Hi i am from bangalore india.
i have US citizenship as I was born in California. Will i have any advantages in the admissions process for applying to us colleges (especially in California) ? I have lived in the US for 3 years since i was born.
Your advantage is that you are a citizen for application purposes, vs international. You are though, OOS for all states, you still may have to fulfil language requirements. you will still have to understand financial constraints and you will still have to have to fulfill or exceed admission criteria as do US students. I suspect there are many many kids in your situation.
You are a US applicant for financial aid purposes. That is huge.
Are you currently living and studying outside the US? If so, your high school records will be probably be evaluated by the admissions officer responsible for students from the country where you live and study.
thanks @Alfonsia and @happymomof1 - but will the application process be less competitive than for international students?
The general assumption is that US citizens educated abroad have somewhat better chances of admission than true international students. Whether that holds for all colleges and universities is something that I don’t know.
Since you indicate that you are in Bangalore, I would suggest that you pay a visit to the EducationUSA office there, and meed with one of the advisors. There are many US citizens in India. If the Bangalore office doesn’t know how to help you, surely there are advisors in one of the other offices can.
https://www.educationusa.info/Bangalore
Bring a US citizen means u are eligible for US federal financial aid. But unless your parents are living in the US now, u probably don’t qualify as a resident of any state, which would entitle you to a sizable cost discount to the public universities in your state of residence.
Since u lived all but 3 years of your life in india, I assume u are culturally indian?
yes, any advantage if i apply anywhere else other than the us?
Why would there be? You would be an international applicant who had been educated in India.
If you can scrape together the money to study in the US, this is a good opportunity for you to try on life in the US. Maybe you will like it, and you will stay forever. Maybe you’d decide you don’t like it, and go back to India - or go somewhere else entirely. Some people in your situation do move here, find jobs and places to live, and work in that location long enough to establish in-state residency on their own before enrolling in college. Talk that option through with your family as well. Each state (and sometimes each public college or university in a state) sets its own policy about residency, so some research would be required before committing to a specific state as residence.
You absolutely have an advantage over international students as you are considered American. You are probably considered more unusual than an Indian currently living in NY or CA but are still part of an ORM. Of course you are eligible to apply for FA at need blind schools. 30 years ago you would have had geographic diversity on your side but I doubt it since so many apply from Asia unless you were not ethnically Indian. If you had grown up in Greece that might be different
The good news for state schools is while you would be considered out of state you would not be international (and should make sure the state schools know that) and therefore would not be as disadvantaged, may be eligible to apply for aid and would considered the same as anyone applying from another stae