<p>Thanks for putting in your time for reading this.</p>
<p>Background:
I aspire to study in the US in one of the top universities/colleges for the course of engineering, hopefully in aeronautics or computer science. I would be an international applicant to US institutions since I'm an Indian Citizen. Also, I don't think i will be able to pay the full college fees as i come from a middle-income family that too in India, so I'll be needing some financial aid. Currently I am doing my 12th grade from Anderson Junior College in Singapore (known as JC2 here).</p>
<p>My Academics:
-Aggregate marks in 10th grade : 90.2% (5 subjects with mathematics 100% score)
-SAT I score (second attempt): 1920 (CR 600, W 580 with essay 10/12, M 740)
-Cannot have final 12th grade scores before application time period so will rely on predicted grades
-currently pursuing Cambridge A-level course from Singapore</p>
<p>My Extra Curriculars:
-Participated in 3 MUN conferences as a delegate and an ambassador (best delegate award in 1)
-Good orator ("Speakeazy" champion- school based competition)
-Participated and won awards in a few competitions (eg: world scholars cup regional)
-1st place in the international category at NASA Aeronautics High School competition 2010
-Section head of my CCA "Cxtreme" (computer club) {one CCA is compulsory at our school}
-Passion for on-stage solo-singing, won many awards like :-
1. 1st place in Zonal level solo-singing competition back in India
2. 2nd place in district level solo-singing.
3. Gold with Honours award at the Singapore Youth Festival 2009 in Choral singing
4. 1st place in solo-singing in a school level competition ( AJ Idol :p)
5. A few public performances
6. Learnt Indian Classical Vocal music from Gandharva Mahavidyalaya (nation-wide institute in India) {2 years}
7. Not very strong community service with participation in things like beach clean-up drives, newspaper collection drives and road-marshalling for cross-country run.</p>
<p>My Prospects in Singapore:
I can wish to continue my university studies in Singapore from National University of Singapore (NUS) or Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and have high chances of securing a scholarship given that i do well in my 12th grade</p>
<p>What I want:
Want to do engineering from one of my dream colleges (MIT, Stanford, Caltech). Would settle with Georgia Tech, Uni of Michigan, Uni of Arizona, UCLA given that I am able to secure some significant financial aid. Scholarship in NUS or NTU is pretty much secured and NUS ranks pretty good internationally, so I would want to go to a better university in US.</p>
<p>Problem:
I think I am aiming too high given my low SAT scores. I have already tried SAT 1 twice and have gained mere 40 marks overall. My final exams for 12th grade are in November this year, and given the next SAT dates in Oct, Nov, Dec, I can take my next SAT in Oct or/and Dec only. Now i think it would be a waste of time if i re-take SAT 1 and then again improve by no significant number. So I'd rather take SAT 2 (if its any use given my not so good SAT 1 scores). I've recently heard about ACT and have known that it has a science section as well so was just wondering whether should i take that instead since it might be more likely that i do relatively better at it (would it be any use doing so?).
Someone suggested me that I should re-take my SAT 1 in Oct and then take SAT 2 in Dec and then apply, given that i'm strongly aiming for what I wish to attain.
On the contrary I've also heard that SAT scores do not matter that much... To what extent is that true? Please help me evaluate how good enough am I for the universities I aim for and would it be worthwhile trying again for SAT 1 (i would say I am not that good at English language overall and I kinda cannot figure out why i get specially my CR questions wrong, i seriously can argue that my answers are also right).... I'm pretty confused. what should I do?</p>