<p>Hi all!
Its wonderfully amazing to find so many desis here. Well, is any of you doing home schooling? Or anyone from the Punjab area? I will be applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, University of South California, Stanford and Colgate(To be safe). I know they are pretty many but being a home scholar can hurt a bit.
Academics.
I started home schooling last year, then sat IGCSE's and got 3.8 GPA.
Will be doing A Levels next year, and the predicted score is 3 A*s
SAT in September, I delayed so I could get a perfect score in one sitting
SAT II in Oct, can get 750+ on both.</p>
<p>Won a science fair competition by creating organic paint back in Uganda.
I am an active blogger and write on sensitive issues of our society. I might as well secure a job with a magazine.
I counsel battered women and children and give guidance on what to do with their situations.
I teach English and Science at a poor neighborhood school.
Created an online community of over 5000 people standing up for a cause.</p>
<p>I have studied through hardship that I feel uncomfortable mentioning here but will explain in my essays and also highlight the point that it has strengthened me as a person.</p>
<p>I will have about five letters of recommendation, my mum(my supervisor), a teacher, two doctors who supervise my studies and the MLA of my constituency, he will give an account of my social efforts.</p>
<p>That's quite a bit of information, do tell me what I could do to better my chances of getting into any of the aforementioned universities.
Much gratitude in advance.</p>
<p>SAT in September? I highly doubt there’s going to be one. It’ll probably be in October and then November, though College Board hasn’t decided on those dates yet.</p>
<p>The first thing I noticed is you sending 3 letters of recommendations. For any of the unit in your list that’s a very strict no no. Trust me the adcoms will get annoyed and will approach your application with a bit of ennui. You might want to rethink that. </p>
<p>Also, ICGSE’s while not very important, hold a fair bit of weight. Thus what were your ICGSE grades (I’m not talking about GPA). One concern that I have is that since you’re home schooled how is your 3.8 determined? Moreover is the home school certified because the common app for home schoolers is different than regular applicants and they will, and I repeat, will ask for some sort of proof or profile.</p>
<p>Other than that most things appear good. I’m going to be a bit realistic and say while they appear good there’s nothing that’s extraordinary. Your profile seems too haphazard as in it doesn’t seem that you’re really passionate in one thing. Perhaps you can demonstrate that in your essays but to me the most interesting thing appears the organic plant in Uganda. Can you please describe that more? </p>
<p>Hey Nocensure, I decided against the letter thing already, thank you. But places like Princeton still want 3.
I converted my IGCSE grades to GPA, it came up with a 3.8, they are mostly A’s with a B.
The Home Schooled curriculum percentage has been about 92 all the years.
I am passionate about writing and my volunteer efforts, talking too much about them sadly reveals my identity.
It was Organic Paint, I made a fully fledged study on it as well.</p>
<p>I made a slight mistake by saying its a big mistake sending 3 letters of recommendations. It would be a big mistake to send 5 (as you originally mentioned). 3 is perfectly fined. Note that Stanford doesn’t like anything extra so I would caution against the 3rd one. But the key rule here is if each letter says something different and can provide a meaningful piece to the puzzle that is you for the adcoms. </p>
<p>For the converted GPA would you be able to tell colleges how you converted it.</p>
<p>For the study did you actually publish research because if you did so you can send the report to colleges under “supplementary materials.” Now that is something that colleges won’t mind receiving (if its of college level quality).</p>
<p>I am sending a fictional story as part of the supplementary material, the Paint thing was naive.
Yes, there is a paper CIE published explaining to American colleges how to convert grades to GPA. I might not even apply to Stanford, the post was created sometime back when I hadn’t researched colleges much.</p>
i think you can easily get into any of these universities …all the best :)</p>