<p>I'm German and I've only been in the US for three years and I got a 1940(640 CR,700 M,600 W(Essay: 8)). Do I have a chance to get into top schools considering that I am in the IB programme and have a 3.5 UW GPA(corresponds to all 5s except for one 6 and one 4 at my school) with a pretty significant upward trend. I was one of the best field hockey players in the country in my age group when I still lived in Germany, but here in the US I'm just not being challenged enough to stay competitive for the national team. Instead I coach a local boys team now. I want to major in CS, if possible at Stanford, Cornell, Columbia, USC, UW or Cal. Is it possible for me to get in even though my stats don't look good at all at the first glance?</p>
<p>I forgot, I have a letter of recommendation from one the US Field Hockey Board Members.</p>
<p>No realistic shot at Stanford, Cornell, or Columbia. Little shot at USC, assuming you mean the one in California. By “Cal” do you mean Berkeley? Little shot. Or did you mean CalTech? Very little shot.<br>
Not sure what you mean by UW ekther? If you meant University of Washington, you’ve got a fair chance there. </p>
<p>My advice would be to get your SAT score to a 2100, aim a little lower with the schools you’re applying to (though don’t be afraid to try a few super reaches), and look into getting recruited… If Field Hockey’s even a collegiate sport?</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! Does it not matter at all that I only came to America in Freshman year? I didn’t grow up speaking English, but with the recent move I’ve become somewhat quadrilingual.(German, English, French, Spanish and three years of Latin, but unless I get a private audience with the pope I won’t ever use that again 
)</p>
<p>It won’t really help, but you may be able to mention it in your essay somewhere – if you do, please include the pope bit, it made me chuckle. </p>
<p>Anyway, try looking at some other schools, such as…
Georgia Tech
RPI
University of Rochester
Case Western Reserve
UIUC</p>
<p>You’d also get 2/3rds tuition at University of Alabama (and a bit extra, if the CS department’s in the engineering school, which I’d think it is), so that’s something else to consider, especially if you won’t be getting much need-based aid.</p>
<p><a href=“http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/[/url]”>http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/</a></p>
<p>Actually, according to this link you’d get full tuition plus a $2500 stipend.
I’d follow the money, but that’s just me.</p>
<p>You will not get into any ivies or stanford with that sat score</p>