<p>Yep another chance thread. I'm international and I will apply in the class of 2016.</p>
<p>Curriculum vitae</p>
<p>First year 2007-2008 GPA:7 out of 10
Math School Olympiad.
Rugby Team 4,5 hours per week + sunday match.</p>
<p>Second year 2008-2009 GPA: 7 out of 10
Computer Science School Olympiad.
School Journal. Computer science articles.
Class Rapresentative.
Sysadmin of a little forum.
Waterpolo 2 hours per week
Judo 1 hour per week.</p>
<p>Summer: I've studied a lot of CS by myself.</p>
<p>Third year 2009-2010 GPA: 8 out of 10
Speech at University of Rome (La Sapienza) about COmputer science during GNU/Linux day.
Physics School Olympiad.
Computer Science School Olympiad.
Trinity Exam level 7(B), I have done a course 2 hours per week.
Waterpolo 11 hours per week.
School Journal.
Project Words of legality, an article about Windows7sins.
Project "Scienza Narrata", a short story about science, It's a competition between high school students.
Course at school during the comanagment by the students. Course about Computer Science.
FSF volunteer, I have done many translations for them. Welcome</a> — Free Software Foundation
I also mantain a website, my website <a href="http://edo1493.it%5B/url%5D">http://edo1493.it</a>.
I have done a seminary about Governement and costitution 10 hours.</p>
<p>Summer: On Agust I will be in London, to improve my English and to work.</p>
<h2>I have planned a lot of EC's for next year. </h2>
<p>I'm 17 and I am currently in the third year. In italy, we have 5 years of high school.</p>
<p>I'm a Free Software activist as you can see, and I love Science.
Programming Skills: " I know the basis of C".</p>
<p>I will start to study for SAT I and SAT II math level 2 and physics next summer.
I don't think that I will have problems with math and physics, so maybe I will get 750+. For the SAT, I have no idea..
I will take also TOEFL (100+).</p>
<p>You really should work on your English. Your GPA isn’t that high either. And your EC’s… if I were you I’d focus on 1-3 ECs that you really care about and not ‘as many as possible’.</p>
<p>You have to start practicing for SAT as soon as possible and score high. A school like Harvard gets thousands of very strong international applications and you have to be on par with them if you want to be considered.</p>
<p>Yes.
I like these EC’s and they don’t take me so much time. 
In italy 8 out of 10 is very good.</p>
<p>Next year I will not do waterpolo because time,(I can’t do 100 things at the same time), will it hurt me?
Could waterpolo be a hook?</p>
<p>I should focus on Free Software Movement…</p>
<p>Could it be helpful building a Computer Server at home or a homemade particle accelerator? (it doesn’t matter with harvard, I want to build these things because I love CS and Physic). I’ve seen that many smart guys build this kind of things and put them in their Curriculm Vitae…but the goal isn’t ( doing as many things as possible) but enjoy!</p>
<p>ps: Yes, I have to improve my english, I will be in London this summer and then I will start an intensive course.</p>
<p>just curious: why do you want to study in the US and not in Italy where you have fine universities with history going back to the middle ages like Bologna, Padova or Pisa where Galileo Galilei himself used to teach</p>
<p>Because I want to get a major in CS or in Physics.
In italy we have univerisities but we don’t have money for the “scientific research”.
I want to try this way, If I fail , I will try the italian choice.</p>
<p>As I’ve said, I’m international and here I can’t have some information about usa college.
I want to know just these things:
Are there any statistics about International Students?
How Can I improve my chances? (" Do what you love") Yes, but I love many things that I do at home, are they ok? Like buliding a web server, helping an international no-profit or doing homemade physics.</p>
<p>Check the specific colleges websites under statistics or quick facts. They usually have admission data. You have to know that for most selective schools like Harvard, the admission rate for international students is much lower than for US students (maybe less than half), which would thus be less than 3% for Harvard this year and as I said before, they get very competitive applications from international students. So it is much more difficult for international student to get accepted.
Colleges use a holistic approach to assess a candidate which means that they will consider all aspects of your application: grades, transcript, EC’s etc. Unless you have a very specific talent, a school like Harvard will want all these aspects of your application to be on par with other candidates. Your EC’s look fine but they have to be complemented with top grades at school and on the SAT.</p>