Well pretty decent means As and one B except for the first exam, where I was fourteen years old and thought it wasn’t necessary to learn for the exams xD
But I think I’ll just include it anyways since it won’t do any damage
Europa, wow, that is a long way to travel. 
Yeah I guess it’ll get a bit problematic since the guys from NASA and ESA always send those spacecraft in the wrong direction 
For colleges with especially accessible curricula, even by U.S. standards, consider Amherst (notable for neuroscience), Grinnell (notable for its high percentage of international students), Brown (already on your list) and Hamilton.
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Following up on colleges which are need aware for international students, but do accept a good number of international students on aid:
Haverford (around 1/3 of their international students get financial aid)
Skidmore (similar)
Vassar (similar)
Trinity College (around 40% of their international students get aid)
Lafayette College (Around 1/2)
For these colleges, you are more likely to be in their top international applicants, so you are more likely to be accepted even if you are being considered as a need aware applicant.
In general, though, you should look at colleges which provide 100% need-based financial aid. However, since most are need aware for international students, you may want to focus on colleges at which you would be at the very top of their international applicants. So you look at their freshman profiles, and figure whether you would fit in the top students who were accepted.
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OP: Here’s an opinion from someone who was in your shoes when he graduated high school (Gymnasium) in 2018.
I was also thinking of applying for US colleges, but I only had a 1.1 instead of a 1.0 and my ECs were maybe 1/3 as strong as yours. I ended up not doing it, and going to university in Germany instead. I sometimes regret not trying though. I would have been fine with any T100, in hindsight even going to a T200 or even T300 school wouldve been worth it I think. It’s different in my case because I’m a computer science major. I wouldve done it just to get access to the US job market which is 100x better than the European one when it comes to tech. I still ended up getting FAANG internships in Europe, but in the US these still pay 3x as much…
My former school sends people to top US colleges semi-regularly (know 2 cases, 1 went to Princeton, 1 to harvard). I can tell you, you definitely have a shot. A very good one. Dont waste that. Dont go to university in Germany, you will grow more as a person and probably as a scientist if you study abroad in the US. Your peers will be much better. More international as well, most likely. You will not spend your first year with people who are going to drop out sooner than later. Research opportunities will likely also be better there (here, a lot is reserved for Master’s students, though to be fair with your background many professors will most likely make an exception).
And here’s another observation of mine: It is easier to get into a top US PhD program from a US undergrad, than from a German one. The difference is way too huge, it is probably easier from a US Top 100 than from a German Top 5. And you probably want to do a US PhD. I dont know how it is in Biology, but in CS (or atleast in the AI/ML part of it), Germany doesn’t really do a lot of groundbreaking research. And many of the best professors here in Germany with a good research output have gotten their PhDs from a US university. US grad schools are just so much better. On top of that, as you probably know academia sucks in Germany if you dont have a professorship (no permanent contracts, always renewed for 2-3 years only, supposed to be especially bad in the life sciences). Cant imagine the US being worse than germany here. And I’m also sure funding is generally better in the US.
I can say this with 90% certainty: The US college experience is better than the German one. Classes are smaller and its easier to interact with your professors, it’s easier to make friends, a lot easier to make friends outside of your major, campus life is pretty amazing IMO (havent experienced that in the US but in another english-speaking country), and the teaching is also better. Teaching in German unis is often a nuisance for professors and they do it badly, or they delegate their PhD students to do it, and they also do it badly. I’m not saying it will always be good in Harvard/Stanford/… but on average it definitely is. Student organizations and societies are a neat thing.
Do it, with your credentials I’d probably say that youre more than 50% likely to get in at at least one of your universities (probably closer to 70-80%). With your required aid. The science olympiads are really a door opener for many internationals and you participated twice; your performance at the language competition (Im assuming its “Bundeswettbewerb Fremdsprachen”) also helps a lot. Good luck.
Feel free to DM me for more information, happy to help.
As a non-citizen, your ability to get a work visa would have been hindered. You cannot assume that a US company would have sponsored you to stay and work in the U.S. The colleges and universities are not the US Immigration service. Immigration is very strict. Once you finish your education in the U.S., you are expected to return home if you are not a U.S. citizen.
With CS & CE, I now have two adult children in the field. Recently, our youngest interviewed and was hired. He was required to bring in his US passport and supporting documents to confirm his citizenship.
Our eldest was recently required, by her employer, to update her courses in cyber security and was required to bring in her US Passport to gain admission to the course.
OP If you are willing to apply to the US colleges, go in with full eyes open and understand that you may get in somewhere but it may not be affordable.
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Companies don’t have to sponsor you (initially), it is possible to work in the US with an F-1 visa. Normally for 1 year (OPT), but STEM-OPT extends this to 3 years total. Only after that do you have to leave the US. And yes, F-1 is not a dual-intent visa, but H-1B is. So after graduation you get 3 years to attempt to get an H-1B, which is a dual-intent visa and allows for a Green card application. It is also true that not all companies sponsor internationals, but most tech companies do; certainly all of the big ones (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc.). In fact, teams there sometimes consist of only Indians/Chinese citizens even though they’re all located in the US.
Of course, there are a few roles in which one cannot work as a non-American, typically those that require a security clearance. These are indeed impossible to get, but they only make up a small percentage of the industry. Hence, a non issue really.
Actually, someone or an entity does have to sponsor a non-citizen. You cannot stay in the US without a sponsor visa (a US citizen, a company, a university), otherwise, you would have the whole world show up at the US borders without regard for sponsorship.
As for Microsoft, Google, Amazon, those jobs are very limited. With the H1 visa, it is temporary, it is hard to get and US immigration doesn’t give them out like candy, it doesn’t lead to citizenship and, at any time, that worker can be replaced by a US citizen. As for Green cards, the waits are often after the expiration date of the visa.
As a non-issue, when does your visa-sponsored US job date expire?
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I am talking about entering the workforce as a graduate of a US university. In that case, an international student will already have an F-1 visa and can simply use that to get STEM-OPT. One doesn’t even have to have a job offer to apply for OPT.
Not really, they have been hiring a lot lately (including internationals).
True, but again, you get 3 years to try, and even then, 3 years is long enough to save up a lot of money.
Not sure I understand your point here. As I said previously, H-1B is a dual-intent visa and one can apply for a green card (usually EB3 as far as I know) while on H-1B. With a green card, one can apply for citizenship after a couple more years. “Worker can be replaced by a US citizen” → Also don’t understand this point either. Of course you can be fired; but if you’re on H-1B you can find a new job (the new employer would have to take on the sponsorship of course, but this is easier when employees already have an existing H-1B).
Depends on the country. Indians and the Chinese unfortunately have, for the most part, no hope of ever getting a green card in their lifetime. For smaller countries this is not so much of an issue, because of the way the applications are processed. I don’t know how long the processing time exactly is, but I’m pretty sure it should be shorter than 6 years, which is the maximum duration of an H-1B visa. But even without permanent residency, this is still 9 years (3 years STEM-OPT + 6 years H-1B) of being able to work in the US. With a good tech salary, after 9 years of working, it’s very possible to retire ($1-2 million saved up), and then you can sip Mai Tais in Thailand, or Portugal or some other tropical country. Or just return to your home country where you will have a much higher standard of living than if you had stayed there all the time.
It’s not hard for the “brightest and the best” to stay in the US. And the OP seems to be one of them. There are many paths to citizenship for them, including self-sponsoring for green card as an individual with exceptional abilities.
The issue is with mostly with Indians, not Chinese. According to David Bier of the Cato Institute, it will take almost 90 years to clear the backlog on the EB-2 and EB-3 Green Cards for workers from India. However, for workers from China it is around 11 years. A long time to be sure, but well within the lifetime of most of the Chinese workers in the USA.
The numbers are from a couple of years ago, to be certain, but the backlog for Chinese workers is still unlikely to be more than 15 years.
https://www.cato.org/blog/employment-based-green-card-backlog-hits-12-million-2020
Let’s return focus to the OP please.
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