<p>Assuming you NOT talking about Law/Business/Med school (which are all peculiar special cases of grad school)…</p>
<p>First, there is no difference in admissions to Ivy grad schools vs. anywhere else. In many fields, the Ivies are definite “also rans” - you’d be foolish to take Harvard over say, the University of Michigan in most engineering fields. All are very competitive - admit rates at any top program will be in the 5-8% range.</p>
<p>There is no pre-defined “safe” GPA anywhere. A guy with a perfect 4.0 and 800/800/6 GRE could well be rejected because of poor research skills for example. You should aim for the highest possible GPA. Depending on your major and the programs you’re looking forward to, anything from 3.4 on up will be fine. Some fields will be more competitive than others and that’s where your research and LORs will help you most. Overall GPA and GPA in major will be most important. By your senior year you’ll be taking mostly high-level courses in your major anyway (unless you save a couple electives to even things out).</p>
<p>No there’s nothing like AP, though one can often take graduate level courses “with permission of instructor”. Your school will have a standard procedure for that sort of thing. </p>
<p>Research depends on your major and what you’re looking for in grad school. I’m a Classics major looking at Classical Archaeology. I was lucky (and persistent) enough to get funding for a trip to Pompeii to survey some little rooms called “cellae meretriciae”. The paper that came out of that will be submitted for publication after this semester (I also managed to turn it into an independent study course). </p>
<p>In most sciences/engineering fields there will be fairly formal programs for undergrad research. You want to look for things like “Honors Thesis” or “Senior Research Project”. Your department is the place to ask that question.</p>
<p>Yes, Junior is 3rd year.</p>
<p>SOP - this is a short essay that you write that explains why you want to attend a particular graduate program, what your intended specialty will be and why you are an excellent fit at that program.</p>
<p>Very few universities publish statistics on grad school admissions. The Ivies, being private schools, are particularly bad about it. You can get some information from their websites, but its very hit-or-miss. As you get further in your education, you’ll be able to talk with your professors about grad school and they will have a very good idea of where you will fit well and what the “real” chances are at a particular school.</p>
<p>Which leads me to - FIT. You will be spending 5-8 years getting a PhD so personal fit with a department is VERY important. Grad school is a much more personal operation than undergrad or highschool. So focusing in on 8 east coast schools (some of which will probably NOT be exceptional in your field) is well, crazy. </p>
<p>For example, if you are looking at hard sciences, you should also be looking at the California system and many of the huge state universities in the mid-west. My field, Classics, used to be topped by Harvard, but Berkeley is probably #1 these days, with Michigan, Chicago, and Texas up there as well (and yes, Princeton, Yale, and Brown are in the top 10 also).</p>
<p>There is a pretty good book called “Getting What You Came For” that explains the grad school process in fairly good detail. It is ludicrously out of date in terms of computer usage, but the other details are good.</p>
<p>For now, focus on getting the best grades possible and getting to know your professors. And have some fun - this might be your last chance for quite a while!</p>