COLLEGE!!!

My best advice to you is to apply to your local universities and see if you can't get any scholarships through them. Right now our country is at a turning point and by the time you finish college there will be a very small market for full time jobs. It's not likely you'll ever see one thanks to Obama care, companies will give those jobs to those with the most experience, not those with the fanciest college degrees. Taking hands on courses at a community college would probably benefit you more in the long run because you'll have less or no debt to worry about after you graduate. The less debt you accumulate from college- the better off you'll be after.

I would say the same. Pick college that also has a convenient environment to live, and allows you a wide opportunity-depends on your interest. My college has connection with other Asian universities so I had a chance to go for an exchange abroad. Again, see what matches your interest. It was in Taipei, large city and so lively 24 hours.

The town where I'm doing my master degree is a small and quiet town in Germany. Good connections, so in the end when I helped their international conference I had a chance to met the famous scholars personally and got a PhD offer in US. For you the best way to find out is of course their website, but normally they don't have all the information there. Try to ask if you know some of the alumni or just email the university directly. Normally they have (international) student office.

I know that UC apps are done with, but I'm a golden bear! I'm actually in a recruitment/retention group that's under the university, and wish I'd seen this sooner! We have a free overnight program in November, and another one in Spring if you want to shadow college students (and yes, you can still apply to the spring one even though apps are over and done with). I'm also in one of engineering groups, so feel free to PM me if you have any questions! My cousin also went to Carnegie Mellon...so maybe I could ask her if you want to know anything about them ?? :/ (I don't really talk to her much)

Since you are applying to some of the top schools, I'm assuming you plan to attend them through undergrad rather than do community college then transfer...so I'd say do what my old floor mate did her last semester of high school and apply to a ton of scholarships and (apparently, she applied to nearly 100, and they helped her a lot!). Also, don't be afraid to try for the bigger more competitive ones, like Gates, because, well, you never know unless you try. Good luck!

(also...I took some community college classes during high school, my spring admit room mate also took cc classes before she started at Cal, and one of my engineering friends took the chem requirement over the summer at a community college. Berkeley gen chem is REALLY stressful, since all premeds and engineers as well as other science majors have to take it, and for her putting it off until summer worked out a lot better-and cheaper...much less $ than the physics class I had to take over the summer because I needed to get the class from Berkeley...so even if you are planning to do all 4 years at a university, like PinkWeeds says, community college doesn't hurt)