<p>I'm wondering if I can get admitted in an american college and I want your help and that's why I'm going to talk a little bit of myself , I'm 17 , I'm from Tunisia , I will be sitting for the tunisian baccalaureate on June 2014 , I study in a tunisian pioneer highschool in which pupils have been chosen according to their score in the National Exam (Which we sit for when we are 15 years old) , grades in these special highschools are different from other highschools' grades in Tunisia , It is harder by far , i'm getting 15 out of 20 in my highschool (it could be 17 or 18 out of 20 if i was studying in a normal tunisian highschool ) , I think I can get 17 in the Tunisian Baccalaureate . Concerning extracurricular activities , I hadn't participated in a club or an association , I just played basketball with the local team when I was young , but it wasn't for very long time and I don't have a record of that . I'm very interested in technology and I learned programming since I was 13 , I learned C / PHP / HTML and I created many websites , but I learned programming without taking any course just tutorials from internet and i mastered PHP by practising , I don't know if that counts or if I can prove it . In addition to arabic , I speak and write french well , better than english and some spanish too . I saw some exemples of SAT's maths questions and I think I can have more than 750/800 , but I have no idea of what I'm able to get in critical reading and essay . </p>
<p>I want to get admission in a good american college and I want to study computer engineering , and I'm not sure if I have a chance .
So please , help me .</p>
<p>The most important question first: can you pay for a US education? The cost of attendance (including tuition, living expenses, health insurance, etc) could run up to $60,000 a year.</p>
<p>Re application strategy:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>SATs are important if you want to attend a selective university. I suggest you invest an appropriate amount of time into preparation, especially into the verbal and writing sections. Some international students find it helpful to memorize a vocab list like [url=<a href=“http://img.sparknotes.com/content/testprep/pdf/sat.vocab.pdf]this[/url”>http://img.sparknotes.com/content/testprep/pdf/sat.vocab.pdf]this[/url</a>]. Also consider taking the ACT in lieu of the SAT. Vocab is less of an issue on the ACT and the writing section is more straight-forward, but many students struggle with time pressure on the reading section.</p></li>
<li><p>You don’t need to document your extra-curricular activities. If programming is your main EC, let that show in your application. For example, you could write about a particularly ambitious or challenging or meaningful project in one of your application essays. Also make sure that your teachers know how much effort you put into this hobby, so that they can mention it in their letters of recommendation. (It’s completely legitimate to make suggestions to your teachers about points to include in their letters. American teachers ask their students for suggestions too.)</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks for your response, it’s helpful .
Concerning the cost of attendance , I can’t pay for 60.000$ per year , but maybe if I get financial aid , I can pay 30.000$ per year , I heard that selective universities such as Yale , Cornell , MIT and Harvard have a very helpful financial aid reaching 80% some times , but I don’t know if I have a chance to get admitted in such selective universities . and concerning application , my computer science’s teacher is pretty amazed by my skills and I can show him more , maybe this could help when applying to universities that focus on technology but I’m not sure . Indeed , english is my third language but I working on it , and if I decide that I’m going to try to make it to an american university , I will certainly work hard to improve my english and also i’m going to join Amideast ( [Amideast</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amideast]Amideast”>AMIDEAST - Wikipedia) ) and take seriously tests .</p>
<p>Amideast is the local office for [EducationUSA</a> | Study Abroad, Student Visa, University Fairs, College Applications and Study in the U.S. / America](<a href=“http://www.EducationUSA.state.gov%5DEducationUSA”>http://www.EducationUSA.state.gov) isn’t it? The counselors there should be able to help you with the whole application process. They can tell you which colleges here have admitted students like you, and whether or not those students got any aid.</p>