Is it too late for me to start preparing for a top US college?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Let's begin the detailed tour of my question with some personal details:</p>

<p>Age- Almost 15
Grade - 10th
Academics - Always, in the final terms, A1 or A2 (i.e. A+ or A respectively).
Goal- Master Computer Science before graduation and do well in CS in college as well.</p>

<p>School activities:
Olympiads -- Have participated in some, but haven't achieved anything other than a participation certificate. I'll be participating in lots of Olympiads and sports as much as I can and try to do my best.
House Prefect of 10th class and probably will be of 11th and 12th as well
Member of the MUN club (Most probably the future president, if the school has a president's position in clubs)
Basketball player for the past year</p>

<p>Activities at home:
Drawing/Painting
Making gun models using paper mache
Play guitar fluently
Read lots of books
Would've attended about 5-6 MUN conferences in India</p>

<p>Programming:
QBASIC
Fundamentals of Python, took about 7 months to master, will go further into web programming, system programming and GUI programming.</p>

<p>By the end of high school, will have learnt, for sure:
HTML
CSS
JavaScript
Php
Perl
C++ (whatever will be taught in 11th and 12th, mostly the fundamentals)
Java (all the fundamentals)
Would've created a "resume-like website"
And a basic search engine and a basic web browser</p>

<p>Youtube And Videos:
I will create a few channels in which I'll upload video tutorials of the programming/markup languages I lean
Created a video advertisement, on behalf of the 6th best law school in the country, which aired in the state's official news channel for about a week
Video editing experience in Sony Vegas of about an year
And I WILL have an year of video editing experience in Adobe After Effects</p>

<p>Languages:
Fluent in Hindi, English, currently learning French and German</p>

<p>My questions (good college means top 10):
1) Is taking online courses worth the time for meeting some of the requirements for top colleges?
2) Also, considering that I am an international student, are there any scholarship programs which I can take in my country while I am in 10th or even when I get to 11th or 12th?
3) Are subject tests (SAT II) important for these type of colleges for Computer Science And Programming?
4) And last, is it too late for me start working on my extra-curricular activities to get me accepted?
Thanks, in advance. :)</p>

2

<p>Com on, people, give me <em>something</em></p>

3

<ol>
<li>Don’t take online courses (unless it’s jhu)
2 . there always scholarships just look for them. Via Google
3.sat 2 is important take 2 one math one science
4.your extracurricular activities are fine might want to get some volunteer hours leadership etc.</li>
</ol>

4

<p>@Nekogami
Thank you so much for your reply. For that online courses matter, I am actually taking some of them from Edx, Coursera and Udacity. The universities which offer these courses include, MIT, Harvard, Berkely and San Jose University too. And I kind of got lost with that jhu case since it won’t (I researched and it might not be right) give me any credits/certificates to prove that I’ve actually taken the course, but in case of Edx, Coursera and Udacity, it will.
So…what should I do?</p>

5

<p>My advice to you (as a former CS-based applicant myself) would to do some things that actually display your knowledge/expertise on programming. I did an internship at a software development company and also made an online game that I included a link to in my app. Looks like that convinced adcoms, because I was accepted to 9/10 schools on my list.</p>

<p>Definitely take two subject tests–Math 2 and a science. You’ll have it rough since you’re an international applicant (especially since you’re limiting your list to top 10 schools–maybe you should consider some others) but no one can really give you an accurate change but adcoms. It’s definitely not too late–I’d say I didn’t get seriously into CS until grade 10 either, and had a internship the summer after grade 11. I didn’t even think about applying to colleges until that summer.</p>

6

<p>So you want to attend Berkeley, Cornell, MIT, UIUC or CMU?</p>

<p>Berkeley: Aim for 32+/2150+ (can you pay full-freight there?)
CMU: Reach
UIUC: Aim for 32+/2150+ (poor financial aid)
MIT: Reach
Cornell: Reach</p>

7

<p>Your profile is very interesting and many good universities would be happy to admit you.
However remember that Top 10 national universities and top 10 LACs are crapshoots. That means, even with perfect everything, you can’t be sure to get in, because so many other applicants are “perfect” and incredibly interesting to boot.
If you’re fine attending an Indian university if you can’t make it into the top 10 that’s fine, but if you really want to attend a US college, diversify your list; each year on college confidential there are students who find themselves stuck because they had top stats and ECs and were the best in their school/region… but were not admitted anywhere from their list. You run a very high risk of this. Since there are about 3,000 colleges in the US, even the top 30 LACs and top 20 national universities are above almot 99% American universities… and even that may not be enough for you to have the requisite 1-2 safeties (unless your safeties are already picked out and in your home country).
If you need financial aid, this becomes even more complicated.</p>

8

<p>I picked five of the 10 best schools in the US for computer science and give the OP target scores for each…</p>

9

<p>First of all, thanks everyone for your replies; I really appreciate it. :slight_smile:
Now, basically what you’re trying to say is even after I’ve done all these things, there’s a chance that I might not be able to get in; so, I must broaden my list of colleges and still, improve the things which I’ve done, right?
Also, as some of you pointed out that I might suffer in financial sector while applying to top colleges. Then in that case, you’re absolutely right. That’s exactly why I was asking whether there are any scholarship programs available which I can take.
One more point I wanna make: I might get a job as a programmer for fourdeltaone[dot]net after 8-10 months or even a year and a half. It is a gaming community which has about one million currently and it’s growing constantly. I might even consider, if I get time, to work as a Facebook app developer.
Considering all of these things-- will it be enough to get into a decent college (just broadened the range to top 30 colleges)?</p>

10

<p>Even for a top 30 the odds are even that you get in or don’t. All candidates at top schools have stats that are equivalent to yours. You definitely make the first cut but then there are still roughly three qualified applicants for each spot. Therefore you need to plan for safeties (schools where more than 30% students are admitted.)</p>

11

<p>Omg, I’m a programmer as well! C: I think you have interesting and unique stats, but colleges want to see more. If you only have ecs dedicated to one thing, colleges may think you’re not well-rounded. If you work on those things, then you’ll have better chances! C:</p>

12

<p>OK, so I should focus on one thing the most and do something extraordinary in that thing, right? And along with that I might do one more things with less priority?
So, I think I’ll continue with my highest priority with programming (4-5 hours), try to do great in school and give about 2 hours everyday to these other things.
Will that be fine?
@sosxana
Were did you get in? May I have a look at your resume so it might direct me to someplace? I know that MIT says that they want the kind of people who explore <em>their</em> interests and passion and not clone others, but still, often it helps to at least have a look…</p>

13

<p>P.S. Is my English OK? (And if not, it’ll increase in time since I am reading that SAT prep guide thoroughly and also reading Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis.)</p>

14

<p>You don’t seem to understand: for the schools you’re interested in, there’s NOTHING that guarantees you’ll be admitted. You can increase your odds, and that’s what you’ve done so far and are planning to do. Doing something extraordinary will certainly increase those odds, too, but by definition that can’t be counted on. :slight_smile:
Everything else has been said above.</p>

<p>Your English is excellent. Review for the TOEFL, you shouldn’t have any trouble (but DO prepare because the format must be mastered for you to get a good score) and get rid of that requirement so you can focus on the rest. The TOEFL is just a “threshold” - once you’ve reached what the school wants, you’re fine, the school won’t care if you got score X, score X+5, score X+10…
Work on diversifying your list, too. It’s essential that you find several schools that you like and offer financial aid (merit or need based) where you’ be in the top 20% applicants (for a better safety, seeing that you’re international, being in the top 10% is better).</p>

15

<p>@MYOS1634
Thanks for the reply, although, I actually wasn’t able to comprehend the last part of your post, what did you mean by, “It’s essential that you find several schools that you like and offer financial aid (merit or need based) where you’ be in the top 20% applicants (for a better safety, seeing that you’re international, being in the top 10% is better).”?
Also, there are two things I found out, on the official website of MIT, which a non-native english speaker could consider doing:
“1) take the tests required for native English speakers (see above), or 2) you may take the TOEFL and two SAT Subject Tests, one in math (level 1 or 2) and one in science (physics, chemistry, or biology e/m).
If you have been using English for less than 5 years or do not speak English at home and school, we strongly suggest that you take the TOEFL”
Is my current English, and considering in mind that I am reading the official prep. guide of SAT and also Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis, decent enough to give SAT I?
Because I think I can perform better in English & Mathematics than I can in Physics and Chemistry.
I think I just solved my dilemma! MIT says that I can take both the tests and it will consider the one in which I get better marks, but still, MIT is not the ONLY school in the country, so…any last piece of advice, I guess. :)</p>

16

<p>It means that you need to look at the “25-75 percentile range” and look at the higher score, then find schools where you’re above (preferably quite above) the higher score. You need at least 2 schools where you’re at the same level as the higher score and 2-3 schools where you’re quite above that score. Both categories should only include schools with admit rates above 30%. Everything else is up to you.
It’s a bit different for international students because it’s much, much more competitive than it is for Americans, and it’s worse for schools where many internationals apply (like MIT). </p>

<p>For MIT, it’s best to take the TOEFL, physics and/or chemistry, math2, and the SAT. You’ll just have to work with the SAT2 prep books like you worked with the SAT prep guide. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Yes you should do well on the SAT as long as you prepare thoroughly. The test is not easy, which is deceptive - you need to work very fast and accurately in order to get a high score.</p>

17

<p>OK, thanks a lot everyone and especially – MYOS1634. Helped a lot!
Thanks. :)</p>

18

<p>One last thing, though (sorry): Since getting into these colleges as an international student would be nearly impossible; will it be okay for me to apply for a dual citizenship or something like that and then give the test and apply to colleges? Will that work?</p>

19

<p>Is one of your parents American ?</p>

20

<p>Unfortunately, no. I don’t even have any relatives who’s even close to America. :wink: :’(
Can anything be done then? You know, like, I think that you take a citizenship test and then you can get dual citizenship or something, is that true? Can we do that?</p>