Dual citizenship, which should I use for college application

[davidbenari]

I am a dual mexican and american citizen but I study in Mexico and I need to apply to other colleges for an international exchange.

My question to you is: do you think I should apply to other colleges as a mexican or as an american? I'm applying to Canada, Europe, and the US.

I was thinking that I should apply as a Mexican in the US since that way I would be considered a minority and colleges like to have a minority population.

Is it at all important? The thing is I don't even have a Mexican passport right now and if its really not that important then I probably shouldn't go through all the hassle. Opinions?

THANKS

 

[phinds]

I don't really know, but I would point out that being a "minority" applicant can be a two-edged sword. I would think that under normal circumstances it could give you a slight edge BUT there could be situations where a particular university feels that it has too many minority students and needs to not accept some of such applicants in the short term. I have no idea whether that's a real-world scenario, but thought I would point it out for consideration.

 

[ZapperZ]

I am a dual mexican and american citizen but I study in Mexico and I need to apply to other colleges for an international exchange.

My question to you is: do you think I should apply to other colleges as a mexican or as an american? I'm applying to Canada, Europe, and the US.

I was thinking that I should apply as a Mexican in the US since that way I would be considered a minority and colleges like to have a minority population.

Is it at all important? The thing is I don't even have a Mexican passport right now and if its really not that important then I probably shouldn't go through all the hassle. Opinions?

THANKS

First of all, there is a difference between a US citizen minority versus a non-US citizen minority. Many US universities have plenty of the latter.

Secondly, non-citizens do not have access to a lot available financial support that are open to US citizens. Most direct educational grants from NSF (as opposed to research grants) are not available to non-US citizens. This is also true for DOE SULI and many other internships.

Nationalities are often not used in determining minority status. A Caucasian who is a citizen of Mexico is not considered as a minority, I don't think.

If I were you, I'd use the US citizenship.

Zz.