Hi CC! My friend is a US citizen who has studied abroad her whole life. This friend assumed this meant she was an international student and she applied as such to multiple US universities. However, she only told me about this yesterday because one of her colleges asked her about it, and I checked to make sure - she should have applied as a domestic applicant. Her question is, should she immediately notify the colleges of this now? This is what I suggested to her but it would help if people with more experience could confirm this. We both understand this will have to be corrected sooner or later - however, there is concern about how this error might look to the colleges. Thank you for your time!
Yes she should do so immediately. This can only positively affect her. Correcting something that may get her in the admit pile vs. worried about having to look bad because of this a mistake? Not even a hesitation.
Tell her to contact each school right now.
Agreed, she should notify the schools that she is a US citizen.
Yes, immediately inform colleges. Don’t worry about how it looks, applying as a US Citizen rather than an international can only help. Moreover, tell her that as a US citizen she can also now apply for need-based financial aid using FAFSA and qualify for government backed financial aid and she has to do that quickly also if she needs financial aid.
In what world would it make sense to not immediately inform the colleges?