<p>well, other than penn state (university park), harvard, and berkeley, I would say the best undergrad astronomy schools are princeton, cal tech, and mit. berkeley and penn state are the least competitive for admissions out of all of those, but they're public, so I don't know how much financial aid you'd get. the others are pretty much a reach school for everyone. </p>
<p>penn state does have an honors college, schreyer's, that provides a $2500 scholarship per year if admitted, and in addition has a science scholarship you can apply for that would cover full expenses (give out 10 per year). the cutoff to apply for schreyer's is approximately 1350 on the sat. the astro dept's site is <a href="http://www.astro.psu.edu%5B/url%5D">www.astro.psu.edu</a> if you want more info, and schreyer's is <a href="http://www.scholars.psu.edu%5B/url%5D">www.scholars.psu.edu</a>.</p>
<p>as for the uk, cambridge is the best option. don't know too much about the other schools there, because I'd never be able to afford them, as I'm not an eu citizen.</p>
<p>grad school is a necessity when it comes to astro, and most people go on to get postdoctoral positions at universities, becoming either full-time researchers or professors who also do research. while the job market is not extremely large, I haven't heard of people have trouble finding positions.</p>