I am currently a high school senior eager to graduate and begin my undergraduate studies. I am still not absolutely sure of my major. Though before I begin my undergraduate career, I would like to know all of the necessary efforts I should make to secure a spot at a top graduate program as I am certain that I will continue my education after my first four years. What are the most important things to accomplish during these first four years?
Working out what you are really, genuinely interested in, which means knowing enough about yourself and the subject to work out the difference between something that you like vs something that you want to do all day, every day for years to come. In general, it works best if most of the job requires aptitude in areas in which you are naturally pretty strong.
Obviously, taking the appropriate courses and keeping a very strong GPA are important, but after that it depends on what sort of graduate program you choose. For example, a STEM PhD application will be materially enhanced by summer research (such as REIs).
If you’re still in high school and don’t even know your major yet, it’s jumping the gun a bit to say you’re certain that you’ll go to graduate school. At this point, your best bet is to keep your grades up and start looking for opportunities outside of class. If you’re in STEM, look for research opportunities, for example. You don’t need to go to a top-10 undergrad school to get into a top-notch grad program, though. Go where you think you’ll have the most opportunities to succeed.
Agree with above.
In a nutshell: 1) figure out your passion / area of interest; 2) get top grades; 3) study and ace the entrance exam (top 90+ percent). Also remember that you can work and take time between HS and college and then between college and grad school. Top programs in law rely mainly on GPA and LSAT above 172. Top programs in business want experience, top grades, and GMAT. Top research programs want to see research experience, grades, GRE in top percentile. Med schools aren’t ranked (as far as I can tell from reading threads on CC) and to get into any med school you’ll need top grades, top MCATs, significant clinical or research experience or both so that they know you are truly driven by interest in the field and that you know what you’re getting into. The undergrad program is less important for these schools than you might at first believe.
Yeah, it may be that you don’t even need graduate school, and even then there are different kinds of graduate school, that require different things for entrance.
Med schools are ranked, but the ranking is relatively meaningless because all U.S. med schools are good and you can be a doctor from any of them.