College selection for astrophysics: what GPA and test scores do I need?

[tyredstar]

Hey guys, I need some help with my colledge selection.
I am still a sophomore in High School but I would like to know what would be a good colledge to attend to become a Astrophysicist. (If you do post a colledge could you also post what my GPA should be to get into the colledge and what i should score on my ACT/SAT)

 

[fss]

Your GPA, ACT score and/or SAT score should be as high as possible. You will likely not specialize in astrophysics until graduate school, so you should probably concentrate on getting into a good undergraduate physics program first.

 

[mengshuen]

Astrophysics is usually a graduate field (i.e. PhD). To go onto astrophysics, Caltech, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and Stanford should be good choices.

Grades and test scores should be as high as possible, i.e. >3.9 unweighted and >2200 SAT.

 

[Nabeshin]

What you get out of an undergraduate education is much more a function of what you put into it than where your diploma comes from. There is a large degree of homogeneity in undergraduate physics/astronomy curriculum, owing I imagine to the textbook market, so wherever you go you will learn roughly the same things. Truth be told, there are some differences, so you should strive to do the best you can and if that happens to get you into an Ivy League, great! But if you do not make it to one of these "top tier" institutions, don't worry about it, since there is plenty of opportunity at other places as well.

Note: One thing that distinguishes different undergraduate universities is the availability and topics for undergraduate research. But of course, as a sophomore in high school you have no clue about this yet so it's not even worth worrying about.