Hello guys, well i’m a high school graduate student i graduated high school this year with GPA equals to 4.0 and i got offered a place to study architecture in my home country, anyway i want to study in the US for several reasons, so i’m taking a gap year which means i’m not going to study at any university in my home country, and i’m going to focus on my sat and sat subject tests preparations, i’m going to take online courses at Edx and coursera which i’m finding very helpful, i want to apply to top tier colleges to get financial aid ( i know i have to be a competent student) so i’m not going to apply for fall 2016, i’m going to apply for fall 2017 because i think i need more time and more practice to get a good score on the tests i mentioned i’m looking for more that 2200 in my sat and for more than 700 in my sat subject tests, i’m also going to take time to write good essays and to train my writing abilities,i have a few EC’s and more than 2 years work experience. i also come from a underrepresented country, English is not my first or second language it is my third language, i basically speak 4 languages. so here’s what i want ? am i doing the right choice taking a gap year and deciding not to study in my home university, and taking those online courses (which i think they are going to make my application a little bit stronger) please tell me what do you think. 
What is your financial situation? There are only 5 colleges in the U.S. that are need blind in admissions for internationals and also are committed to meet need in financial aid for internationals. Admissions are very, very competitive for those schools. I would shoot for a 2350 SAT and 750+ subject tests if that is what you are looking for. But your chances are still slim even then. Your chances might be improved slightly from a less common country – where are you from?
@intparent i’m from North Africa, well Algeria
So you may get a bit of a break compared to a country like India or China. Still, higher score are better. Do you need full financial aid?
@intparent Yep full financial aid, it’s because my country’s currency compared to the usa’s one is too low. you mean that the app pool is not competitive as the Chinese and the Indian one ?
They get a lot of very strong applications from those countries. Yes, the pool is likely weaker from your country. It could help a little bit. The odds are still very much against you. Have a backup plan, and be sure you want to devote another year and a half of your life to something that very likely won’t happen.
Before you sacrifice the next two years of your life on this, contact the counselors at the EducationUSA Advising Center in Algiers: https://educationusa.state.gov/centers/us-embassy-algiers They will be able to help you determine whether or not this is a good plan. They are the experts for your country, and can tell you which colleges and universities in the US have admitted students like you in recent years, and whether or not those student have received any financial aid.
There are a very small number of colleges and universities in the US that guarantee significant merit-based aid to students with specific GPAs and test scores. Check the links on this thread and find out which scholarships are open to international students. If you can get your SAT or ACT score into the range needed, you might only need one gap year instead of two: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
The SAT and ACT are not available in Algeria.
Which province are you from? SAT is offered in Tunisia so if you can afford to travel and take it, go for it!
@Zivariel They will be available sooner
@zivariel contact the collegeBoard
Who said this? I went on there website and searched for a test center but none was available in Algeria.
Have you been told it is soon to be administrated by the CollegeBoard Staff?
@Pupil12
@zivariel someone told me he has been told by them, but no official information, there’s a test center but there are no tests i think the test center is in the El Biar or Mohammadia
Yes, I heard the same news. But the educational advisor at the USEmbassyAlgiers has recommended me not to wait, it is not sure the test is going to be offered in the coming months.
@Pupil12
There are a lot of organizations which may be able to help you out you know try to search study abroad programs there’d be tons of options there you could choose from to help you with your dilemma 
@ready100 for example ? can you give some of them?