Schools High School to University (Decent Grades, Crappy Extra-Curricular)

[steeleagle94]

I am currently a Junior in High School with a 3.94 GPA (unweighted). I am currently taking AP Physics B, AP Chem, AP Language, AP Calc AB, APUSH, Wind Ensemble. I would also like to note that I hail from the 6th least brainiest city in the world as reported by the Huffington Post. Because of our lack of drive for education, academic extra curricular activities are very limited in my high school. This limited my options to strictly non-mathematical clubs(as they were non-existent nor is there a demand for them) such as Speech and Debate (1st place in every competition I entered in for Speeches, Editorial commentaries, Formal/Values Debates etc.), Interact, and the Environmental club.
Being a part of poor Asian American parents (immigrants stripped of money by the archaic and bureaucratic immigration system, brokers, and etc, making less than 15k/a year) , we really had no resources to move anywhere else that provided a better education for me after we had been (more or less) fooled into moving into this seemingly backwards society.
I am now finally taking everything into my own hands and have arranged my self to enter science fairs 60~200 miles away and have created a pilot program in which mathematics would be taught to middle schoolers and HS Freshmen. However, I lack in "general" volunteer hours, knowledge in programming and a stellar SAT score (sophomore PSAT score result were +200 ≈ +2000 points in SATs)
I am not brilliant, but I have had this dream to become a nuclear physicist since 4th grade. My dream is to be able to attend MIT but I have doubts if my dream is probable at all. So I was wondering what is a realistic goal for me? State Univ Engineering programs? Also, if it s possible, what can I do to maximize my probability of going into MIT so I can be nuclear physics/fusion program as I really want to be on the cutting edge.I thank you for your time.

 

[Pengwuino]

The thing to realize is that it really doesn't matter much if you go to X big name university vs. Y big name university. The best way to shoot yourself in the foot is to say "I MUST go to this university" when there are probably at least a dozen other schools as good or almost as good as MIT. Do you see yourself going to graduate school?

 

[steeleagle94]

I definitely see myself going to graduate school. I also realize that there schools as good as MIT but the ideas presented by MIT the wealth of creativity and knowledge seems not to be found at other universities at least not for me. (I'm a firm believer in social osmosis XD)