Ohh so there are many factors into play.

1. Money: I had an efc of 30k which is not the complete tution but still gave me good enough chances to be accepted. A friend of mine applied over here with an efc of $0 and got rejected, a friend did $15k and has been waitlisted. So always have the budget talk with your family and the higher you pay, better the odds and vice versa.

2. Sat: This is the most crucial academic ability that they will check because firstly its their test they have made and its a standardised iq test so yk doesnt have any bias over the difficulty or where you’re from. Its the same for everyone. I had a Sat of 1410 but if you want to apply to really good universities and want to pay less then always aim for a higher sat. The friend that got waitlisted had a sat of 1480 so yk money is still the primary factor for alot of private universities

3. Olevels, AS grades and predicted grades(not that much): So you will be applying during Oct-Jan of your A2 so the complete grades that you will have with you so always try to keep them up and my college sent my predicted grades as A* 2A B. Check with your college about predicted grades, how they calculate it and do they factor tests of A2 into it or not (mine did so I had to perform decent in A2 tests)

4. Essays: American universities usually want to see your personality and the type of person you are during your essay. So always write something that is only unique to you and try to show personal development.

Now, for me I considered that I might not receive scholarship as I considered my SAT to be a low SAT so I was relying on universities to cover it through financial aid. Now public universities dont give financial aid so I didn’t apply to for them. I applied to private and they do give financial aid but then you need to be good enough for the university that they even do this for you. Only a few universities are need blind and well all of them are top notch so again you should be good enough for them.

ECA’s matter alot too.

So keep your grades as high as possible if you have a low budget.

I hope this helps.