<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>I'm in the first year of IB in Norway and I've come to the conclusion that studying abroad for me is very important, and after finishing the IB here I want to get out to the UK/US as soon as possible. US is sort of on top of the list at the moment and that's my reason for posting here.</p>
<p>Norway's not really good on universities abroad and doing the IB is really the only chance to get into the better universities. Another problem I am going to face is getting letters of recommendations, as it's not a normal procedure here at all. Surely, I can get something, but is it important that it is from a very 'special' person and does it have to be really good? Would a normal teacher do?</p>
<p>Basically, I'm into computer programming, so I would apply for computer science (or something alike) and I'm wondering about my chances at some of the top universities, in particular:
Stanford
MIT
Ivy-Leagues
And in general, are Ivy League universities a lot harder?</p>
<p>As for my grades, from what I've understood, IB grades don't count for much as long as they are good and SAT's will count for most of it. What SAT's will I most likely have to take for computer science in one of the top uni's?
As I'm in the first year, there's still room for improvement and I haven't gotten predictions yet, but here is roughly where I'm at:
History HL 7
Physics HL 6
English HL 6
Math HL 5-6 (Math SL 7)</p>
<p>Economics SL 6 (a 7 shouldn't be hard here)
Norwegian SL 6</p>
<p>Another thing I'm wondering about is whether Math HL is very important, and what would look the best, a 7 in Math SL or 5-6 in Math HL? The thing is that my school actually doesn't offer Math HL, so I'm doing it through an Online course, which if I go through with, should count as some kind of bonus or look good, as I'm seeking the harder challenge academically?</p>
<p>Then onto my EC's. I think they're quite good as they're also closely related to what I want to study. But do you think they're good and how important are EC's? Can they assure me a spot, for instance, if my grades are not top notch?</p>
<p>Will have an approved CAS diary</p>
<p>Programming Course in Stanford Uni in 2010 got me interested into programming and in 2011 I started freelancing in web development. I have built a wide portfolio and I am now establishing my own website (sort of company) that does web consulting, guides and features a blog about my challenges as a programmer. I have used web development for creating free websites for people as service and I am still doing so.
I have also started some bigger projects on the side in Python and I hope to have some good applications ready by the summer (for instance a graphing program for Economics).
I regularly attend Coding Dojo's with my uncle (basically partner-programming on exercises with people who work with programming and are known in the community, in their 20's, 30's 40's).
I am proficient and know PHP, MySQL, Python and HTML/CSS very well. At the same time I am learning Java and C++.
I have started an initiative to giving Python programming lessons for fellow students at my school (currently at about 20 hours, but will be more than 100 by the summer and I plan on expanding this idea)</p>
<p>I have worked and work as a news writer for one of Norway's most prominent game-coverage sites (for free) and have qutie a good recommendation letter from the editor-in-chief.</p>
<p>4 years ago, I was part of the initiative to starting a LAN party in the local area (computer party sort of, google it if your'e not familiar). At first it was small, but has since evolved and I am practically the sole owner (but working together with the management of a youth club). Last event in January we sold out 150 tickets and even had extra seats set up which were filled and are now in contact with another place that will give us about 600 seats. For this I have done various tasks: administration, website development, sponsor applications, etc.</p>
<p>Member of Rotaract (Rottary youth organization) and have been giving some speeches there
Attented the Rotaract Youth Leadership Awards and was awarded a diploma.</p>
<p>I am attending an MUN soon, which is Model United Nations and is supposed to be well recognized among universities. Basically we are assigned a country and run a model united nations at a location. This will be in Southern England, but I might go to the main MUN conference too, which is in Haag.</p>
<p>As for sports, I played football until I was 16. I am now working out at a gym and taking tennis lessons (Probably not very important, but this at least, is included in the CAS diploma)</p>
<p>Then for hooks, I'm not really sure what extra to include, but at least I can say a bit (I saw something similar in another thread like this):
I'm from quite a multicultural family where my parents originally came from the Soviet union in 1991. (Now we're in Norway). </p>
<p>Hopefully you can pinpoint me in the right direction, and as you can see I have tons of questions and I'd love to get them all answered. If you have a school to recommend, I will gladly listen to you about that too! </p>
<p>Cheers,
Anton</p>