<p>I know that there's a lot of discussion about how there are tons of qualified applicants every year that apply to these universities and it often comes down to the luck of who gets noticed by random chance, but there are also those too low to be considered in this pool of "qualified applicants", and so what I'm asking is what is approximately required to have a shot at these schools, and do I stand a chance?</p>
<p>I'm currently a Junior in high school, my Mom dropped out of High School, and my Dad dropped out of college, so in some sense that makes me a first generation college student, I think. I'm in need of financial aid, as my family makes under $50,000 a year, and I like many students, have little to no help expected from my family with college expenses.</p>
<p>That being said, academically, I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA, top 10% of my class, with 8 semesters of AP courses by the time I graduate, and more than 8 Honors/Advanced courses(which are not weighted at my school), no SAT score currently, expecting approximately a 700-750 in both writing and reading, and over a 750 in math, as I'm a natural math student, and I've been studying hard for my test on the 6th of June. 30 composite on my first ACT with no preparation, as it was a required test at school(33 math;31 reading;26 english[=X];30 science)</p>
<p>I'm interested in a major in Computer Science/Engineering</p>
<p>My math schedule:
9th: Adv Algebra II
10th: Adv Geometry; Adv Algebra w/ Trig
11th: Adv Pre-Calculus; Structured Programming; AP Statistics
12th: AP Calculus BC; AP Computer Science(taken online since my school doesn't offer it)</p>
<p>other AP courses include AP English Lang/Comp & AP English Lit/Comp
took 3 years of foreign language(french I, II, and III, all advanced)</p>
<p>not an ambitious history/social studies student, though I do regret not taking AP courses in these areas.
I like science, but my school has a relatively week science program, so I stuck with the standard advanced/honors track in the science department, and still regret not taking AP courses in this category through other means.</p>
<p>my extra-curriculars are relatively weak as well, National Honors Society and French Club, neither of which I was relatively active in, since I was more interested in my own hobbies, and my achievements aren't all that spectacular either, I've been invited to plenty of things, but I've never really acted on it.</p>
<p>My teachers know me well, and I know them well, so I could definitely get some insightful letters of recommendation from my teachers about my abilities, scholastically as a student in general, and in the areas I'm interested with computers.</p>
<p>I take on projects on my own time, such as making programs/games that I could talk about in an essay, and show why I'm interested and why I stand out to go to these schools, but I'm not going to write the essay right here. </p>
<p>now, ultimately, do you think I stand among those "qualified applicants" at higher tier schools? my top picks are MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, Stanford, and Berkeley, so any response would be greatly appreciated, and any tips in how to improve my resum</p>