Oversea US citizen application

We are US citizens currently living in Asia. My son is enrolled in a local bilingual school, and is entering 9th grade next semester. We have been hearing mixed messages regarding how his college application would be treated. Someone said because he was US citizen, even though he is living overseas, he would be treated like an OOS student. Some said he would be in the international applicant pool even though he held US passport, which would be more disadvantageous I assume.

Does anyone have similar experience to share?

They’re wrong.

OOS only matters for Public universities, and yes, he would be OOS. But also be aware that for most public universities,there is no financial aid for OOS students

In general, for admissions purposes, he is a domestic applicant, unconstrained by any international cap the university imposes. He’s also eligible for federal aid. His application will be read by the AO handling the country in which you live, and his academics and EC’s will be evaluated in that context.

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My daughters had a similar experience as dual US/Canadian citizens living in the US but applying to universities in Canada.

Mostly you send the information that they would expect from an international student, but then they decide whether to accept you as a domestic student. The one daughter who did go to university in Canada seemed to be treated sort of like a lost family member who was coming home for the first time (ie, she was treated very well).

Fortunately in our case acceptance was not an issue for either daughter. Admissions is much more predictable for universities in Canada (compared to the US).

A couple of universities missed the fact that my daughter was a Canadian citizen, and along with her acceptance sent information on how to apply for a student visa. We called and cleared this up rather quickly. It has occurred to me that if they were to make the same mistake in your case it might be much more unfortunate, since acceptance to universities in the US can be unpredictable for international students. Hopefully they will not make this mistake (which seems less likely specifically because it would be more important).

Mostly this was a relatively easy experience. In your case the hard thing might be to decide where to apply since there are so many universities to choose from, since admissions can be hard to predict, and since you are out of state for public universities in the US.

If you own a residence in the US and pay property tax, you MAY be eligible for in-state status in that state. Regulations vary so you’ll have to consult with your state’s schools.

As a general statement, US schools “like” American expats, because they bring an international perspective to the class and campus community without language or visa complications.

Depending on your family’s experience, living abroad can be an extracurricular in itself.

If this student is a U.S. citizen living abroad, she will be considered a domestic student when applying to college, not an international. There is no grey area here. Maybe there is in Canada, but not here.

The issues are described above.

  1. The application will be reviewed alongside applications from the region where this student resides.

  2. This student won’t have instate status at any public university unless they fall into one of a couple of special groups who do maintain instate status.

@skieurope post above sums it up well.

Will be considered a US domestic applicant (i.e. not limited by international quotas, eligible for financial aid as a domestic student), but probably out-of-state for all state universities (unless associated with a state with some sort of special status; being out-of-state for state universities generally means higher tuition and less or no need-based financial aid), and with international high school records that may need translation and interpretation for the university’s admission process.

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Canada and the US are the same in how they treat citizens applying from abroad (I’ve done both). You are compared to other students in the region in which you go to school. You fill in the application and send the documents that are required from the region in which you go to school.

In Canada, you pay domestic fees if you are a Canadian citizen. Quebec schools have a Canadian citizen tuition and a lower Quebec resident tuition. Other provinces do not.

In the U.S., you pay in state tuition at public schools if your parents qualify. There are different requirements for each state. Google “residency for tuition purposes state university”

D16 applied to the US from abroad. The CommonApp doubled the application fees, even though I was using a US based AmEx.

@bouders i believe we are in full agreement. This student will be considered a domestic applicant…as you noted, with an overseas address…there might be some explaining to do if the college or common AP, or whatever messes it up!

If there are any grandparents living in Florida you might get in-state tuition.

https://admissions.fsu.edu/residency/grandparent-waiver/

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One more thing which is important is that his application will be need blind at the 100 or so colleges who do so (versus the 6 which also are need blind for international students).

A friend of my daughter’s who grew up in the UK, but has dual citizenship, was accepted with 100% financial aid to Middlebury, which would have been a lot less likely had she been considered as an international student.

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Many more US colleges than 100 or 6 are need-blind in admissions, including for international students.

However, many of them do not give good need-based financial aid, and many do not give any need-based financial aid to international students (i.e. those who are not US citizens or permanent residents).

Therefore, it is generally better for US college financial aid to be a US student living outside the US than it is to be an international student.

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Betting they meant need blind AND meet full need for all international accepted students. There are now only 7 colleges that do this.

Which is irrelevant for the OP because they aren’t international.

Exactly…and there is no way they will be considered international here because they are U.S. citizens.

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Exactly.