Resident Alien Forum

[lawjag2015]

Hey Everyone! How does being a resident alien (permanent resident) influence your chances of admission? Thanks.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I don't think it would have any effect on your chances of admission.

[Hand]

I don't think it would have any effect on your chances of admission.

I agree. You don't need a student visa to enroll, you can get federal student loans while enrolled, and you won't need a visa in order to be able to be employed after graduation, so for all intents and purposes there is no difference between you and a citizen from a school's perspective. And being a foreign national is a somewhat interesting soft - or at the very least, it is something to talk about in interviews with admissions people.

[lawjag2015]

I don't think it would have any effect on your chances of admission.

I agree. You don't need a student visa to enroll, you can get federal student loans while enrolled, and you won't need a visa in order to be able to be employed after graduation, so for all intents and purposes there is no difference between you and a citizen from a school's perspective. And being a foreign national is a somewhat interesting soft - or at the very least, it is something to talk about in interviews with admissions people.

Thanks so much for your replies!

[Travellina]

Just make sure schools are not wrongly classifying you as an international student who would need a visa and does not qualify for most scholarships because of your foreign citizenship, ignoring your permanent resident status. Apparently some adcoms do not read applications very carefully for this. I am a dual citizen, permanent resident until a few months before I applied, with US address for the last almost 10 years. Even though I listed on my application that I am now a US citizen, a certain school the name of which I will not mention classified me as an "international student" (notifying me of this at admission last week) and as such did not award me any of the normal scholarships that I would have gotten with my LSAT/GPA but sent me to "international student financial review" instead. Ironically, my personal statement was about the discrimination and hardships I had encountered as an immigrant to the US before I became a resident and later citizen...

[pylon]

Even though I listed on my application that I am now a US citizen, a certain school the name of which I will not mention classified me as an "international student" (notifying me of this at admission last week) and as such did not award me any of the normal scholarships that I would have gotten with my LSAT/GPA but sent me to "international student financial review" instead

Do you mind expanding on this a bit? Is it a practice used by all schools? I didn't know they had different scholarships and processes for international students...

[Travellina]

I am not sure what the practice is in different school to be honest because I am a US citizen and never researched what international students could and could not get in terms of financial aid as I never imagined someone would decide to classify me as international. The school in question is a state school, and my guess would be that probably private schools are less likely to make a difference for the purpose of awarding scholarships, but most likely it depends on the individual school and its policies. For undergrad, when I was not yet a citizen/resident, there were wild differences between tuition rates and financial aid opportunities for citizens/permanent residents and aliens/international students on a visa.

[lawjag2015]

Wow! Travellina, what is the recourse in case of the confusion that you mentioned?

[Travellina]

I think the recourse is going to be withdrawing my application because I am slightly offended by how they've treated me (I can do that because they were a "safe" school and I already got scholarships elsewhere). I contacted admissions and they just brushed me off and told me to contact registrars for residence issues. In the meanwhile, I received an e-mail urging me to show them I have the funds to pay full tuition and living expenses or else my admission would not be finalized, which confirms that they completely overlooked me for financial aid consideration... I'm not sure what I could have done to avoid this, I have "US citizen" in 3 places of the application, as well as a whole section dedicated to international vs resident vs citizen. I guess if you really want to go to a certain school, it wouldn't hurt to give admissions a quick call after submitting an application to ensure you are classified as a permanent resident and don't end up in my situation.

[lawjag2015]

I think the recourse is going to be withdrawing my application because I am slightly offended by how they've treated me (I can do that because they were a "safe" school and I already got scholarships elsewhere). I contacted admissions and they just brushed me off and told me to contact registrars for residence issues. In the meanwhile, I received an e-mail urging me to show them I have the funds to pay full tuition and living expenses or else my admission would not be finalized, which confirms that they completely overlooked me for financial aid consideration... I'm not sure what I could have done to avoid this, I have "US citizen" in 3 places of the application, as well as a whole section dedicated to international vs resident vs citizen. I guess if you really want to go to a certain school, it wouldn't hurt to give admissions a quick call after submitting an application to ensure you are classified as a permanent resident and don't end up in my situation.

Yes, I was thinking about a phone call, and bringing it up if and when visiting too. Good that you had better options! Thanks for sharing your experience!

[admiringatticus]

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