<p>According to my awards, they say that I know very well computer science. And really I do, I saw the Harvard CS curriculum and the most of the courses I already know them, for me it will not be very hard to obtain good notes, because I really know my “job”. I am member in the biggest institute for CS and in the biggest association in electronics, also I received the most important award for high school students from both of them. Of course as you said it will be very hard to me to understand “United States in the World”, it will be like philosophy in English because I don’t master the English, but for all outlanders these courses are very hard…</p>
<p>By the way: Do I have a low knowledge of English?</p>
<p>The need for English proficiency is probably greater for an undergraduate than it would be for a graduate student in engineering, the sciences or math. This is because of the General Education requirements that gibby wrote of above. This calls for an ability to express yourself in a much broader manner than a graduate student may need.</p>
<p>As fauve pointed out, MIT as a tech school, has fewer writing requirements than Harvard. So, to do well at Harvard, I imagine you would need above a 90 to feel proficient and competitive with other students.</p>
<p>I didn’t want to say that. I wanted to suggest Harvard is fit for what I am looking for and I am not looking only for Harvard brand without knowing what I doing to Harvard.</p>
<p>Knowing 99% of the courses at a university doesn’t make you a good “fit”, except for, MAYBE, academically…</p>
<p>A good friend of mine who is also an IT whiz (not to say god) with a couple of gold medals from the International Olympiad in Informatics (and a billion others) did not even get an interview invitation from Harvard, but still good admitted to MIT. Why did I tell you about my friend? To show you that awards and accolades don’t make you the best social, school-spirit or whatever fit. He comes from Eastern Europe, too, and his English is perfect (you could not distinguish him from any native speaker if he didn’t have an accent), so instead of trying to find a justification for not doing English for more than 2 hours per week, get down to business and prepare for a 100+ TOEFL score and the SAT. </p>
<p>I have just one question: why are you asking us questions and seeking advice when you take our points quite skeptically?</p>
<p>Going to IOI it doesn’t say that you have a solid knowledge of Computer Science, you need to be a very talented math quiz solver, and to make about 400-500 different algorithm problems. The IOI theory is included in only one course at university called algorithms. What IOI ask from you is just to know how to solve trick problems, and not computer science problems. From what I know the science fair are more appreciated by admission officers than a silver medal or even a gold medal. Additionally at IOI they give about 30 different gold medals, and more than 70 silver medals and more than 100 bronse medals even there are 250 participants. For Instance Intel ISEF gives about 40 grand awards from 1600 participants, that is the difference and from what I know they(admission officers) know the situation. I know what I am saying, I was very close(only 20/600 points) to go to Balkan Olympiad in Informatics a few grades ago. I was passionate more than science fairs than tricky quiz problems(I have some silver national Olympiad medals in Informatics) .</p>
<p>I am skeptical because I think you are wrong, I tried to write my hypothesis why I believe you are wrong. For instance </p>
<p>I have more than a simple IOI medalist. For instance I got awards from Yale(and it writes they will advise the Yale admission officer ) to look for my application. I am member of the most important associations in electronics and cs. I got a scholarship from the most important association from electronics. Awards also to environmental engineering olympiads. Science fairs with computer science . As a junior I am teaching to a university, also I receive money from that. I had participated in 6 different conferences ( i have my articles to these academic books). I had done some online courses created by Stanford(honor certificate). Co-author to a math book with my teacher.</p>
<p>Thanks for feedback. From your feedback I had understood that my big disadvantages are my TOEFL English scores and my SAT English scores. I will try to prepare more and to retake TOEFL and SAT1 again</p>
<p>You mention that you think Harvard will look at your essays and see that you can handle English. From your writing here, I’m sorry to say that this is probably not the case. Your written English is far from fluent. I’m going to be honest and tell you that it is nowhere near the expected level of writing at a top American university.
You should also probably be concerned about your tone. The college admissions essay is designed primarily to reveal your personality. The personality you express in your writing here is a bit more overbearing, certain, overconfident, and argumentative than it is likable.
I’m sure you are a nice person in real life, and I know that English is a hard language. I’m sorry to be harsh. But you should probably look at schools that are more tech focused. And work on sounding “humble” I’m your writing.</p>
<p>^^ I agree. Regarding tone, one of my favorite college admissions quotes comes to mind:</p>
<p>What You Don’t Know Can Keep You Out Of College by Don Dunbar</p>
<p>“If the admissions office door has four locks on it, the first two keys are test scores and school record, and the third is special talent or some other accomplishment or quality. What is the fourth key? It’s “character.” An old fashioned word, it means the way you develop your inner qualities: intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, and inclusiveness.”</p>
<p>“Intel ISEF gives about 40 grand awards from 1600 participants”</p>
<p>FWIW, ISEf awards roughly 400 “grand awards.” Isef has two awards ceremonies - the first are for “special” awards (e.g., corporate, government, etc.) where judging and standards are set by the entity giving the award. </p>
<p>The second ceremony (“grand awards”) are ISEf specific. iSEF sets the standards (and those are pretty strict, with multiple qualified judges, specified uniform standards, etc.). Roughly 25% of the participants receive grand awards - there are more receiving fourth place recognition then third, etc.</p>
<p>I think that there are 17 fields and there are two (perhaps a field with lots of entrants gets 3 but virtually all have two) first place winners in each field. That group is further narrowed by recognizing the best of each field (17), and that is further narrowed by recognizing the best overall three. Each level receives more money (and recognition). I think the top awarded person earned over 90k last ISEF.</p>
<p>testobsessed and gibby have given you excellent advice. Take the time to absorb their comments about your communicatons skills, and find ways to improve your English.</p>