<p>Like hmom said, no schools are safeties for internationals needing aid. Don’t assume anything, especially since your test scores are on the lower end of qualified applicants to the schools you’re looking at. Make sure you have strong backups in India - are you considering IIT? It seems to me that you’d be more competitive applying there than to the Ivies. There are a lot of people with similar stats (and higher testing) applying domestically and they’re priority – both for admission and aid. </p>
<p>You certainly seem qualified, but the applicant pool from India and China is so strong that you’re not really a shoo-in anywhere. Your EC’s do sound a little subjective and the testing is weaker than a strong international applicant’s should be. While I’m not discouraging you to apply to HYP, it’s more of a crapshoot for you. Don’t include your ACT score. It’s not great and it’s not going to help you. Try and get your SAT score up. And don’t include the People-to-People thing unless you get in – from what I’ve heard, People-to-People is more like an exchange program than anything super selective, though. Regardless, it can only help you (if you’re selected). </p>
<p>Also, I know this may not seem appealing to you if you’re set on a name brand undergrad, but you should consider applying to state/public schools. They’re generally easier to get into, cheaper, and may offer you more aid (you’ll stand out more in their pool than in the Ivy pool). You can try for an Ivy graduate degree - it has more worth anyway. </p>
<p>Also, Yale’s engineering department is generally regarded as its weakest. Since engineering is what you want to do, maybe you should rethink that choice.</p>