<p>If your relatives are going to legally adopt you and get you a green card by the time you apply (not that I advocate this route) it will help since GC status means you’re no longer in the international pool. I’m not sure how you have enough time for that though…</p>
<p>Most important - do you need financial aid? HYP are need-blind, but none of the others are, and I don’t think the UCs give need-based aid to internationals.</p>
<p>You need to take the hardest courseload at your school and be among the top students in your school, so work on the grades and especially that class rank - get it (a lot) higher. I’m not sure how ECs work in the Philippines but more activities with significant involvement will help, and also if there are opportunities for say representing the school/region in various competitions take them. Bring up your SAT scores, shoot for the higher end (75 percentile +).</p>
<p>Also remember that you need recommendation letters from teachers - so start cultivating relationships with them, speak up intelligently in class etc. Some unis (I believe Stanford is one) also want recs from teachers in two different subject areas so make sure you have that breadth+depth for good letters.</p>