Explaining what you want to study, and how that specific college offers an exceptional department for it, was a technique that worked for my kid.
If you have a college nearby that offers French Lit classes, you might be able to take that for free, or nearly for free, just by asking, and get the college credit, too. My daughter took first a 300 level Spanish lit class at the nearby state college, and then a 500 level (grad school) class in cultural history of Spain (in Spanish) at that same nearby state college, for free, during senior year. All the colleges near us offered this, either officially or unofficially, most for free, but at one the student had to pay not tuition, but some fees.
My opinion…comparative literature is not an “unusual major” in college, and it’s not a hook. It might seem like it from your high school view, but it’s not so unusual in college.
Apply to a broad range of colleges…the highly competitive schools have very low acceptance rates. In the very high percentage of rejected students, there are plenty with excellent qualifications.
@User372623 one of the best reasons to study French is reading French literature (I still remember reading existentialist writers- start with L’Etranger- and poets like Lamartine, Baudelaire and Rimbaud). Of course Comparative literature is not limited to Western European writing.
I hope you can take a class or two in French literature before college, somehow, even if online. It must be hard to focus on that as a major without exposure to it in high school.
The study of comparative literature seems to present more of the attributes of a pursuit across departments and less those of a traditionally defined major — although colleges that do offer the major should be happy to see a student whose interests align with their programs.
Not commenting specifically on Ivy, even with perfect stats there is just a 6% chance of getting in. But, you will have a good chance at higher tier colleges, with less popular majors, so do your research. I know a 2.5 GPA who got accepted at Purdue for English.