<p>@Everybody : You probably figured this out, but just in case, the reading ACT score I mentioned is 27 and not 37. Typo.</p>
<p>@Indian Monster : No idea about the RSSF, but you’re incorrect about the ISSF. The events at the ISSF differ every year (and there are often different every year - there was a poster event at my ISSF as well; three in all - quiz, poster, presentation). Also, every year the ISSF is held in a different country. Mine was held in India itself.</p>
<p>About the ‘mother-baby-research’ illustration, I don’t know if that is true (I went to the 3rd ISSF, there would have been three or something like that more ISSFs after that) but at my time people spoke about encryption algorithms, new hard disk designs and things, frankly many of which went over my head (One of the teams spoke about how they found a new way to break the MD5 hash without making use of collisions, bruteforcing or using rainbow tables).</p>
<p>Martial arts methodology overview: study anatomy in detail,study major martial art styles (3 in my case : (Taekwondo, Ninjutsu and Krav Maga) + Boxing), figure out the best and worst in each, combine with own experience inside and outside of the ring and making use of all these, especially anatomy, you get there.</p>
<p>@Crying Cloud : Yes, I am trying for IIT, but even if I get in, I don’t think I want to got there.</p>
<p>And the thing with state schools is that there is not enough aid (including both merit and need based aid. I will still try looking once again. Do you have any suggestions?</p>
<p>@Everybody Else : I will retake the SAT in December and hopefully I will make it past the 2200 mark. Thank you for the responses. More opinions are always welcome. :)</p>