Hi all!
First of all, I am really passionate about computer science and my goal is to make a research in this field. I got bronze medals at the national and international(not IOI, but among some other third-world countries) and gold medal at the city computer science olympiads. Also, I participated at the international project competiton(not ISEF or Google Sceince Fair level, but there was between 10-20 countries participating) and achieved silver medal in it. Furthermore, I co-authored a science publication at the local science journal. Beside that, I really like teaching: I taught computer science to students at the school club, and many of them currently earned various medals at the national and international computer science olympiads. Currently, I mentor a group of students who want to attend international project competition. My GPA is 5/5 (in my country we do not have AP/IB classes). The problem for me is my SAT. I plan to prepare approximately 6 months for it, however I am not sure if it is worth it. I mean, should I spend 6 months preparing for the SAT in order to attend such universities with little chances? Do I have chances with achievements I listed above or I just need to forget about it? And, by the way, I am from Kazakhstan, if it important.
Thanks!
Hi aidar,
I think the admission office will consider your application within your context. From what I’ve seen, the bar might be slightly lowered if you come from a third world country with limited resources, but since you’re international, it’s still very tough. Like you should be the top applicant or close from your country in terms of achievements. If you can get a medal @ IOI/ any of the international olympiads, i think it will make a large difference, enough to tip you over to the accepted.
As far as the SAT, that should be the “easier” part to prepare for your application. Note, the admission office will understand your english section might not be perfect, although you should still aim for a very good score. Good luck, and if I were you I wouldn’t give up yet!
Gimme a break… Since when is a country with a GDP per capita on par w Poland, considered a “Third World Country”?
Yeah, and also they are the number 1 exporter of potassium. 3rd world, what a joke
there was a devaluation some time ago, and most of our citizens became almost x2 times poorer. So your statistics can be pretty out of the date 
Thanks for responding! As far as I know, there are almost no IOI or other International Olympiads participants from my country applying to these universities, so I think it make difference for me. Also, will founding a startup help me to increase my admission chances? I know, everyone can do this, but anyway.
LOL, technically Kazakhstan can’t be a third world country in either the original or the contemporary meaning of the term. Originally, the term referred to the non-aligned nations (neither NATO nor Communist Bloc). The term then morphed to refer to ‘developing’ (varying between very poor or not industrialized) countries. Although I sympathize with how it feels to live through a devaluation, you are still looking at at 2% dip in GDP. not a plunge into the kind of poverty that is associated with that term (which, btw, is increasingly out of favor). So, no, Kazakhstan is not a third world country.
To turn to your actual question about your chances of admission to MIT or Stanford: last year Stanford had 42,167 applicants, and accepted 5%; MIT had 18356 and accepted 8%. So at best your odds are 5-8%. But since only 8-9% of those students are international, your odds are about 10% of 5%?
In hard numbers, there are about 588 international students (out of ~7000) at Stanford and about 433 (out of ~4512) at MIT, drawn from about 90 countries (for Stanford the most frequent countries represented are the UK, China, Canada and South Korea).
So, your chances- like every student, and especially every international student are teeny tiny. This is not to discourage you, but to help you be realistic. Right now CC is full of super-high achieving students who are stunned to find that they don’t have college choices that make them happy- b/c they didn’t realize just how tough the competition is. Work out what your real priorities are: if you are only interested in going to the US if you can go to one of those colleges, line up some good options closer to home. If you are willing to look beyond those 2, there are many, many colleges and universities where you can get an excellent degree in CS.
The SAT (or ACT) is worth putting some effort into; SAT Subject Tests are probably at least as helpful.
MIT has great blogs, and I suggest you start with [url=<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/there_is_no_formula%5Dthis%5B/url”>http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/there_is_no_formula]this[/url] and [url=<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways%5Dthis%5B/this”>http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways]this[/this].