Hi, I’m an italian senior in highschool, and this year I have applied to some of the most prestigious schools in the US, since I didn’t see the point to go abroad to study in a school that has the same opportunities as the italian ones. Anyways, I’m writing this topic to get a little “reality check” on what are my actual chances of getting in these schools (we are talking ivys, duke and such), so I’ll talk a little about myself and hence my application. I’ll start by saying the two main weeknesses of my app: I have applied for aid and I have not sent my test scores since it’s hard to take the SAT in italy, I know, yikes. Moving to the good part: I’m graduating at the top of my class with a letter of congratualations from the dean, I’m a twice published narrative author with a good response from the general pubblic, won several international writing competitions, I’m a classical pianist with some composing and performance on my back, I have worked with graduates and Phds on their researches (I’m naturally curious), I have worked as a counsultant on the creation of a series of psychometrics tests with some psychologists (I wanna major in neuroscience), I’ve worked as an art director in a game developing studio, built computers, coded the simulation for a rocket and created a chess playing AI on which I also wrote a paper which is going to be published on a major scientific magazine. Plus I’m blue belt in judo but I don’t think they care much about that.
Thank you for your attention.
Its hard to estimate your chances. But in general for internationals, being at the top of your high school class (top 5%) is what they will be looking for. The top colleges always look for a mix of students from countries for diversity. The good news is that there aren’t that many students from Italy applying to the top colleges. Some countries like India and China have an abundance of applications.
Many of the US colleges outside of the Top 20 look for international students to balance their budgets. Reason being that they tend to admit internationals who are wealthy and who can pay in full. There are only a handful of US colleges which are need blind for internationals. Rest are need-aware. This means that they take into account your financial need when deciding to admit you. The less financial need, the better.
Good luck
I would say that you have as much a chance as any highly qualified Italian applicant who needs financial aid. Your application looks pretty strong, and if that is a peer-reviewed article, it is very strong.
So your application is about as strong as you could make it. However, the major count against you is out of your control: you are an international students who requires financial aid.
I would say, off hand, that you would likely be a top choice within that category (meaning international applicants who need financial aid), but that you should remember that the most popular colleges do not accept all that many students from within that category. You are lucky, though, that you are not from a country with a very large number of applicants, like India or China, or, from Europe, UK, Germany, and France.
Good luck - I am pretty sure that you will do well wherever you end up. My wife advised a number of students from Milan who did their PhDs and MSs in the USA. You have some of the oldest (well, actually, THE oldest) universities in the West, as well as some of the best.
thank you for your kind words, and just as a little curiosity: we actually do have the oldest university of the West, and it is in Bologna! In fact, the main reason that draws me to leave my country is the fact that it is still impossible to major directly in neuroscience (it’s only a MS course you can take after psychology), but other than that, there are some great schools here!
Sadly I applied knowing well that factor. In any case, only time will tell 
T20’s are hard but what you’ve done is really impressive so I don’t know exactly your chances, as t20s can often be luck, but I wouldn’t rule out your chance of getting into one or a few.