I am a sophomore student in an American rural high school. I am interested in going to college for Physics and eventually astronomy. I scored a 34 on the ACT and a 1380 PSAT (both cold-turkey, definitely retaking, didn’t have calculator for PSAT). My weighted GPA (out of 5) is a fat L, 3.95. For sports, I play tennis, ski, and play soccer. I’m not good enough to play in college at any of them. I have played violin for 9 years, and am pretty good, I play in an adult chamber orchestra, and one at a nearby college. I have played piano for 7 years, am fairly decent, don’t play anywhere consistently. I also play saxophone and sing in school. I have done some theater. I am involved with the American Legion in my area, and plan on competing in the oratorical next year. I volunteer with a junior branch of the rotary club. My socioeconomic background is average, and I am planning on going to school on an AFROTC scholarship(only partly for money). I am wondering how I can refine my resume for a high end school, like CalTech or MIT.
You’re doing a lot of great things. Keep up the good work. However the statistics point towards other great schools that would offer the same majors and with terrific reputations.
For Caltech and MIT you would need to be at a much higher gpa and/or test scores to be competitive. If you had a perfect sat and perfect subject tests in physics and math for instance. That could help to offset your gpa especially if it’s on a real upward swing. Also class rank and relative class rigor. The two schools you have chosen are notoriously difficult to get into, even for students with near perfect stats.
So look for several others and have a back up school or two you really like also.
Caltech is especially known for taking high GPA/high scores so that will be difficult with your GPA.