College Suggestions

N_s_Mom
Thu, 11 Jun 2015 13:11:48 +0000

If you apply as an international who needs significant financial aid, you will automatically be relegated to one of the most competitive pools of applicants looking for admission to US schools. You will therefore need to apply to a range of much less academically competitive schools to make sure you get in somewhere with enough financial aid. This is not a desirable strategy.

I suggest you contact schools to which you are hoping to apply. Tell them that you want to apply as a domestic applicant and that you expect your green card to arrive before you enroll. Get an email in hand from someone in admissions acknowledging that this would be okay. You don’t want to apply as an international - for the reason above - but you don’t want to lie on the application by saying you are domestic when your status is influx. Make sure if you do apply as a domestic applicant that you note your status in the application if your green card has not arrived by the time you actually apply and note that you had contacted admissions in advance about this.

If you apply as a domestic applicants and your green card does NOT arrive in time for you to enroll as a domestic applicant, take a gap year (you can almost always defer admission for a legit reason and this is one) until that green card arrives so that you are not enrolled as an international. You don’t want to be in a ‘bait and switch’ situation where you apply as a domestic applicant and show up as an international student. You could (and probably would) have your admission rescinded.

Alternatively, take a gap year and work so you can have your immigration status clearly defined at the time you apply and you will be eligible for any and all scholarships and financial aid available to domestic applicants.

This is a long preamble to saying that the list of schools that I’d suggest for a domestic applicant with your stats who need financial aid is entirely different from the schools that I’d suggest for an international needing financial aid because as an international needing aid, your chances are much lower everywhere.