I have an 8 on my IELTS test and an average of 8 CGPA. What things I need to appear for the committee of Harvard University of California University of Illinois?

Question

How can I be more appealing to the admission committees of elite school irrespective of the COVID situation at my place. I have been volunteering and teaching simultaneously.

Nikhil Agarwal · Accepted Answer

Harvard has long been one of the toughest institutions in the country to get into, and things are only getting worse. Out of the 57,435 applicants, Harvard accepted just 1,968 students, resulting in a record-low acceptance rate of 3.43%. Although Harvard has a low acceptance rate, your admission prospects rely on your profile's strength.
Academic background of Accepted Harvard Students
GPA
The 2025 Harvard class's average high school GPA is 4.22; 75.76% of the class graduated with a 4.0.
SAT/ACT
The 2025 Harvard class's median SAT, and ACT scores are 1460-1580 and 33-35, respectively.
Great grades and exceptional standardized test scores are insufficient to impress admissions authorities at elite colleges like Harvard because practically every applicant has an impressive academic background. Being the applicant they are searching for can help you stand out from the competition.
Harvard, for instance, prioritizes the admission of students who have made an impact in their community through voluntary and charitable work or leadership over those with perfect academic records. Harvard values students who are involved in the community and have shown leadership. Students can display these attributes in their supplemental writings and extracurricular endeavours.
Harvard strongly emphasizes intellectualism, especially in the social sciences and humanities. Candidates with unique academic backgrounds who have coupled their academic interests with research, fieldwork, and other extracurricular engagement will stand out from the competition.
Admission to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is not simple. Only 27,520 of the 43,473 applicants for the Class of 2025 were accepted by UIUC in 2021, resulting in a 63% acceptance rate.
Although UIUC has a low acceptance rate, your prospects of acceptance hinge on how strong your profile is.
Academic background of accepted University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students, on average
GPA
50% of the middle 50% of Students accepted to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign had a GPA of 3.50 to 2.94 during the previous three years (using an unweighted 4.0 scale).
SAT/ACT
The class of 2025 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign had middle 50% SAT and acted scores of 1220-1450 and 27-33, respectively.
Illinois residents in considerable numbers attend the state-funded University of Illinois Urbana-Chicago. About 5,835 of the 8,303 first-year students enrolling at UIUC in the Class of 2025 are from Illinois, making up about 70% of all in-state students.
But don't imagine having so many in-state students makes the campus uniform. Students of the Class of 2025 come from 44 different states and 44 different countries. The Class of 2025 includes almost one in five members of underrepresented groups and nearly the same number of first-generation college students.
The National Center for Education Statistics reports that UIUC has the highest percentage of students of colour of any top-ranked Midwest institution.