Well, unfortunately here its more about bragging about having employees from Ivies and T20s, especially HYPSM.
A lot more than GW
Do you have options where you live if you donât get into a US college that you believe is prestigious enough?
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It sounds to me like despite the references to Industrial Engineering and the many other applications, you are really only interested in Ivies for Econ.
Anything is possible but unhooked admissions is very challenging to begin with, and then I think test optional makes it even more so. So you will just have to wait and see.
I do hope you have a good plan in mind if that does not work out.
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Congratulations on UIUC!
You should get into a couple of targets. Ivies/T10 are reachy: does your school have AP Calculus? What is your highest math? What AP sciences does your school offer that you have not taken?
You mention Penn âM&Eâ: do you mean the dual degree M&T(Engineering and Wharton)? If so, Stem background matters a lot.
yea my school offers ap calc but it overlaps with scheduling and other religion classes and ap physics classes, my highest math is calc. and yes I meant the dual degree engineering and wharton thingy ahaha
Yes, I honestly didnât have any hooks except for being Arab which is still white technically so nothing special idk tho lol.
The 5 on AP English helps, but I wish you had an AP calc score to go with it. A high test score is what is missing. I dont think you will get into an Ivy, but uiuc is great.
Youre lucky to have both US citizenship and Kuwaiti tuition benefits. You will have no trouble getting a good first job in the US, and after that, all that matters is that you can do the job.
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I imagine theyâd have even MORE bragging rights saying âwe recruited/stole that employee from Microsoft!â
Seriously - poaching from famous US companies is an even bigger deal.
And UIUC is that powerful and well-known for Engineering in the US. ALL big-deal companies and TNCs recruit there - Audi, Nestle, Cocacola, Amazon, Cargill, Apple⊠you name it and theyâre at the career fair or recruit interns.
Obviously you have to be good and do what it takes both in and outside of class but UIUC could be your ticket. 
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But you said no one from your country had gone to an Ivy in 12 years, so who are they hiring over UICU grads or other âno nameâ schools?
I donât think your chances are very good just basing it on a GPA of 4.2. Your ECs are good, and you have a lot of them, but so do all the other applicants to Harvard and BC and NYU, and many of them are submitting scores of 1550+/35. The competition is real.
For sure my GPA is on the lower side, however I explained in my application that it was something out of my control. We are forced to take Islamic Studies, Holy Quran, Arabic Language, and Arabic Social Studies and History for all 4 years of highschool which takes a lot of elective spots. Above all that, we are only confined to our last 2 years of highschool to enroll in AP courses, meaning that itâs impossible to even get a 4.3 at our school.
You asked, and I gave my opinion that the facts you listed in your original post are not going to make you stand out at Harvard, Yale, Penn. They receive over 40k applications, and Iâd bet half of them have 4.0 GPA, are officers of clubs or class officers, started a non-profit, athlete for 4 years, etc. The AO is asking âwhy should we take @deluluapplicant over another applicant who has a 4.0 but submitted high test scores?â And that just gets you moved to the âstill under considerationâ pile! From that pile they still need to get the 40k applicants down to 2K admissions. It is just a tough tough hill to climb.
I think (again, just my opinion) that the Islamic Studies, Holy Quran, Arabic etc. make you stand out more than a student who took Spanish, 4 extra APs, and revolutionary war history. Itâs interesting.
All you can do now is wait.
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Iâm no expert but this does feel unique. GW may be interested. Surprised Georgetown and middlebury werenât on the list
Wow this is such an interesting take! I truly appreciate your informative analysis. I was worried but I hope they understand that taking upon more AP courses is not an option because of those mandatory courses, once again thanks! 
Thank you!! Georgetown was unfortunately Test-required so I couldnât apply.
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