to find out your parents went to college in another country anyway? It would have to come up in conversation, at which point you can clarify what you meant.

I do hope it’s clear but thank you for your thoughts! That is a true point but I just wanted to make sure it was clear I wasn’t trying to deceive them in any way. Hopefully this isn’t even an issue going forward but good to know

 

[DNAJB6]

To be honest, I don't think the first generation college student label really means all that much anyway. I also doubt AMCAS and adcoms will verify it. You could always write AMCAS and explain to see if you can amend, but I think it is non-issue in this circumstance.