Ivy League acceptance bar?

[TheHolyLancer]

Hello, I'm an International Baccalaureate student whom is doing a pre-planed course (we are a new IB school with a small population), and I was wondering if any one here whom went to MIT, Standford, Georgia Tech, and Waterloo for Computer Science (not Computer Engineering, or Software Engineering, but the computer-math oriented one, my goal is to be an algorithm specialist ), what was your subjects in high school that were taken into consideration, what were the scores for the courses, did the mention of FIRST got you in easier, did the mention of IB (or other programs like the AP CompSci, Math, etc., or the French Baccalauréat, or German Abitur, etc.) help your application? I'm very interested to know. Also, because my first language is Chinese, I wonder if a TOFEL test score is better than a complete SAT I, as that would be better than taking all that English SAT I stuff and do a subject orientated SAT II. Do they, regardless of what they say on their website, penalize you for not taking a full English exam?

[Daisy]

Not that I applied to an Ivy school, but I, too, did/am doing IB, and took the computer science course. For an Ivy, you can't get the credits for the computer science course, either SL or HL. IB is usually considered to be better than other courses, but you have to do well on the exams, and in your school work. On the IBO site, there is a list that tells you what colleges recognize what credits. I really recommend that you look into that.

Also, when I spoke to the Dean of Engineering at Brown, he said that when looking at the applications, it was really important that a student showed an interest in engineering, rather than applying because they felt like it. Therefore, IB and FIRST will help you in your apps.

I wish you the best of luck,

Daisy

[TheHolyLancer]

Sweet, thanks! I think I'm a passionate guy for programming, hopefully I'll get in