College?

[nikki]

Hey guys!

I've been thinking about college. Right now I'm in grade 11 (16 years old).

I'm from India natively, but I live in Doha, Qatar with my parents. Though there are branches of a few universities, and some indigenous universities here, I think I'll study somewhere abroad.

In school I get fine grades, and I'm usually among the top 5 in class (last exam: 96/100 math, 94/100 physics, 92/100 chemistry, 93/100 computer science, 89/90 English (there must be something wrong with the English grade, I have to meet the teacher and make sure ) ).

I'm very much interested in computer science, physics and math, since I've been doing small projects and libraries (mostly computer-game related) for quite some time, been reading books, am part of online communities etc. Right now I'm working on a game called 'GraLL 2', a sequel to my previous one. I'm also a great Linux fan, and recently I've been reading the Linux kernel source and trying to understand how it works (they have some great GCC hacks in there). Also, I play the Tabla (an Indian percussion instrument), in which field I have a 'Senior Second Year Diploma' from a music school. I have a brown belt in karate.

I'm thinking about universities in the US because from friends and family I've heard the quality of higher education in the better universities there is pretty good. I'm not sure exactly how the higher education system works in the US though. My parents and I are thinking about 'MIT', 'Stanford' and the likes, but I don't want to simply mention names because I don't think I'm sure what it means to go to one university as opposed to another. Recently I've been preparing for the SAT, because it seems many of the universities in the US give quite a bit of importance to the SAT scores of their applicants.

The main thing I'm hoping higher education can give me is the opportunity to meet other people with similar interests (like you guys? ), interested in following them, and working together; learning and experimenting with new ideas, stuff like that.

I'm sure a lot of you guys have been through this and have experience when it comes to university, college etc. Do you have any suggestions, advice? Do universities consider personal projects and stuff, or only academic achievements and standardised test scores? I wanted to ask you guys because we've been friends for a long time and I think you know me quite well.

[xavier]

'MIT', 'Stanford'

Sounds good to me.

Do universities consider personal projects and stuff, or only academic achievements and standardised test scores?

There is no set answer for this. Different departments will consider different things, and different universities consider different things. There's also the question of whether there is room in the program you wish to study. For computer engineering/science, the two you mention above probably will be tops. You'll likely have to sell yourself to either of these places, even with top grades and test scores (those probably work simply as a pre-screen to get you past the first round of cuts). But only the admissions offices of the universities in which you are interested will be able to tell you what they look for in prospective students.

I recommend Stanford because I like the Bay Area a lot more than I like the U.S. Northeast (and you will too unless you like long, bitter winters and hot, blistering summers), and studying at Stanford naturally puts you in the middle of America's tech center.