<p>First of all, hello. This is my first post in College Confidential. I am a 17 year old junior from Mexico. For the past 6 months or so, I’ve been really interested in going to college in the US since I’ve realized that Mexican universities are not up to par with the rest of the world. </p>
<p>I currently go to the most demanding school in my city, which is part of the university Instituto Tecnol</p>
<p>I think you are already doing enough academically. (And I am sorry to tell you that learning 4 languages is not actually that impressive. I’ve had classmates who were fluent - having conversations without difficulty - in 5 languages at a 2nd rate liberal arts college.) </p>
<p>I’d focus on developing an extra-curricular profile instead. The top American universities are looking for commitment, initiative and leadership skills outside of the classroom. There are a variety of avenues to pursue this: competitive sports, politics, community service, etc. Finding a way to put your language skills to good use (e.g. by volunteering as a translator for a non-profit organization) would reflect better on you than a bunch of AP scores.</p>
<p>If you want to get into the most competitive universities solely on the basis of academics, you’ll need to be among the very best in your field. Medallists in the International Math and Science Olympiads fall into that category, for example.</p>
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AP scores don’t really matter placement.</p>
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Admission committees care about what you’ve accomplished, not where you’ve accomplished it. A semester abroad can be a hugely beneficial personal learning experience and I’d encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity if you can. However, if it prevents you from developing an extra-curricular profile, it might hurt you for the top colleges.</p>
<p>To add to my previous comment about an exchange semester: if you go, think about what you want to accomplish during your exchange (besides language proficiency) and how you can utilize that experience after you get back. American colleges like students who can transform opportunities into success. </p>
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Applicants to the more selective colleges routinely take calculus in high school. The more math-inclined students even take a few courses beyond calculus. (Calculus is “college-level” but almost every high school teaches it. Third-semester calculus is actually considered a first-year class at many selective colleges.)</p>
<p>Oh, I see. So they don’t really care that you took x number of AP’s during high school- they just want to know that you took the most rigorous academic courses available to you, right? </p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve won a few national and state competitions so far, but next year I’ll focus even more on competitions to give me an academic edge. </p>
<p>I’ll also try to focus on building EC’s, but I don’t have many options, really. There are virtually no internship possibilities in Mexico, there are only 2 or so clubs at my school, and there are very few afternoon activities. Also, I’m not sure how community service works in the US because I always see students claiming x amount of hours of community service during high school, but how do they calculate that? Do they get something accrediting them with x hours of community service after they do it or do colleges just take their words for it? </p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the comments! :)</p>
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Perfect! Starting your own club (and making it successful) is much more impressive than joining an existing one anyway. 
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Yes and no. On one hand, colleges do have rigid admission requirements that cannot be negotiated. (For example, MIT requires a calculus background for admission.) Beyond that, colleges are looking for students who made the most out of the opportunities they have. Nobody is expecting foreign applicants to go out of their way to take AP exams when they are not part of their school system. </p>
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That’s just high school students bragging and/or trying to communicate their level of involvement. Those hours aren’t actually reported to colleges. Re verification: Most of the time colleges will take applicants’ words. However, colleges will check credentials if they are suspicious (for example, if you claim a big academic accomplishment that’s not mentioned by your academic references) and will also randomly select some applicants for verification.</p>