Hello awesome group! I am dreaming of becoming a computational neuroscience grad student. I have just finished researching the prospective universities that I will apply to.
I would like to ask for advice/guidance/resources on how to stand out from the international pool of applicants, based on your awesome firsthand experience :D.
A bit about myself I am a full stack developer with some years under my belt. I come from a third world country. I am self taught, I payed for college by hustling (fulltime work, side apps, thesis, competitive esports and selling in game items ). I love solving hard problems creatively. I never enjoyed reading books, but have started reading last year, I finished my first book last year, and right now my velocity is 2 books a month.
I studied in the top high school in our country, but not college. I was able to pass all local top uni exams but was not able to study there. I had no choice, we were not financially capable. Before I graduate, I also tested out if I have what it takes to get into the top local company for programmers, they only get top students from top schools, luckily i got in. 
I love math, but my college did not satisfy my baseline expectation at that time, so I became a delinquent student. I only go to school during exams, because my classmates pay me to answer the exams for them. Our school also sends me out to competitions and quiz bees, that’s why they dont kick me out, luckily I win most of them. Ok so now why the shift?
My motivation on why I want to shift to this career, is that hopefully I can help move mankind forward. I want to focus on memory and learning, get deep understanding, insights and possible future trends. Hopefully create a tool/ product that would give humanity access to rapid learning. That is my dream and vision.
It is surely going to be a roller coaster ride, but I am very much up for the challenge and adventure! I’ll give it my all! Eat, breathe and live Neuroscience!
Thanks a lot in advance, any comment is very much appreciated. Cheers!
P.S. I have roughly 4-6 months left before application opens up, during those time I am hoping to build up my computational fundamentals. What subjects should I look into?