<p>I've always had a chat with friends that colleges wont accept illegal immigrants or nonresident aliens. Also that other colleges will look down upon other types of citizenship status'. Is this true?</p>
<p>if you dont have american citizenship/permanent residency,
then your citizenship will hurt you a billion for top-notch colleges (basically applying as international student) </p>
<p>however, for not-so top colleges like say, Tufts, Lehigh,...etc it may help you b/c they want diversity</p>
<p>Permanent residency (Green Card) is considered to be equal to US citizenship (as for whether this is truly the case, nobody really knows - it happens only in the admission offices but I wouldn't think they would discriminate against Permanent Residents).</p>
<p>International students (applying without Green Card or US citizenship) generally hurts your chances at most schools, not even to mention the question of aid. Most foreign students get very little aid at all, if any (excepting the international need-blind schools, like MIT). This sort of restriction exists, reasonably, as US institutions are designed to educate US students, not a horde of foreign students.</p>
<p>As for illegal immigrants, it is only logical that they are not accepted by colleges. Colleges won't educate them because they are already breaking the law by illegally residing in the United States.</p>