Is there anyone out there who is currently attending MIT, Stanford, Ivies, Caltech- specially MIT or Harvard who is an international student without any major awards or international recognition who got accepted by these colleges?
All I’m looking for is an international student at MIT/Harvard who got nothing much on their applications except stellar scores, stellar recommendations and some non international ECA’s that they’re passionate about and not an IMO/IPhO winner?
Contrary to popular conception, at least half of international admits to MIT/Harvard/Yale/Stanford, etc. don’t have IMO/IPhO medals.
An IMO/IPhO equivalent medal is not the only metric of success colleges look for in international students. They don’t want to build an entire class full of hardcore math/physics problem solvers - they want to assemble a diverse class where students have interests and outstanding abilities in a wide range of areas, whether it’s in science outreach, research, activism, engineering projects, writing or performing arts.
(Source: Admitted to Caltech, Columbia & Yale without ever having taken part in an International Olympiad. A classmate who was accepted at Harvard spent a lot of time building cool things in his backyard, while another distant acquaintance (accepted at MIT & Harvard) was a hardcore cybersecurity geek - and these are just a few examples that pop immediately to my mind. I haven’t mentioned the tons of other people admitted with achievements in non-STEM fields, like acting or journalism).
@reuynshard I have heard that people with non olympiad ECAs do get in too. But the problem is, for the past few years all the people that have gotten into either MIT or Harvard have been IMO/IOI winners. That’s why I just had this enquiry in my mind. Thank you for your answer though 
They do exist, most people I know in those schools don;t have anywhere near those kind of awards
@florencewelch666 “But the problem is, for the past few years all the people that have gotten into either MIT or Harvard have been IMO/IOI winners.”
That’s completely false. In another thread, an MIT admissions officer said that around 40-50% of international students accepted to MIT had no olympiad distinctions whatsoever. That includes the international olympiads, national olympiads and regional olympiads. At Harvard, this number is probably around 75% because Harvard isn’t a STEM school like MIT.
Every single Ivy-Leaguer I know from my country (around 8 people) except for one (who won a regional olympiad) has no olympiad awards. Many don’t even have awards at all. It makes no sense for MIT to admit 120 olympiad medallists. They want to build a class.