I am an Indian in the CBSE syllabus (which is such a pain ):
9th grade - 9.4
10th grade - 9.8
11th grade - 73.2%
12th grade - 95% (predicted because my teachers and I are confident)
SAT 2 - 2400 (Math, physics and chem)
SAT 2 French - 750 (I wanted to take it because I thought it would differentiate me from an ordinary Indian nerd)
SAT 1 - 2350 (worked my ass off)
TOEFL - 115
Extracurriculars (All my hoped are on this):
Computer and technology:
– I develop apps for Android. Have developed 6 so far with two of them with more than 50,000 downloads each.
– I also develop and design websites. Have done like a couple of them so far.
– Have done courses in Adobe softwares, 3dsMax, PHP, MySQL, etc. in India and have been certified by the World Multimedia organisation.
– Part of the school tech magazine.
– I participated in the F1 in schools competition and won the national level competition.
– I am well-versed with more than 5 programming languages.
– I have also participated in several national programming and app development competitions.
Music:
– I play the guitar, drums, keyboard and saxophone.
– I have finished all 8 grades of keyboard with a distinction.
– I am part of my school’s brass band. Have been for 5 years.
– I compose and reproduce music. Have a channel on youtube and get about 50,000 per video.
Sports:
– I play football, cricket, basketball and squash. And I swim.
– I was part of my high school basketball team for 3 years.
– Have won several competitions.
– I also practice Yoga.
Others:
– I am part of various religious groups in my community.
– I am also an ardent speedcuber (for those of you who don’t know what that is, it is solving various Rubik’s cubes)
Basically, music and technology is my life, I can’t give up either of them.
I have it all planned out on how to write my essay and how to show my passion and stuff.
The main thing I’m worried about is my high school marks. I understand my 11th grade marks were terrible. What can I say…frankly, I didn’t study at all and I spent a lot of time on my Android game which I was working on then, I was basically overly ambitious that I lost my streak. But I have the confidence that if I had studied properly, I would have got 90%+ for sure but no use talking about that now. Please give me ideas on how to explain that to the admission officers.
Now I am going to study my ass of to get at least a 95% in my first term and half yearly exams in 12th so I can show an improvement in high school to the admission officers. I am planning on sending my applications after my half yearly exams.
Also if there is anything else I can do, please tell me. I’ll do anything it takes to get into a good college in America. My dream was Stanford but I don’t think it is possible now .
And please tell me is there any other tests which would increase my chances, tell me anything which would increase my chances.
I am going to send my applications in December 2015 after my half yearly exams.
And one more thing, my friends were telling me applying early increases my chances but is it the case because it wasn’t a rolling admission (except Purdue) so it doesn’t matter?
I wish to apply to these colleges:
- Purdue
- Columbia
- Cornell
- Carnegie Mellon
- Stanford
- MIT
- Harvard
- Caltech
- UCB
- Princeton
- GeorgiaTech
- UIUC
Thanks in advance for all the responses.