Yes, your achievements are very impressive, however top universities want to see that you are capable of succeeding in all of their classes, not just one field. Thus, they look for significant English, critical reading and writing skills. Despite your presumption, many international applicants have excellent scores in CR and writing, and those are the candidates you will be judged against.
It is not enough to complain that you have only had 2 hours a week of English in your school. There are many self-taught programs online you can use to increase your competantcy. A school like Harvard expects you to seek out such educational aids independently.
If you carefully read the Harvard curriculum, with the Gen Ed requirements, you will see the huge number of classes which require extensive reading and writing. The subtleties of English are crucial for successful written analyses in the lengthy papers required.
The suggestions to apply to tech schools such as MIT, CalTech, etc., were given because those schools require far fewer classes in English, Expository Writing, History, Sociology, etc. Thus you could focus on your strengths in computer science, artificial intelligence, and math.
Is there any reason, besides international prestige, you are so heavily focussed on Harvard? You may want to include other schools as options, as no one a shoo-in at Harvard, no matter how many awards one receives. Perhaps when your English skills improve, you would have a great chance for acceptace for a Master's or Ph.D. graduate program.
^^ To back-up fauve's point, every Harvard undergraduate, no matter what concentration, is required to complete General Education requirements in eight different areas of study, that require you to read and write in English proficiently. See: Homepage Program in General Education
Harvard has long required that students take a set of courses outside of their concentration in order to ensure that their undergraduate education encompasses a broad range of topics and approaches. The new Program in General Education seeks to connect in an explicit way what students learn in Harvard classrooms to life outside the ivied walls and beyond the college years. The material taught in general education courses is continuous with the material taught in the rest of the curriculum, but the approach is different. These courses aim not to draw students into a discipline, but to bring the disciplines into students' lives. The Program in General Education introduces students to subject matter and skills from across the University, and does so in ways that link the arts and sciences with the 21st century world that students will face and the lives they will lead after college.
Categories
• Aesthetic & Interpretive Understanding (A&I)
• Culture & Belief (C&B)
• Empirical & Mathematical Reasoning (EMR)
• Ethical Reasoning (ER)
• Science of Living Systems (SLS)
• Science of the Physical Universe (SPU)
• Societies of the World (SW)
• United States in the World (US/W)
The writing demands of Harvard are intense; they even have a Writing Center to help students who are already proficient in English. It might be a good idea to take a look at this website and read over some of the handouts: The Writing Center - Writing Resources
I really understand your points, but my question is: Why Harvard doesn't require TOEFL ( a standardized test to prove your proficiency of English for international students), because all of others universities require a such test.
A few months ago I found a different page where it said: If you are a very talented student and you did a really good thing(many international awards), then they can consult your essays to check if you can practice the English and if the essays are good they can make an idea of your English proficiency and you will not be very disadvantaged .
I'm not sure why Harvard doesn't require a TOEFL, but they should. My daughter, who's first language is English, struggles to get an 'A' in her courses. I cannot imagine taking those same courses without being proficient in English; it would be like setting yourself up for failure.
According to my awards, they say that I know very well computer science. And really I do, I saw the Harvard CS curriculum and the most of the courses I already know them, for me it will not be very hard to obtain good notes, because I really know my "job". I am member in the biggest institute for CS and in the biggest association in electronics, also I received the most important award for high school students from both of them. Of course as you said it will be very hard to me to understand "United States in the World", it will be like philosophy in English because I don't master the English, but for all outlanders these courses are very hard...
For instance for graduate students the minim toefl score is 80 from 120. I got 81 but I am an undergraduate student :d
The need for English proficiency is probably greater for an undergraduate than it would be for a graduate student in engineering, the sciences or math. This is because of the General Education requirements that gibby wrote of above. This calls for an ability to express yourself in a much broader manner than a graduate student may need.
As fauve pointed out, MIT as a tech school, has fewer writing requirements than Harvard. So, to do well at Harvard, I imagine you would need above a 90 to feel proficient and competitive with other students.
"And really I do, I saw the Harvard CS curriculum and the most of the courses I already know them"
Slight arrogance/some things are best kept to yourself!
I didn't want to say that. I wanted to suggest Harvard is fit for what I am looking for and I am not looking only for Harvard brand without knowing what I doing to Harvard.
Knowing 99% of the courses at a university doesn't make you a good "fit", except for, MAYBE, academically...
A good friend of mine who is also an IT whiz (not to say god) with a couple of gold medals from the International Olympiad in Informatics (and a billion others) did not even get an interview invitation from Harvard, but still good admitted to MIT. Why did I tell you about my friend? To show you that awards and accolades don't make you the best social, school-spirit or whatever fit. He comes from Eastern Europe, too, and his English is perfect (you could not distinguish him from any native speaker if he didn't have an accent), so instead of trying to find a justification for not doing English for more than 2 hours per week, get down to business and prepare for a 100+ TOEFL score and the SAT.
I have just one question: why are you asking us questions and seeking advice when you take our points quite skeptically?
