<p>Hi! I'm from India, and am in 11th right now. As I have no idea as to where I stand, it would be great if you guys could help!!!</p>
<p>Academics:
NTSE scholar: Only about 1000 kids get this scholarship in grade 8 and 9.
I've also been getting pretty good ranks at those olympiads. I was 30th in the nation in 9th and first in the state in 10th. Mind, these are the private exams, not the government ones, so I don't know whether it's something worth mentioning...
I also got a 10 in class 10, and apart from a semester of grade 9, I've always gotten pretty good grades.
Also, I got into one of India's top schools after a written exam. Only around 6-7 were accepted out of the 100-odd applicants. The school sends at least 1-2 kids to top US schools every year, and many to the iits. The only problem is that my first set of tests at the new school have not gone well at all, so...
Additionally, I also to an accelerated iit prep class, which take up another 16 hours of the week. I've been going to a similar class since 8th.
Extracurriculars:
Well, I will probably swim at the state level this year, although this heavily depends on time and fitness.
I also play badminton.
I also play the piano and the violin. Although these are self taught, I've made rapid progress.</p>
<p>Oh and I've only taken the SSAT, as I had applied to a boarding school last year. I got a 2290/2400.
I know it probably isn't much, but it'd be great if I knew where I stand.
Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>You’re already there 
don’t worry…</p>
<p>accio,</p>
<p>your profile sound good, but don’t slack off now…keep working at it. colleges love consistency. this is probably the most hackneyed advice ever, but it’s true nonetheless so:</p>
<p>*keep your grades up high
*do well on your SAT/SAT 2 and take these in grade 11 itself (saves you a lot of worry taking them early)
*work on the Extra Curriculars –> you’ll want to stand out 
*do some social service if you’ve got the time (won’t hurt your app for sure, but mainly for the joy of doing it)</p>
<p>I’m not going to ‘chance you’ because the unfortunate truth is pretty much everyone is a long shot at HYPMS, but if your question is ‘is it worth my while even applying’, I’d say yes. :)</p>
<p>Explore all your options (think beyond HYPMS, there are lots of other great schools that you might like even better), work hard this year and don’t stress out too much (trust me, plenty of time to panic next year!)</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the replies! The only issue is that my first term grades at my new school haven’t been very good(low 80’s). It’s not that I find the material hard…but more that the pressure is sort of getting to me. How would I be able to explain for this black mark? Do we have to send in our 9th grade reports? Cause a similar thing happened in 9th(apart from an 85~ in science). I got a 50/100 in Hindi, but in 10th I got the highest score possible in the subject. Does this work to my advantage, or is it more of a disadvantage?</p>
<p>Colleges always love to see an upward trend in grades, so work very hard during your next term to do well in your classes. You will have to send in grades from 9th - 12th.</p>
<p>That being said, your extracurriculars are good and your SATs are oustanding! You got a 2400? I could only even dream of a 2000! But keep in mind, grades are also very important. It says something if you do very good in SATs but grades are not good. These colleges all know(I hope) that course rigor in India is much higher than course rigor in the US, so they will take that into account, but don’t believe you can slack off, you will have to work hard to bring grades back up.</p>
<p>For MIT and the top Ivy Leagues, I know my friends in those schools are usually National and International Olympiad award winners, especially if they are planning to major in the sciences. I agree with rastogr with the upward trend in grades - if you have already made a “mistake”, don’t beat yourself over it. Just work hard and try to get them up. </p>
<p>For CCAs, don’t forget to include community service!</p>
<p>Thanks! But is it possible without an IO to your credit? And does it remotely help if you are a full pay US citizen?</p>
<p>If you are a US citizen , you dont really fall in the international category.I think they may weigh you separately. You will be compared in context of your high school as well as in context of the local pool …I think. Are you in a IB program? I think Stanford is need aware, so full pay is good for Stanford. Others are need blind so maybe doesn’t matter. If you are good, you are good and they will make it work. You need to have almost perfect GPA for the top ivy’s. Again have some safety schools as well. I know some local kids who did get in weren’t necessarily IO qualified but they all had some thing that distinguished them (leadership, sports, regional/national awards). If you are swimming for State level, can you do that being a US citizen?</p>
<p>Nope, not in IB. GPA isn’t that good this first term… 3.2 on a 4. But it has always been really good, apart from this time. Yeah, there isn’t any problem with the swimming cause I’m a legal resident.</p>
<p>If you are a US citizen, they will definitely compare you with the local pool from the US. Even though I keep hearing here that “indian standards are higher than the US”, be assured that the US pool of kids (local) who do get into HYPMS have really gone over and beyond what is in the high school. Most have challenged themselves with as rigorous a curriculum as possible and if they are looking to Math/Science majors, a lot of them have qualified State/National science/math olympiad. Those are NOT easy with the talent pool here. A lot of these kids are 1st /2nd generation asians themselves, so you can understand the background they were raised and some of them honestly are child prodigies. Oh and did I mention, played Varsity sports (which are very tough to get into compared to Indian sports level) and some of them have incredible musical talents as well </p>
<p>You have a great chance but do have some safeties as well. I know some US citizen kids (who were in international schools in India) got admission to Stanford(no aid) (Stanford wants diversity so an international kid with same qualifications may hold an edge to the 50 other CA kids with the same scores/ECs). At the end of the day, with financial aid declining, full pay candidates are definitely at edge in need aware schools like Stanford.</p>