<p>No one should ever be “hopeful” when he/she applies to Stanford, as 94.3% of the applicants are rejected. At this point, it seems as if your academic credentials are weak. Top 20% of your class isn’t going to make you a competitive applicant, so definitely try to get into the top 10% of your class. Also, you haven’t taken the SAT/ACT/SAT2s, so that makes it difficult to “chance” you as well. When you take those tests, shoot for above 700 on every section of the SAT and/or above 30 on the ACT. You probably shouldn’t apply restrictive early ACTION (Stanford doesn’t have early DECISION) because you’re going to want them to see your first semester senior grades (which they wouldn’t be able to see in REA), grades which might help bring up your class rank and/or make up for some of your performance earlier in high school. </p>
<p>Other than your academic issues, you seem to have a genuine passion for cricket, which Stanford (and other top schools) may certainly appreciate.</p>