<p>I'll be applying to colleges this fall, and I'm sort of in a special situation.</p>
<p>Even though I've attended high school in the US, I'm a Canadian citizen here on a visa. This means that I have to apply as an international applicant (except for schools in California, where I've been a resident for ~6 years).</p>
<p>I know that I'll be at a disadvantage with financial aid, but what about admissions-wise? Are selective colleges less likely to accept me b/c I'm international, even though I've received a US education?
Any advice or input is welcome. (:</p>
<p>International students with great stats, GPA and ECs are getting into selective schools at my son’s school. I think if you have all the above you probably have a slight advantage over regular internationals especially if AOs know about the rigor of your high school. However this purely my inexperienced opinion. </p>
<p>Also I am not familiar with CA school system. Are you saying that having gone to CA schools and living there (on a student visa) qualifies you to apply as a resident? My uderstanding is, if you don’t have permanent resident green card or citizenship you are an international applicant. Perhaps CA is different.</p>
<p>@ognopgod Yepp, I get to apply as a CA resident for UC schools because I’ve lived there for a long time and we pay taxes, etc. I got a letter from the UC schools for the ELC program, which is only sent to CA residents (:
I have good stats except for my junior year grades, which is why I’m worried. There seems to be different answers when I look at other threads, so I just want some definite answers. Thanks for helping!!</p>
<p>You need to ask each and every one of the colleges and universities on your list how they want you to proceed. Some will toss you in with the US applicants (because this is where you have gone to HS) for admissions, but with international applicants for financial aid. Others will send your whole file to the international admissions office. Still others will have a Canada expert, or an F2/H2/G2/etc. visa expert who will handle your file. Some places might want you to take the TOEFL. There truly is no way to predict this. You have to ask.</p>
<p>When you are making your list, do talk about the money issues with your parents. Once they look at the numbers, they may prefer to send you back to Canada for your undergrad degree - I know several Canadian parents who have done just that. You also need to find out whether or not you will need to convert to an F1 visa if you do study here - not all statuses allow for college-level study. Even if conversion is not necessary, you may find that you prefer to do so in order to take advantage of job opportunities that become available with CPT and OPT.</p>