Computer Science Extra Curriculars

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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\There is a TL;DR below
So… I love computers. I am going to major (no ifs ands or buts) in computer science or computer engineering in college, and dream to get into a top 15 school. I am leaning towards computer science at this point but it could go either way. I am challenged right now with my cumulative GPA (handling it, straight A’s this year), and extra curriculars. I am currently involved in my schools Engineering club, Robotics club, and model un 'cuz its fun. I came up with the idea today to start a programming club as it would help skew me towards CS and not CE. My engineering teacher is trying to get me an internship with Amtrak (hard since its meant for college students) but I feel that it may be to biased towards engineering although I will take what i can get. Any advice on finding CS internships, although I live in a not so tech oriented city? I am currently pondering taking programming courses at a local community college to 1) help my cumulative gpa, and 2) learn a(nother) coding language. I have already taken intro to computer science (intro to java) and plan on taking AP computer science next year. I have also heard open source projects can be good to have on applications and to get a knack for the languages, but what else can I do to increase my chances at getting into top schools? Anyone have any knowledge on “hackathons” and how to get involved in those scenes? Sorry if that kinda went all over the place.

Reach colleges for CS:3
University of Maryland CP
University of Washington
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

TL;DR: I NEED MORE EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE.

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Learn to make web apps --> make generic web apps (hackathon material) --> create github --> make 5 web apps --> polish one of them like crazy and learn some good database/web-dev/MVC along the way --> wreck at hackathons

Java is good but things like python/django and MEAN are all the rage nowadays

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Any tips on getting my foot in the door at local hackathons or maybe finding a mentor in my area? What coding language is ideal for me to be diverse, i know python is “in” but i have heard that it is hard to get past the 50line “toy” programs. Can I do what you recommended with Java?
Thanks!

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Python is a great language, it has a ton of libraries from data analysis to web frameworks that make it extremely versatile. Reddit is made in python and I believe Google uses it heavily, so it’s definitely a strong and useful language, not to mention it’s very quick and easy to make smaller programs in it. Java isn’t used at hackathons as much as it isn’t as lightweight.

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Java is also highly versatile and used in app development, for example, and I recommend also picking up Java (or C/C++). I’m not sure how in-depth APCS goes, but my HS Java class was pretty disappointing. For example, I don’t think we even covered important topics such as immutability or representation exposure. It’s probably one of those things best self-studied (with guides, for example MIT’s 6.005 course notes).

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MIT OCW is awesome…

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May like to go through these learner stories published on edX blog:

http://blog.edx.org/kesha-gupta-how-to-stay-motivated-engaged-in-edx-courses?track=blog
http://blog.edx.org/mooc-bootcamp-mit/?track=blog