<p>General Things
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: East Indian (international)
Country: India (but living in Singapore for 16 years)
Current Grade: About to start my senior year (in singapore, schools run from Jan-Dec)
Financial Aid: Not applying for any sort of FA</p>
<p>Grades
-On a scale of 5
-Please consider this in view of how difficult my school is (very) and my test scores.
-Note the drastic rising trend
Freshman Yr 2.8/5.00
Sophomore Yr 3.4/5.00
Junior Yr (1st Semester) 4.19/5.00
Junior Yr (2nd Semester) 4.36/5.00</p>
<p>SAT Reasoning Test (took once)
SAT Critical Reading - 760
SAT Math - 790
SAT Writing 800 (MC 80 E 11)
SAT Composite (M+CR) 1550
SAT Composite (M+CR+W) 2350</p>
<p>SAT Subject Tests
SAT Math Level 2 - 800
SAT Chemistry 780
SAT Physics not taken yet
SAT Biology M not taken yet</p>
<p>AP Tests
- expecting all fives (entire graduating class above mine from my HS are AP Scholars with Distinction)
AP Calculus AB 5
AP Chemistry 5
AP Physics B not taken yet
AP Biology not taken yet
AP Calculus BC not taken yet
AP Statistics not taken yet</p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities
- Creative Writing for 8 years (very extensive, two international commendatory awards, President of Creative Writing Circle)
- Debate (expecting to be Captain next year)
- Yearbook Editor
- Newsletter Editor
- Scrabble (several national level awards)
- Model UN
- Interned at renowned biodiversity museum
- Interned at a research facility for water technology research
- Conducting research on catalysts for fuel cells (cutting edge)
- 300+ community service hours
- Tons of other smaller ECs</p>
<p>Looks darn good. The only think I would suggest is that you show a little better "roundedness" in your SAT II's. Substitute a humanities subject for one of your SAT II in science. Literature / World History /something like that.</p>
<p>wait, it looks good even in light of my freshman/soph GPA? i hope that will be considered in view of how hard my school is though? and yeah i'm thinking of taking history or something later in the year. although i'll probably not do too well on it. which humanities subject would you say is easiest to self study?</p>
<p>well, unless you're a natural in literature, I suggest world history. Pick up a Barron's review book, a Princeton review and perhaps 1 more and that should guarantee a 800. I think your GPA is irrelevant in light of your scores.</p>
<p>i signed up for world history, bio and physics today. i'll be taking it in june (that's the next test date during which my school is a testing center). </p>
<p>could you elaborate more on why my GPA wouldn't matter as much in light of my scores?</p>
<p>Eh, I disagree with necrophiliac to a point. Yes, you do have a significant rising trend, and yes, grades are not their only consideration, but your transcript is the most important aspect of your application, and those first two years will definitely be a detriment to your application.</p>
<p>You've got tons of tough classes, good EC's, and great scores, but I just want to let you know that your grades will probably give you a tough time, and it'll probably be an uphill battle. Not impossible, but quite tough.</p>
<p>thanks simpson for being realistic. well, now that i can't go back and change it, i'll have to stick with working on essays and extracurriculars. if it helps i have a total of 6 leadership positions among tons of other activities. also, i'm taking necrophiliac's advice on taking SAT subject tests from a spectrum. while i realize that won't boost my application out of the quagmire in which i currently am, i think that along with my consistent AP fives, i should be able to paint a strong enough academic picture.</p>
<p>also, note that i'm international with a grading system that is bound to be foreign to georgetown (it's a grading system unique to my school and i think i'm the first graduate of my school to be applying for gtown). i wonder if that will help or hurt</p>
<p>The adcom might call and inquire specifically about your school.</p>
<p>Note that I also posted on another one of your threads.</p>
<p>forgive me if I'm being blind to the obvious, but what makes the grading system unique at your school? it just looks like GPA on a weighted scale to me. I'm not being critical, I'm just curious :)</p>
<p>well grading systems are VERY different from school to score, let alone from country to country. In Germany, a 1 is the best score and a 5 is the worst. In France, a 20 is the top score but it is unobtainable (reserved for God). In Virginia, an A is a 93%+ (a 92 is a B+ and thus a 3.7). In a low-income school in Maryland, an A used to be a 75% + before the county reigned in the corruption of the grading scale.</p>
<p>Without an official report or being there, we cannot even imagine what the grading system is in India.</p>
<p>that's exactly what I mean. Just by looking at it and making judgments in the context of what the OP's stats are, that's what I assumed.</p>
<p>i'm not in india people. i'm in singapore. it's different because it's much harder to score GPAs closer to perfect here. the vals graduate with scores like 4.6 on a scale of 5 and the averages are around 3.5 on a scale of 5. also, we're a batch of about 80 selected from about 1000 or so, and our curriculum is much tougher than most schools.</p>
<p>what do you mean by a batch of people selected from 1000? What does that mean?</p>
<p>Well now that you gave me a bit of a perspective, I don't think your school is all that bad about scoring (gpa deflation). It seems like you did grossly under-perform :/</p>
<p>There is no point in brooding on it because what's done is done. The rest of your stuff is pretty strong. You're not a 100% in but you definitely stand a strong chance. By the way, which school are you applying for? I'm kinda assuming SFS but you didn't explicitly state it...</p>
<p>Last thought: Don't go with your small stuff on the app. Don't use a shotgun, use a sniper rifle. Show a distinct talent and interest in a particular field and some roundedness to go along with it.</p>
<p>From what I see, the successful EA applicants at my school basically did:
I want to study [x1] because I'm good at [x2] and have participated in [x3] a lot.</p>
<p>The failures did:
I want to study [x] but participated in [y1, u6, q3, f10] and am good at [//insert alphabet]</p>
<p>i'll probably apply for college for economics but SFS is not out of consideration. what would you recommend with someone with large amount of focus on debating/writing?</p>
<p>also guys, how would you recommend i improve myself?</p>
<p>we all love a little debating I'd think (what's intelligence if you can't flex it, right?) Only you can answer that question. What is your goal? What are you trying to achieve? If you need GTown's name on your resume, you want to apply to college (easier to get into) and not risk your chances with SFS. If you plan on going international as oppose to staying within the US with your line of work, it's a SFS or bust (MSB business might work too though).</p>