I will be graduating this year in November. I am an international student from India(Asian). Since we don’t have the GPA system exactly, and are marked through percentage, I score over 95% and scored 96.8% in my ICSE boards. I am not a part of the IB curriculum and my school does not offer any AP classes or Honor courses. My class rank ranges from 1-3 out of 90 students in an exclusive private school. I have a chance at valedictorian this year and because of COVID, I was unable to take the SAT. However, I have nearly stellar grades but I feel my academic profile is not up to the mark because of the lack of SAT results, Subject Tests and AP courses.
I am the President of the English Debating Society and have been participating in inter-school and national level debates from class 9. I have led my own team in English debates from class 9 as well while having started participation in inter house debates from the age of 11. I have various awards in debating including Best Speaker, Most Promising Speaker and Best Team in national and regional level debates. I also train and guide younger aspiring debaters from my school. I have also organised and hosted a national level competition with participation of over 40 schools from all over the country.
I am the Editor-in-chief of a school newsletter and in the Editorial Board of another school newsletter(There is no Editor for this newsletter). I have contributed articles to the school newsletters from class 9 and have been a member of the Editorial Board since class 9 as well. I have won national level essay writing competitions and my articles on Feminism and book reviews have been published in national publications.
I founded and am President of a society based on propagating interests in journalism and videography which inspired younger students to join the society and develop interests in public speaking and journalism.
I volunteered for an NGO and led training programs for women in under-developed states where Digital Empowerment and Safety was propagated. I also volunteered for a similar NGO propagating feminism and empowerment.
I am working on a research paper. I have represented my house in school activities including quizzes, elocutions, plays, debates and cleanliness drives. I am in the running for President of the Hindi Debating Society, Prefect, House Captain and School Vice Captain.
I was also awarded the highest honor in school for dedication and service(Roll of Honor).
My LORs should be good enough where several of my teachers have put in various comments including ‘one of the best students they’ve taught’ etc.
Admissions for international students is so extremely competitive. India is an over-represented country in admissions for top colleges in the US. For example, Harvard accepts 5-6 students from India each year. The others are similar. You are able to apply, of course, but understand that unless you are one of the top students in your country, the odds are not good. There are simply not enough spaces for all of the qualified applicants.
If you want to attend university in the US, there are other good schools where you may have a better chance of getting in, especially if you do not need financial aid. Your should also look at finding affordable schools in your country.
As a mere observer of Ivy admissions, I would venture to say that the most “accurate” representation of your chances would certainly be well under one percent, and most probably zero.
As @helpingmom40 explained, you almost have to be a household name in India to get into an Ivy. You have the national awards for debate. Could you get a recommendation from the national debate organization saying that you’re the best debater they’ve ever had debate in the history of the organization? That would help. It’s that kind of recognition that you would need—essentially being a debate recruit—that or one of the usual hooks of legacy, donor or world class athlete. Unfortunately being an outstanding student and human being are not enough.
Is there any open SAT testing site in India? Take the SAT if at all possible. Having a SAT score could help if it is a 1600 or very close.
An accurate representation of your chances is that unless you are one of the top 10 students in all of India, or the best debater as described above, you are virtually assured rejection.
Thank you. I do have a doubt about this.
Because of the lockdown and the Covid situation, the extra curriculars and sports activities have been practically negligible for the past two years, especially in India.
Wouldn’t that affect the ‘household name’ thing as well as the extra curriculars of the applying candidates
For the most part, it depends on the university and how they are set up. Most have AO’s who are assigned to a specific country or set of countries. They are most familiar with schools and know which ones are the best. If there is a school that sends a student to Harvard every year, they know it and what to expect from the top student there every year.
Even with lockdowns and Covid, admissions staff still know what they are looking for. They understand what the top students at the top schools would have accomplished based on what they have seen over the years. As far as activities and sports, there may be even fewer acceptances over the next couple of years. Current university athletes are allowed to stay on an extra year which is creating a surplus of students taking gap years, too.
Your doubts are probably because you’re missing the point of the replies.
As was pointed out, Harvard (and this also applies to the other need-blind, meets-full-demonstrated-need for international students institutions) only enroll half a dozen or so first year students from India per year.
With thousands of applicants for the handful of spots they are looking for the truly outstanding students who can demonstrate that they are the best of the best of the best in all of India. 99.9th percentile is probably the minimum.
Despite the lockdowns there are going to be other students from India who managed to take the SAT and will be sending in 1600s, and who managed to make it to ISEF, or the Google Science Fair, or demonstrated in some other way that they are the tippy top of the Indian applicant pool.
If you don’t need aid, things get to be a lot easier. NYU is famous for accepting reasonably bright, 97th percentile rich international kids. Just show up with an $80,000 check made out to them each year and your family will be able to tell their friends and associates about their child who went to a top American University.
I hope you don’t take this the wrong way. But as a fellow desi, I agree with the posters above. The chances of getting into HYC as an international indian is very very low.
Each of these colleges will take a handful of indian nationals each year. But the students they do accept generally have some or all of the following characteristics: full pay, top student in their high school/state, 1500+ SAT or 34+ ACT, recruited athlete, international level awards.
It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try. The holistic admissions process is such a black box means that it is very hard to predict. Each year thousands of students from India apply to the Ivies thinking that they have a chance. But in reality they are looking for a very specific type of applicant, and are not up front about it.