[xijuan]

I can't tell about the top-10 CS programs. I can only tell you my experiences. I live in Canada and I study in another field. When I contacted my potential supervisor, she asked if I am Canadian citizen. The reason why she wanted to accept a student who is Canadian citizen is that many fellowship or grants are only given to Canadian citizens doing research in Canada. What I am saying here is that if your citizenship affects your chance of acceptance, it will be due to funding issues like this. But if the school you are applying is private school, it may not be a problem because they don't receive a lot of private funding I believe. I think when it comes down accepting graduate students, your potential supervisor's decision is the most important. I don't know about every program and every school. But in my school, when a professor accepts a student, he/she will sign a form saying that he/she will provide this student financially for at least five years. Therefore, standing from the professor's point of view, he/she really wants to accept a very smart student who can help him/her make great progress in the research and at the same time, receive enough funding to be able to support him/herself. I hope it helps.