Both of you have put it wrongly. USA universities don't prefer one course over another. They just want to see if you've completed your 12 years of schooling or not. We only have 11 years of schooling.

SAT is just a standard requirement, not a preference. Whether you like it or not you need to do SAT for tradition sake.

Is there a problem with a person correcting your mistake? I would've pointed it out too if I were to notice it. There's clearly an attitude problem here, which can be diagnosed as the 'I'm never wrong syndrome'. Google it too if you want to find out more about it.

Also, it dawned at me, that you still have to read way more about tertiary education. My initial frustration about your arguments has been quenched.

Until you've at least learned how to distinguish between the Ivies and UK schools, you should refrain from giving advices to avoid misleading people who are about to make a crucial decision. As an 18 year-old myself, I am sometimes tempted to offer advice ( brash, young-blood, aren't we all ), but immediately tell myself that I've got a long way to go, until I tread the path, I shouldn't be telling people how to walk it. Reading countless threads on CollegeConfidential does not provide you with a credential to offer sound advice. My humble opinion is that you should talk to people who have reached the top ( either online or offline ), attend workshops ( like USAPPS, CUMAS ), attend college organised conferences, and spend time working on what you've missed. Since you have a lot of time in your hands, either you start studying pre-university/college level material, or start preparing for your SAT's. The first step is always the hardest, you have the book with you, now it's time to get started, you will overcome the inertia soon and the momentum will propel you forward. The SAT's is just a standardised test, you don't have to be a genius to ace it. You just need to learn the skills to tackle the test ( as with all standardised tests ) and that skill comes with practice. If you have problem with the Math part, revisit your PMR Mathematics concepts if you think you've forgotten some of the concepts. Or you think the essay part is difficult for you, start by reading guides on how to churn out stellar essays in a limited amount of time, or work on your grammar ( you do commit quite a few of them, very minor ones ). If getting 2200 in SAT seems daunting to you, then you should forget about top schools because preparing for the SAT's is way easier than studying at the top schools you've mentioned. If you're afraid about the prospect of working hard and want things which are easy and risk-free, I suggest that you do something more conventional, like settling for a modest school. TARC and UTAR offer good courses with moderate fees, I'm sure you could afford it. It ranks higher than quite a few of the IPTA's out there.

Peace and all the best!