My life is replete with successful people. I have two elder sisters: one has graduated from Columbia University and currently attends Duke Law School, and the other attends Harvard University. Both my mother and father are prosperous engineers, after many years of studying. This puts a lot of pressure on me, and as the third daughter, I am expected to live up to my sisters' high standards. My sister, Mauli, skipped fifth and seventh grade, was valedictorian of her graduating class, and got a 1590 out of 1600 on her SATs. She was a National Merit Scholar, won the Lucent Scholarship and entered Harvard University at the age of sixteen. How can anyone compare to that?
Unfortunately, my parents feel that I should do the same. I have been attending SAT classes regularly for a while now, and though my scores are definitely in an excellent range, they are not up to par with that of Mauli. This displeases my parents a great deal, for they have hopes that I will get a score as high as hers. Such a score seems near impossible to me. This also leads to their expectations that I will get accepted into Ivy League schools. I myself have doubts about this. Though I wish to please my parents, I don't want to get my hopes up for such top-notch schools that are very selective. I feel that if I do not get accepted into universities such as Columbia, Harvard, Yale or Brown, they will regard me as a failure.
Another factor that adds to this is that I come from an Indian family, in which scholastic achievement is looked upon very highly. There are many doctors, scientists and other professionals in my extended family. Almost all of my cousins have gone to prestigious colleges.
