<p>I am interested in knowing whether the competition is harder to transfer in to Ivys as an international student than it is for a U.S. citizen. I am a dual U.S./Swiss citizen but my parents have been pressuring me to drop my U.S. citizenship. As such, I wanted to know whether me dropping my U.S. citizenship would hurt my chances of getting accepted as a transfer student to top U.S. schools (I will be attending McGill next year). I will not be seeking financial aid.</p>
<p>I reckon it will be harder for you, why do you need to drop a citizenship anyway?</p>
<p>Mostly for tax reasons</p>
<p>Yes it would be much harder. Transferring is already harder than gaining regular freshman admissions. Unless you have a really compelling case, I would suggest you not to bother about transfer - especially for the higher Ivys. Cornell seems to have lots of transfers though - if you are thinking about it. I would recommend to shoot for them again at the graduate level instead of transferring.</p>
<p>If you ever think that you would like to live, work, or even just travel in the US, you would be a fool to drop the US citizenship. The tax requirements for a US citizen living abroad are minimal. Unless you have boatloads of income, the paperwork would take you an hour or two. Back when Happydad and I were in Venezuela I did it every year.</p>
<p>Read up on it at [Internal</a> Revenue Service](<a href=“http://www.irs.gov%5DInternal”>http://www.irs.gov) Look up Form 2555 Foreign Earned Income and Form 1116 Foreign Tax Credit.</p>
<p>As a US citizen you have access to federal financial aid and loans that aren’t available for international students. This would make it much easier to pay for your education here. If you are an international student, you would have to get an F-1 visa which has all kinds of work restrictions on it.</p>
<p>Renouncing US citizenship is not a trivial act. You can’t just decide that you don’t want it. You have to go to the consulate and make a series of formal declarations and turn in your passport. You can’t do this until you are no longer a legal minor. Your parents can’t do it for you. I would suggest that you wait until you have completed your university-level education. When you know for certain that you will not want to study here, or to make your career here, then you can take a more informed decision about which nationalities you want to hold.</p>
<p>@Swissas
giving up US citizenship means you are wasting your chance of admitting into good colleges in near future.
Don’t fear about the tax you need to pay?
Be a foresighted man.</p>