Int'l student status (?!)

<p>I stumbled on a link to one of Matt's blog posts and on it there was a picture of a poster board with a small FAQ of sorts. The first item said, "International student status is determined by CITIZENSHIP, not geography" with several harsh underlines under 'citizenship.'</p>

<p>Uh. I'm a US Permanent Resident. Which would mean I'm not a US Citizen. Which for me, unless I'm horribly mistaken, means I'm a Chinese citizen and therefore an international student? It was my understanding that US citizens and permanent residents usually are lumped into the same category. Does this mean I can't apply EA and have to go up against the 5% quota of internationl students?</p>

<p>The Admissions folks have stated before (here and in their blogs) that permanent residents with green cards are in the same category as US Citizens for admissions purposes. The forum site here is very slow today, otherwise I'd look up the citation for you.</p>

<p>From the MIT admissions website:
[quote]
Please note that MIT's Early Action program is available only to citizens and permanent residents of the United States.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Oh, okay. Thanks. I was scared for a sec there.</p>

<p>I suspect some of the reason Matt phrased his chart that way is so that Americans living overseas and those who are not US citizens or permanent residents but have lived in the US for some time could more easily realize which pool they would be considered in. ("citizenship, not geography")</p>