<p>I spent my freshman year at an international school in India. This particular school offered the IGCSE curriculum - which is equivalent to the British GCSE. The IGCSE is a two year qualification - the curriculum is usually taught during the first two years of high school before the examinations are taken.</p>
<p>My school used a very erratic grading system, which was:</p>
<p>95% - 100 % - A*
90 % - 94% - A+
85% - 89% - A
80% - 84% - A-
70% - 79% - B</p>
<p>and so on</p>
<p>My 9th Grade grades were:</p>
<p>English - A+ (91%)
English Literature - B (75%)
Mathematics - B (79%)
History - A (86%)
French - A- (84%)
Biology - A* (96%)
Chemistry - A+ (90%)
Physics - A+ (92%)</p>
<p>I realize that at the first glance this does not seem very impressive. </p>
<p>However, I was taking the most difficult courses in my school. I also opted for difficult curriculum options (insisting to take US History, which I did almost completely on my own). Difficult in this case means that properly qualified teachers were unavailable. The French teacher, for example, did not possess a college degree. The History and Literature teachers were not qualified to teach those particular subjects. History was practically a self-taught subject for me.</p>
<p>Moreover, my grades were the highest in every class aside from Mathematics and Physics. Overall, I was at the top of my class.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how these grades would be converted to a GPA though. If I were to convert my percentage for each subject to a US grade and then calculate it I guess it would come out to be a 3.5 or 3.6. If I were to use the letter grades I received from my school, it would come out to be a 3.8 or 3.9.</p>
<p>At the moment I'm a sophomore. This month I am finally taking my IGCSE exams. I expect a clear 4.0 this year - the externally marked exams would be this year's grades.</p>
<p>Next year I plan to take as many AP courses as possible for a determined student (at a US high school), and believe I could ace them with a good deal of hard work. This year I am a member of the student council. I've also attended six Model United Nations conferences (was an organizer for two). There isn't much else I have been able to do during the last two years (the country I currently live in doesn't offer many community service opportunities)</p>
<p>What would be my chances for admission to Georgetown? My interest it to major in government, public policy, or political science at a school known for its programs in these areas (though Georgetown is where I want to go the most, I'm not very interested in an International Relations major). For this reason, I also plan to apply to all the major universities in and around DC (Georgtown, JHU, College Park, American, and George Washington). I'd also like to try for admission to the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, Dartmouth College, and Harvard.</p>