I’m an applicant from India in the CBSE curriculum as well, but I’m a year older than you so I’ve finished my applications and am now waiting for results (as well as trying to study for my boards ?). My stats are similar to yours, 1550 SAT, 800 sat math level 2, 760 French and 780 literature, 9.7 GPA across high school and 97.2 percent 10th board (btw your 10th score doesn’t matter more than 9th and 11th and 12th half yearly, even tho these are not at all important in India. So you need great grades throughout your transcript.) Your extracurriculars look great as well, remarkably similar to my own except I’m grossly untalented at athletics. And don’t try to improve your SAT score since I saw you mentioned that somewhere. After you cross 1500/1550 nobody cares and it won’t increase your chances if the score is a few points more.
I know how you feel, since in the Indian curriculum stats are given great importance and when you get a 1500+ SAT score you immediately think Ivy League, and that’s the only thing Indian relatives understand and give importance to lol
But having gone through months and months of research and firsthand experience and talking to career counsellors, I have a much better view of the whole picture. It may seem extremely unfair, but your financial need will put you at a great disadvantage. That’s just how it is, since most schools are need blind for only US citizens. So my Indian friends who were born in the US and have citizenship there have an exponentially higher chance of acceptance at many unis even tho we have the same education same stats and same paying capacity. The schools you’ve mentioned, while need blind, are suuuuuper selective and have a >1% acceptance rate for internationals. But you should for sure take your chances there, because they’re so selective that it almost becomes a lottery and you never know ?
However, don’t bother applying to UC Berkeley. Or any other UC or public universities for that matter, since they give zero aid to out of state/internationals. So UCs will only give aid to California residents mostly. That would truly be a waste of application fee bec 20,000 dollars is very low compared to the tuition fee at UC.
I would also recommend you look at other lower ranked but still great schools with higher international acceptance rates and financial aid. It’s a long process but I know a lot now and I could list a few if you want but I’m not entirely sure what you’re looking for. A school doesn’t have to be need blind, and still give good aid so do your research. In The Ivy League itself, you might have better chances at Cornell but financial aid is a problem unless you luck out with the Tata Scholarship for Indians. I’m also aware that it might be a situation where you’ll either go to places like Harvard Princeton or stay at home and go to an IIT or something. If that’s the case then well, apply to Harvard and Princeton but just know to not expect a lot.
Also, know that when you google the acceptance rate for an uni, it’s for all applicants and the international acceptance rate is muchhhh lower. Schools give preference to their own citizens first, even when it’s not a question of financial aid. You should look at the published CDS data for each uni and see the number of internationals to get an accurate picture. And find out which unis alumni from your school have gotten into with good aid. Also, consider applying Early Decision to a place where you have reasonable chances bec it really boosts your odds of getting in.
Whoa, that was long but I just really empathise with you so ?? good luck!