The only thing American about my identity is my passport, I have lived in India for 15 years and completed elementary, middle school and high school (IGCSE for two years and IB for two) in India itself. However, when I apply do I apply as an International applicant or a normal undergraduate applicant??
You qualify for US federal funding as an American citizen, and your application will be evaluated as a US citizen living abroad, but for the popular state universities, your application would be considered OOS (out of state). You might get federal funding (which typically does not begin to cover costs) but not for any state funding.
This means that if you applied, for instance, to the UC’s, ($65K per year) they don’t give financial aid to non-residents of California. So you would be compared to other OOS students applying to their universities at full fees.
@“aunt bea” sums it up correctly. The only thing I will add is that for most colleges, and certainly when using the Common or Coalition App, there is no “applying as international.” As in, there is no box that says “Check here if you are international.” Among the many questions asked is your citizenship; then the college takes care of the rest.