1. Maximum budget. $1600 USD
2. Screen size. My projector screen is 100" diagonally but it doesn't necessarily need to fill the entire space
3. Distance from back wall or preferred mounting position to screen wall. about 12 feet
4. Seating distance to screen.about 15 feet
5. How will you mount? (ceiling, rear shelf, table) ceiling
6. Usage: Movies, TV, Games, Sports, etc. Mainly want it for watching football during the day
7. Room type: Dedicated, Mixed use, Living room. it is in a California room/covered patio
8. Ambient light, through lighting or light leakage from windows? yes, it is outside and the yard faces south
9. Room colors: Walls, Ceiling, and floors walls and ceiling are beige. the floor is orangeish pavers

​
I don't need the picture to be amazing during the day but I do need it to be visible. Am I dreaming or is this possible? TIA

At the bottom of the post, I've attached a reflection detailing my thoughts and feelings.
Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Brown (Indian)
• Residence: India
• Type of School: Private (one of the most competitive high schools in the country)
• Financial Aid: Full-Pay + Merit Scholarships (hopefully)
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): No

Intended Major(s): Business, Entrepreneurship
Academics

• UW GPA: 39/42 in IBDP Y1. Predicted 41/45.
• Rank (or percentile): N/A
• of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: IB Diploma
• Senior Year Course Load: Economics HL, Business Management HL, Math AA HL, English SL, French AB Initio, ESS SL

Standardized Testing

• SAT: 1470 (690RW, 780M) submitted to emory, babson, georgetown, umich and usc

Extracurriculars/Activities

1. Founder, CEO of a business. Manufacturing and selling NFC technology-embedded business cards. $12,500+ revenue. Innovation Fellow for the Harvard- Crimson Youth Entrepreneurship Society’s inaugural cohort.
2. Founder of a not-for-profit ed-tech org. Curated modules and articles on personal finance, taxation, investing, entrepreneurship, and more. 1,000+ members from 23 countries. Collaborated with 3MNCs. Launched an exclusive crypto token for the members: Stock Early ($SE)
3. Author of a 75-page book on ‘how to startup’ for other budding high school entrepreneurs by providing anecdotes from my experience of managing two profitable businesses as a student. Sold over 300 copies.
4. World Scholar's Cup (debating, quizzing, essay writing competition): Represented India at the Tournament of Champions at Yale. Regional Round 1st place. Global Finals top 100.
5. Soccer: National-level player, varsity team captain. Best Player award at national games. Captained the state's only club in the tier-1 youth league.
6. Environmental Service: 3 Fundraisers. Raised $10,000+, helped 10+ restaurants in the city transition from plastic cutlery to sustainable cutlery. helped 1,800+ families during the first wave of covid.
7. Summer Programmes: 1. Babson Summer Study Program on a full tution scholarship. 2 Ivy Early Entrepreneur Summer Program.
8. Clubs: 1. Founder of the Fintech Club: taught a summer program on blockchain financial modeling to 100+ students. 2. President of Finance and Business Club (largest school club: 300+ members)
9. Student Investment Fund: founding member and senior investment officer (cryptocurrencies). Asia's first high school SIF. traded $20,000+
10. Founder, CEO of a semi-professional gaming clan. national accolades.

Other ECs: Chairperson at MUNs, TEDx organising team core member, Atheltics, School council member, freelance video editor and web developer.
Awards/Honors

1. 2 Gold and 2 Silver Medals in Essay Writing and Debating while representing India at the World Scholars Cup Tournament of Champions and Global Rounds. (1/1000+ teams)
2. Babson College Summer Study Financial Aid Scholarship Award: Admitted to Babson College's Summer Study Program for Entrepreneurship (class of 2022) with a full program tuition scholarship award.
3. Most Innovative Idea Award at TiE Rajasthan Business Competition: Won the Most Innovative Idea award for an Ed-Tech platform that fights economic inequality. (1/100+ teams)
4. FEELL 150 Changemaker: Given in recognition of my commitment to the progress of SDG goals set by the United Nations through Cardesta. (Given to 150 students from 1,50,000+ in India)
5. Best Player Award in Football at the ISSO National Games: Best Player Award at India's annual national-level football tournament.

Letters of Recommendation

1. Counsellor (7/10): knew me pretty well but i wasn't the sincerest student and i messed up a few times throughout the process. nevertheless, i believe she wrote a pretty good LoR.
2. Econ. Teacher (9/10): one of her favourite students and always did pretty well in her class. she helped me take initiatives outside the class. developed a really good relationship with her.
3. Business Teacher (6-7/10): one of the brightest performers in her class but only knew her for an year. was also frequently absent from her class because the subject came relatively easily to me and i used to invest the time elsewhere. might've stopped me from developing a better relationship with her.

Interviews:
Didn't get any. Babson and Georgetown waived off my interview???
Essays
Common App: 8/10 - Talked about falling short of my own expectations and failing at the biggest stage (tournament of champions of the world scholars cup at yale) and how it has shaped me today. ended with "Had I not failed so miserably back then, I wouldn't be here today, and I wish to fail again in the future. I wish to fail again so the next time I rise, I’ll be even more hungry and determined to achieve my goals." Extremely cliche topic I know, but my application wouldn't have been mine if it missed this part of my identity. i think it was pretty well-written and most people who read it loved it.
Supplementals:
Upenn (7/10) NYU (4/10): horrible essay. i dont know why i submitted it, i didn't even like it. probably my worst one. UC Berkeley (8/10). GMP Program essay (9/10): one of my favourite essays. talked about my experience with global business and tied it to haas' values. CMU (8/10): the third essay was my favourite one. other two were good but nothing special. U Mich (7/10). Ross (6/10) WashU (6-7/10) USC (6-7/10) Emory (8/10): wrote the second essay (the one w options) pretty well as it tied my academic interests with my personality and goals. UCLA (8/10) Georgetown (8.5/10): spent the longest time on these essays and really really liked them. Babson (10/10): did the video, talked about how I've experienced babson's social entrepreneurship spirit and how it has drawn me back to the campus.
I thoroughly enjoyed the essay writing process (I learned so much about myself!) and I'm pretty happy with most of my essays.
Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)
Acceptances:

• (considering commiting) RD - Emory University, Business
• RD - Babson College, Entrepreneurship

Waitlists:

• RD - University of Michigan, Econ/Business
• RD - University of California Berkeley (this one hurt the most), Global Management Program at Haas/Econ.
• RD - University of California Los Angeles, Business Economics

Rejections:

• ED 1 - New York University, B.T.E (business tech entrepreneurship)
• ED 2 (deferred) - Carnegie Mellon University, Business
• RD - University of Pennsylvania, Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• RD - Washington University at St.Louis, Entrepreneurship
• RD - Georgetown University, Business
• RD - University of Southern California, Business

Additional Information:
Only applied to reaches (except babson) because it made financial sense to go full play only at the best business schools. Applied to some of the best business schools and a few safety schools in my home country as a backup.
Reflection:
Emory is a great school, and Goizueta is one of the best business schools in the country. I'd have the opportunity to study my first choice major- Business. I know that I'll be fine there. I know that I'd probably be fine wherever I went. While, I'm extremely grateful for Emory, deep down, though, I can’t help but still feel disappointed.
I'm aware of the fact that I'm not the most qualfied candidate at any of these schools and they were all reaches for me, but its a little heartbreaking to see your dream fall apart. Over the last 3 years, I've made numerous sacrficies to be able to study in the united states, I switched schools in my junior year and joined one of the most competitive highschools in the country so I can have a higher chance of making it. I've spent my summers working on projects and was sleep deprived for most of junior and senior year. I wish I would've gotten into one of my top choices. Right now I can't help but feel I've failed everyone around me. Seeing some of my closest friends get into Stanford and Berkeley—friends with whom I’ve been since the beginnings of my journey —I can’t help but feel left behind. What hurts the most is how close I came, maybe a 1500+ on the SAT or a 43 on the IB would've made all the difference. The 3 waitlists hurt more than the rejections, especially Berkeley :(
But at the end of the day, I'm glad I went through this process. It's only the difficult matches that are worth playing. I know this failure is only going to make me stronger. As my common app essay goes, "I wish to fail again in the future. I wish to fail again so the next time I rise, I’ll be even more hungry and determined to achieve my goals." Well this was that failure, and I'm going to get through it, as a stronger man than before.
Finally, I still don't know where I'm going to spend the next 4 years of my life. I know I'm going to be fine wherever I go and since a big part of my dream to study in the United States has died I'm considering a few options in my home country which will be much much cheaper than Emory and make more finanical sense to me and my family. Nonetheless, I'll be committing to Emory for now as I wait for the rest of my decisions from my home country. 🦅🦅🦅