Schools I’m interested in:
Stanford REA, Columbia, Princeton, Brown, UC Berkeley, Pomona, NYU Stern, UMich Ann Arbor, UIUC.
Intended major: CS, or Business/Finance
(new) SAT I: CR 760/800 M 790/800
no subject tests
A Levels: AAB-ABB (around Top 5% in my school)
ECs: (my hook)
I am a national champion (across all ages) and have represented my country multiple times in Chess and have won an international medal (albeit in a 3 man team) at a world competition (where each country sends their best players, not just random players).
Played varsity soccer/football.
Recs:
should be decent
Essays:
not bad? haha i’m not sure.
Applying for financial aid to the private schools I apply for (I know it may hinder my chances 
…)
I know I may not have a good chance for most schools I mentioned above, but I wanna know roughly how hopeless I am in applying to them. Appreciate all comments! And also, if there are any suggestions as to where else I should apply, it would be great!
SAT is good enough. What’s your GPA? You’ll need more extracurriculars that relate to your subject choice, other than the chess thing. Also, essays can be the difference between a ‘maybe’ and a ‘yes’, so a “not bad?” won’t cut it.
I’d say cut down one or two reaches (these are: Stanford REA, Columbia, Princeton, Brown and maybe UC Berkeley) a bit and apply to one or two safeties.
@icarus29 I take the A Levels, so it is a different system from GPA. (hard to explain, but to put it vaguely, it is not the best but it is a decently competitive score. perhaps not up to top schools’ standards, but I hope to make up for it in other segments.)
And also, I didn’t know that extracurriculars had to relate to subject choice? Because I thought many end up changing their majors from their intended one anyways, and that schools like a varied, diverse student body with unique interests that may not have to be related to a major. But if so, I guess I can’t do anything about that.
My essays I believe are pretty good, but I don’t think I’m a good judge of it and only admission officers would know + opinions would vary amongst AOs as well so no point speculating.
Yes I understand a lot of the schools I indicated are reaches. I already have a few safeties but I’m mainly interested in how my chances would be like for those schools I mentioned. I’m planning to cut down on that list and I would like advice as to which I should cut, and perhaps any replacement options and just any general advice. Thanks!
@holdthedoor ECs don’t “have to” relate to your major, it’s just a bit weird to me that your main ECs are only sports and I don’t see any connection to CompSci in the information you’ve mentioned. Just saying, because CompSci is a very competitive major.