I am a Indian student studying in a small private school in a small city.
I am In class 10th and have a GPA OF 95 (out of 100 scale) In 9th, aiming for getting around 95 in 10th too.
Extracurriculars.
I have been in visual arts since I was in class 5th so I have won multiple inter-house and Inter-school competitions, this year I got 1st rank in senior category in the biggest regional competition In which over 20 schools contested.
I made a project on conservation of biomass and energy which got selected on district level under Inspire Manak Award.
I am Vice Captain of a house in our school so I am a member of school cabinet.
I started playing badminton giving 1-2 hours per day, 6 days a week.
5 I have participated In multiple inter-house debate and declamation competitions and won multiple prizes.
I contested in Space Olympiad and got first rank in whole school , got first rank in class in Science Olympiad.
I have been in multiple street plays as a volunteer.
Can I get Into an Ivy? And what are the schools I should consider applying?
I want to get into an Ivy because of the culture and the alumni network and there are multiple things that I loved In particular about some Ivy’s like Yale and Upenn. Yeah I have looked at multiple colleges in US and I will be applying for those but I was just curious If my extracurriculars are acceptable in Ivy because they are one of the most competitive schools. And I will be applying for financial aid so I want to try to get in a need blind school.
You may want to take a look at the Brown RISD dual degree program. Brutally hard to get into but ticks several of the boxes you appear interested in.
In terms of do you have a chance at any and all Ivies…
If you can narrow down your focus as to why a specific school makes sense and reflect that in your applications while staying on the strong academic and EC trajectory you are on you are a very strong candidate.
I think that you should read the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions website. Of course MIT is not in the Ivy League, but it is similar in terms of overall ranking and difficulty of getting accepted and the same approach is good for the Ivy League schools.
The point as I understand it is to do do what you want to do, and do it very well. This is what I did to get into MIT (for my bachelor’s) and Stanford (for my master’s). So far it also sounds like it is what you are doing also. Even if this does not get you into Harvard or Brown, you still will have done what was right for you.
Also, try to understand the differences between the Ivy League universities and other top ranked universities, keep your budget in mind, and make sure that you apply to at least two safeties.
You might want to also think about whether you would be interested in a smaller school such as a Liberal Arts College. You should also look carefully at your local universities.
You are young. It seems to me that you have been doing very well so far.
The most important thing for you to find an affordable safety in your home country when the time comes. It’s easy to identify bright, shiny reach schools, but if you need a lot of financial aid, it is difficult to be admitted to a school that will meet your full financial need.
I think that you might want to wait a year. In the mean time think about what you want in a college or university. Do you want a large school or a small school? What sort of location do you want to be in? What sort of climate can you handle? What are you likely to want to major in?
To give you something to think about: One daughter attended a small school (approximately the Canadian equivalent to what in the US we call a “liberal arts college”). Her first semester freshman year she had two classes that each had 15 students or less. The largest class that she ever took over 4 years had 90 students. She got to know her professors which helped her to get research opportunities. My other daughter attended a larger university which had larger classes but a much wider range of majors. She ended up with two majors (two different bachelor’s degrees) both in a major that the first smaller school did not even offer. She also was able to take advantage of the larger school’s having a farm within a couple of miles of campus. In general smaller schools are likely to have smaller classes taught by full professors, but larger schools will have more resources and a wider range of majors available. The availability of unusual resources such as a farm, a nuclear research facility, or a library dedicated to music is going to vary greatly depending upon which university you attend. Of course there is a much wider range of unusual facilities that some universities will have and some will not.
Cornell for example has 25,000 students and is in a snow belt. I was visiting one time when it got at least two feet of snow in one day. Stanford has 17,000 students on a huge campus in a suburban area in a warm climate and to the best of my knowledge it has never snowed there (when I got my master’s there it did not rain either). Dartmouth College has 6,000 students in cold rural small town New Hampshire. Harvard University is right in the middle of a city with lots of restaurants and things to do right there (when you are not busy studying). Harvard and Stanford are also close to large airports with international flights which might make flying home easier than it might be if you are at a more remote location.
What you want to major in will matter quite a bit. One relative graduated with a degree in dance. I would not go to MIT for dance nor would I attend Julliard to study mathematics. From your original post you appear to be interested in and good at quite a few different fields. Different universities will be better for different potential majors.
This is also important. Finding an affordable safety in your home country is much more important than finding a good fit among reach schools where you have a 1% chance of admissions (and that only because you are an exceptionally good student).
My family earns like around 30 grand are willing to give me 100% support and will pay as much as they can offer. I was also thinking about some loans if I am not able to get the financial Aid.
I have heard (and you should confirm) that the top schools in the US source from particular schools in India. And they each take at most single digit number of kids each year. The numbers are likely larger if you pick a school like Purdue. So you need to assess what the feeder schools are in India (if indeed there are feeder schools) for the college you care about before spending and enormous amount of effort going through the application process.
How will they pay $15,000 a year if their income is $30,000 a year? Are you really asking them to spend half of their income annually to send you to college? Please think of your family, please.
At this point, you have no junior year if high school GPA, and you have no standardized test scores. Chancing you is a shot in the dark.
Yeah there are couple of feeder schools in our country but I can’t go there because of the distance from my place and my parents are not really willing to send me there.