   Good math, sci, & engineering universities...
  Hi,I''m a freshman in High School right now, and I''m a bit worried about how I''m going to do in the next four years...''My top choices for University are something like CalTech (numero uno), and I''ll just give MIT a shot (nearly impossible to get in).So I would like to hear from some people (and hopefully even some people in/been to CalTech/MIT)...on average, are most people accepted into these schools have accomplished something extraordinary before? I don''t think just taking the most rigourous courses in school cuts it anymore...Here''s what I''m taking so far, so you can gauge the probability of me even having a remote chance of being accepted:-Spanish 1-Pre Calculus H-English 1 Honors-Biology Honors-Model United Nations (replacement for Social Science)-BandAnd this is in Southern California, by the way...I reallllllly want to go to CalTech, but its freaking hard to get in...do I have to write a research paper on Quantum Mechanics or design the unbreakable cryptographic algorithm or something?:shivering in my clothes:Oh dear... 
  Just keep up the advanced courses in math, science and English and get good grades then maybe you''d be surprised at how achieveable MIT is. I know a couple guys from my school who went there last year. Being in Pre Cal as a freshman is damned good so just keep up the studying and stuff - you have four more years, don''t sweat it just yet.Personally, I think people of my generation (high schoolers) are taking things like high SAT scores and getting into the very top colleges a little too seriously.If you ever do write a research paper on quantum mechanics, that''d probably be your thesis for graduate or doctoral school. Like I said, don''t sweat it. Enjoy life, dude. ;  There''s also Carnegie Mellon, in Pittsburgh.I *visited* MIT when I was applying to colleges, but I didn''t like it much. Just my opinion though; I am hard to please.And I totally agree with Odoacer. Life is too short to be stressing out so much about school. All of my little brother''s friends are going through the same thing -- taking the SATs and biting their nails over whether or not they''re "smart enough" to get into college and cut it in the "real world" (a term I hate, by the way).But then again, having all of that over already may be biasing me a tad. 