Yes it is. It is an actual IDE though. If you were just looking for something like notepad you can use gedit (it has code highlighting too which is nice). Or if you want to go command line you could use vi.
It all depends on how good of a school you want to get into and the program you are looking at. Some program's have more competition and that means higher entrance requirements. Technically you don't even need a high school diploma to get into University. I would go online and check to see what the minimum requirements are as they normally reflect somewhat closely to what you will need. Also you might want to research how many students got turned away for that program in the last 2-3 years.
Google is your friend
Win 2000, XP You can create .reg file and specify in it minus sign before the key name to delete (example - contents of sample file c:del.reg):
REGEDIT4
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesSyst...]