Canadians easier to be admitted to PhD programs in US?

[mtzh4]

Hi, everyone:

 

I am a Canadian citizen and also have the nationality for another country, but due to some visa issue, I used the other country's citizenship, instead of Canadian citizenship at the time I apply to the schools in US. 

 

I turned in the applications a couple of months ago and most of them are still under review / at interview round. I wonder if my update of Canadian citizenship will help with my application ?  e.g. better funding for Canadian than other international students? higher acceptance ratio ?

 

I applied to PhD in Biostatistics, and schools I applied to include Yale, Columbia, Brown, Boston U, U Penn, UCLA, and a couple of more.... Thanks,

 

 

[Guest |||]

It likely makes a minimal impact on acceptance, unless of course there is funding set aside strictly for canadians or home grown students

[TakeruK]

Letting them know you are Canadian won't be a real difference in your admission decisions. However, if you end up going to a US program, be sure to let them / the International Office know that you are Canadian -- it will make immigration paperwork etc. much easier (for example, Canadians do NOT need a visa to enter the US, we just need to get F-1 or J-1 student status, which is much easier -- everything done online).

 

Canadians might have advantages over other international students when applying because:

 

1. The Canadian schools and grading system may be more familiar to the US schools.

2. We are trained in mostly the same way as the US schools.

 

But these factors should already be in your application because your transcripts etc. will show Canadian schools. Unless of course, you didn't go to school in Canada!

 

Otherwise, everything else is the same -- Canadian tuition costs the same as any other nationality. There's no better funding unless for some reason, your school has a special award for just Canadians (I've never seen this). However, if you have finished one degree in Canada, you are usually eligible to apply to Canadian government funding, e.g. SSHRC, NSERC, CIHR. You can take NSERC awards outside of Canada, not 100% sure about the other two agencies!

 

One last place where it might make a difference is during grad school visits. If you are in Canada now, once you are admitted, you can let them know that you aren't actually living in whatever country you used. Sometimes they don't invite/pay for international students to visit since a flight from Europe or Asia (for example) could be really expensive. But getting to the US from Canada isn't too much more work!

[mtzh4]

Got it... Millions thanks to both of...