Hi, I’m a high school senior from Mumbai studying under the ISC Board. I’ve maintained an extremely solid (top 10% of class) academic record through my 11th grade and have an overall above average application. My issue is that I mucked up my half-yearlies for the first half of 12th grade. My school’s retest policy does not accommodate assigning ranks based on retest marks, which means if you can’t give an exam due to medical reasons, you get a retest, but just to pass you. No rank is awarded at all, which means giving an exam despite severe medical issues is almost necessary, because anything you get above the passing mark is a bonus. I gave four exams with a 102 fever, at which point I was diagnosed with dengue and not allowed to give the remaining four. So, long story short, I have class average marks for this one term and I’d like to know if that one thing completely kills my shot at top-tier schools.
For reference, the rest of my application looks like this:
ACT: 36
Breakup: 34 English, 36 Reading, 36 Math, 36 Science
SAT2: Mathematics Level 2: 800
Extracurriculars:
I was the lead programmer on the first Indian robotics team To ever win the FIRST Tech Challenge Asia Pacific Robotics World Championship and on the organizing committee of a Swachh Bharat backed local robotics competition. I’m also the founder of a social project called Tasveer that shoots pro-bono photography for NGO’s and non-profit ventures, and have worked extensively with over 40 NGO’s and the Indian Government. I’ve done Model UN for 4 years and am the Deputy Secretary-General for my school’s conference as well as founder and Director-General for an external one, along with being a 5 time chairperson and a 9 time delegate, winning 9 awards. At school, I am part of the student council, founder and president of two clubs, founder and head organizer of my school’s Youth Innovation Forum (first of it’s kind), captain of our Under-19 (varsity) Basketball team and my house Basketball team, a photojournalist published in both the school magazine and the student newspaper and the awardee for our math award three years running. I also have external collaborative research in the field of computer science (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning), based on modelling human memory systems using data structures on the basis of schema theory as well as an internship with a hugely respected photographer and a summer job as a freelance photographer, shooting for local business and officially for a local indie rock band.
I’ll have solid essays and excellent letters of recommendation, as well as solid second term marks.
I am applying to every Ivy League school but Dartmouth as well as Stanford, Caltech, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Chicago and NYU.
What are my chances?
Secondary question: Is there any way to indicate the situation I’m in on my application?
Disclaimer: Nothing said will deter me from applying to the schools I wish to attend. I’d rather take a gap year and try again (if god forbid I don’t get in) than apply to schools I don’t want to go to. That being said, hit me.