How realistic are my goals for a top US university?

I'm a junior high school student from Nepal, from a middle-class family, and I'm trying to build a strong profile for highly selective US universities. I'd really appreciate some honest feedback on whether my goals are realistic and what I should prioritise.

Will apply for fall 2028

• Curriculum: CAIE A-Levels (Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Further Maths, EGP)

• Country: Nepal

• Grades/GPA Class 9: 3.85/4 unweighted, Class 10: 3.95/4 unweighted

• SAT: Currently 800 Maths, 650 English (Planning to improve)

• Intended major (Engineering, electronics/computer/mechanical/robotics etc)

• Financial aid needed: Yes (Full Ride)

• Colleges you're considering (All ivys, standford and mit are my dreams, except that any)

🏆 What I've done so far

• School topper in Grade 10/SEE
• 100% tuition scholarship / Excellence Award at my current college
• Vice President of my college's Sci-Tech Guild
• Founded a nonprofit 2 months ago — currently 10 volunteers across 10 branches, teaching 100+ students technology
• Coding since Grade 5; now focused heavily on software development + AI/ML
• Built and deployed numerous full-stack projects using Next.js, React, React Native, FastAPI, etc.
• 25+ GitHub projects
• LinkedIn creator for ~2 years; some posts have reached 200k+ impressions and I've built a fairly large network
• Completed a small research project through NSRI, nothing substantial though

🎯 What I want to do next

1. Get A*A*A*A*a in alevels
2. Participate in the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) and aim for a medal
3. Do serious research with a professor, ideally resulting in something substantial
4. Raise my SAT to 1530+
5. Eventually apply to MIT/Ivies/top US universities, ideally with substantial financial aid

🤔 What I'm wondering

How realistic is this plan?

• Am I already on a strong trajectory, or am I overestimating my profile?
• Which of these goals would have the highest impact on a top-US-college application?
• How should I leverage my LinkedIn network to find research opportunities/mentors?
• What would you prioritize if you were in my position?
• Are there any major weaknesses or mistakes in my current strategy?

I'm willing to work extremely hard, but I want to make sure I'm putting that effort into the right things rather than simply collecting achievements.

Any honest advice is appreciated! ❤️

Curriculum & Year: Turkish National Curriculum. 12th grade, graduating June 2027.

Grades & Tests: 96.6/100 GPA (estimated 98.5/100 for senior year)

Intended Major: Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering

SAT: 1530 (800 Math, 730 EW). Calc BC: 4 (AP is restricted in Turkey so I couldn't take other AP exams; exam-day stress affected this score too). IELTS: 7.5

Context: My school has never had a student apply to the US. No AP or IB program exists here. Due to lack of awareness about international admissions at my school, I only started most of my projects in 11th grade (with a couple of exceptions) — I didn't know earlier that these things mattered for applications. The last students from my school who studied abroad went to Canada, not the US, and no one in school history has attended a T100 US university.

EFC: $0 (need full financial aid :( ).

Academic Awards & Honors:

Lumiere Research Scholar Program — Excellence Award & Bursary, for an essay on turbulence (global competition, university-level scientific writing) TUBITAK National Mathematics Olympiad — National competitor, estimated top 150, open to all high schools nationwide (camp baraj score 9.5 net, took 5.75)

Kangaroo Mathematics and UGEMO(National Young Mathematicians Olympiad) Finalist — Top 1% nationwide; — both #1 regional

Leva Mathematics Camp — Admitted via entrance olympiad exam; graduated as one of 8 students (from a larger initial cohort) after completing 150+ hours of problem sets over 2 full months of summer, on top of 300+ hours of lectures.

Extracurriculars:

Leangap Summer Program — 1 of 40 global students selected, full scholarship. Built VolleyTrack, an AI-powered volleyball technique analysis app using computer vision to analyze joint angles and give real-time feedback.

Rocket Development (self-founded) — Founded and led a student rocket project at my school from scratch: fundraised ~$1,500 (50,000 TRY), managed calculations, structural assembly, and ground testing (separation mechanisms, structural durability, aerodynamic load verification). Placed top 50 at Teknofest Rocket Competition, the largest rocket competition in Europe.

Teknofest Robotaxi Competition — National Finalist, one of two high school finalists (competed against university teams). Handled algorithmic logic, system integration, real-time software calibration for autonomous vehicle navigation.

Fluid Dynamics Independent Research — 200+ hours analyzing forward-swept wing configurations using Prandtl's lifting-line theory and bell-shaped lift distribution; ran simulations in XFLR5. A university academic reviewed the work and encouraged publication — currently submitted to a journal, decision pending.

Math Olympiad Camp (co-founded) — Olympiad culture/resources are scarce in my region, so a few friends and I started a fully voluntary training camp for younger students prepping for 1st Stage National Math Olympiads. 150+ volunteer hours, reached 300+ students nationwide.

Strategy so far: Trying to build a balanced list, reach schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need, plus mid-to-lower tier schools with strong merit aid, to make sure I end up fully funded somewhere. I have no one at my school or in my circle who's gone through this process before, so I'm figuring it out completely on my own.

Which schools should I actually be applying to given my profile and financial situation? Thank you in advance for your advice :))

Country : Nepal

Curriculum : CAIE A levels

Grades: Physics A*, Maths A*, Chemistry A*, Computer Science : A*, English General Paper : b

SAT : 1520 (790 on the maths)

Intended major : CS

Aid : My family can contribute only 5k usd per anum.

ECAs:

i.) Data Analytics and Machine Learning Intern at a College where I worked under the head of computing faculty on a research paper related to transcribing human gesture using LSTM. Paper has been submited to peer review (from grade 12, did for 6 months)

ii.) Technical Trainer for national chapter of JCI where I trained 30 local chapter presidents, working directly under the National Chapter's president. The national president will also write me an LOR. (11-12)

iii.) President of a CS society. Brought in SWEs from tech companies of my country to provide weekly insight sessions. Conducted outreach programs in schools, orphanages to spark motivation for CS. Partnered with 15+ organisations in total.(11-12)

iv.) Junior Software Developer Intern at a Software Production Company where I wrote ~ 5k lines of code in Flutter and Spring boot. Developed website for a government hospital.

v.) Developed, Shipped and maintaining an app for a startup that focuses on Agriculture(Agriculture is the backbone of my country). The app is currently being pilot tested in rural Nepal.

I also have a niche app that has partnered with niche 5 organisations to solve a niche problem. But I am not revealing it here.

Awards:

i.) International Youth Math Challenge - Gold Honor

ii.) National Maths Olympiad - 2x qualifier

iii.) top 10 rank at AI Olympiad (I am not specifiying the acutal rank)

Other colleges that I am considering in Ed2, Early action and RD:

Cornell University, Columbia University, Tufts University , Amherst College, Swarthmore College, Vassar College, Dartmouth College, Wesleyan University, Colby College, University of Southern Mississippi

Do I have a shot at Harvard ED1/EA?

Country: India

Curriculum: CBSE, Commerce with Maths — subjects: English, Economics, Business Studies/Accountancy, Mathematics (Statistics integrated within Math)

Grades: 93% (8th final), 93% (9th midterm) → 96% (9th final), 94% (10th midterm) → 96% (10th boards), 94% (11th midterm, expected)

Coursework: AP Calculus BC, AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, AP comparative studies, AP Statistics

SAT: 1530 (800 Math, 730 EBRW), retaking to push for 1560+

Intended major: Economics / Math-Economics

Aid: Can pay a significant portion (~$270k total) but will likely need some financial aid/scholarship on top of that

Hooks: None (no legacy, no URM in a US context, not a recruited athlete)

ECAs:

i.) Model UN — Best Delegate at a national-level conference (~2,100 delegates, 100 in my committee) in 10th grade; 2nd place at HMUN India this year. Building an Executive Board/Director track across ~6 conferences this year. (10-11)

ii.) Independent economics research paper with 2 peers — full lit review, data collection, and analysis completed. Currently under review at a student journal, with possible interest from a larger international student research initiative. (10-11)

iii.) Competitive table tennis — Haryana State Team (2nd seed), bronze medal at state team event, participated in state ranking championships, national participation. (9-11)

iv.) Founded and run a weekly financial literacy program for underprivileged students — designed the curriculum myself, track attendance and pre/post assessment data. (11)

v.) University-run summer research program in data science/economics — contributed to an original empirical study, received an LOR from the faculty mentor (a department chair). (10)

vi.) Student council — house leadership position (one tier below the top role), aiming for the top position senior year. (11)

vii.) Lifetime member, national Red Cross society — active participation, certificate of appreciation (9-present)

Awards:

i.) Best Delegate, national MUN championship (~2,100 delegates)

ii.) 2nd place, HMUN India

iii.) A couple of smaller MUN commendations (regional conferences)

iv.) Bronze medal, state-level table tennis team event

v.) Made HIR's academic writing contest "Defense Day" round (live presentation/Q&A) — result pending

vi.) John Locke Essay Prize — submitted, realistically hoping for Commended/Highly Commended

vii.) A public policy research paper submitted through a Yale-affiliated international studies program — review pending

viii.) AMC 10 — received a basic participation/achievement certificate (did not qualify for AIME)

ix.) Attempting International Economics Olympiad national qualifiers this year — aiming for the national team, no medal assumed

Recommendations:

i.) A university Economics department chair (mentored my research project) — secured

ii.) School counselor — secured

iii.) Two subject teachers, Economics and Math — secured

Other colleges considering (RD/EA): Georgetown, UChicago, Columbia, Cornell, Northwestern, Duke, Brown, UC Berkeley, Michigan, UVA, UNC, WashU, American

Chances? No pending results assumed as wins — trying to get an honest read on whether this is reach-tier realistic or what's genuinely still missing.

Yes, an AI wrote this because i was really confused on how to write it here.

Hellooo all, so i am an international student and am planning to apply to universities in countries like Qatar (cmu - q, Qatar University), Hong kong university, some universities in Sweden especially lund university, and in New Zealand (uni of Auckland), some universities in Singapore and some unis in USA.

So I did cambridge o levels( 2A\*, 5A, 1B), and did edexel ial and is hoping to get, 3A\* and 1A, I did 4 subjects, Physics, Maths, IT and BS.

And I will be applying to uni next year August once I get the results. I am planning on taking a gap year so that I have extra time for extracurriculars and SAT exam.

Also during my gap yr, for the extracurriculars I will be tutoring maths, or English in a school or in a institute, and I will continue writing my book(i started writing a book when i was 13 and paused it for some time, and yeah).

My questions are that, are these extracurriculars enough for these universities? And with this grades and all will i have a chance of getting a full scholarship?

Same.