<p>If an international student, who is pursuing an undergraduate degree at an American University, applies for PhD programs is he at any disadvantage compared to US citizens?
And of course, the student can't pay a single penny for this PhD program. :P</p>
<p>No. Citizenship does not come into play in graduate admissions decisions.</p>
<p>isn't there quotas?</p>
<p>i know in canada, they have recommended quotas for the number of canadians they want in their graduate programs.</p>
<p>No quotas in the US. I understand there are in Canada, however.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if it's different for each program, but for the biomedical sciences, there definitely is a "disadvantage" in being an international student, even if you did your undergrad in the US. The major sources of funding for almost all phd programs are NIH and NSF, and they don't accept applications from international students. It's a far more competetive field for us as we're fighting for limited slots that are funded by the school. However, if you do compare international students from abroad to those in the US or Canada, the latter group is more successful in being admitted, at least from my experience. I visited 3 schools this year, and every single international student I met were currently at a top US or Canadian university. I talked to one graduate int'l student who came straight from Taiwan, but he told me he was receiving funding from the Tawainese government, which made sense.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, many int'l students do enroll in phd programs, and I'm not trying to make the point that it's impossible for int'l students to get into a phd program. It's just more difficult compared to that of US applicants, at least in the biomedical sciences. If you look up various websites, most of them explicitly state that space is limited and it's more competetive, etc.</p>
<p>I'm actually looking at Humanities programs, specifically Philosophy. I know that getting into a PhD program may not be tougher, but I want to know about the funding aspect.</p>
<p>Funding in the Humanities (including Philosophy) is awarded on the basis of merit. Citizenship is not a factor.</p>