The main reason I was there was for this Kaplan SAT course. I did not do as well as I would have liked on the practice tests. Because the actual SAT was months away, I did not put as much focus into the program as I should have. Anyways, following the Summer Study, I knew that I had a ton of prepping to do before the “real” SAT. I do not do extraordinary on standardized tests. As a matter of fact, I very much dislike the ACT and SAT. You cannot fairly test one’s academic ability (or one’s chances of success in college) on this four-hour test. After months of prepping, I ended up taking the SAT. I took this test three times. To sum it up, I was not too excited for colleges to see my standardize test scores.

My high school grades are above average. My school does not rank, but I have an A average. Throughout high school, I did not take many advanced courses. I took a total of four advanced courses (one my sophomore year and three my senior year).

I would not be able to do what I am passionate about (tennis and entrepreneurship) if I were to take more advanced (or as admission directors like to call it, “challenging”) courses in high school. I had to make choices, and I was fully aware that these choices had consequences. If I could go back in time, I would not do anything differently.

I had a unique high school profile (average testing scores, good grades, and phenomenal extra-curriculars). That being said, I was not sure how college admission counselors would respond. So, I applied to MANY schools. I applied early decision to Stanford. I hosted a conference there in November, and a professor wrote a letter of recommendation for me…but that didn’t get me in. After Stanford, I had three top college choices – Duke, University of Texas, and University of Illinois. I did not get into Duke, but I was offered admission to the University of Texas and to the University of Illinois. For months, I was split 50/50 between the two schools. Within the next few days, I will make and announce my final decision.

This past summer, I had an externship at the Founders Fund in San Francisco. One of the results from this internship was that Justin Fishner-Wolfson inspired and encouraged me to run a conference. The goal of my conference, NextGen Conference, was to bring together young, first-time entrepreneurs with more experienced and seasoned entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. About ten days ago, this conference was a reality. On November 14^th at Stanford University, NextGen Conference took place.

Over the last few months, I created an All Star speaker lineup – Jeff Clavier, Kevin Hartz, Keith Rabois, Dan Olsen, Larry Chiang, and many more. There was representation from the Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Maples Investments, Soft Tech VC, and many more venture capital firms. With such an awesome group of speakers, I expected ticket sales to come easy. My goal was to make this event no larger than seventy-five people. Shockingly, twenty-five days ago, zero people were registered for my conference. However, with much help and support from the speakers, my event was sold out! We reached full capacity! Students and young entrepreneurs from Stanford, Berkeley, SF State, Cal Poly, and the University of Illinois were in attendance. Our sponsors included: Minogi.com, Intel, Verizon Wireless, and Macgasm.net. Both Intel and Verizon Wireless came on board seventy-two hours before the event.

At the after party I overheard someone say, “I learned more at NextGen Conference than at TechCrunch 50”. Positive feedback and requests for more events like NextGen Conference have flooded my inbox in the last two weeks. Because of that, there will probably be a NextGen Conference in 2010!

Shout out goes to Daniel Brusilovsky.  Even though he was not present at NextGen Conference, Daniel helped use his contacts to help NextGen Conference.  Because of Daniel’s contact, Brady Valentino, our site, www.nextgenconf.com looks beautiful!  Also, Daniel helped sign Intel as a sponsor.