<p>Currently, I am a physics major at Elmhurst College (going to be a sophomore). I have aspirations to go to grad school at Caltech. However, what does Caltech look at? Transcripts, gpa, where you went to school, and GREs. Do they care that I got my degree from Elmhurst College? Also, I was not a physics major my freshman year but I messed up rly bad my freshman year but I will do really well my remaining years. I want to go to Caltech's Astronomy program. What are my chances?</p>
<p>The single most important factors are: letters of recommendation from professors (typically a professor you did research with), relevant research experience, GPA + GREs.</p>
<p>Note: You need lots of research experience - the more the better. Get to know your professors; work in their labs, in the field that interests you.</p>
<p>Grad schools do care somewhat about where you went to college - it gives them a sense of the academic rigor.
But it doesn’t matter as much as the other factors</p>
<p>Be sure to do as much research as possible. Take a look at REUs and programs where you might be able to spend your summer perform research. The key is to demonstrate you have the ability to perform original research.</p>
<p>Schools are definitely factored in, but as others have said, they aren’t ridiculously important factors. I’m pretty familiar with Elmhurst, so I know that Elmhurst’s sciences cluster isn’t very notorious. Even then, take your sophomore status as an advantage and try to establish research ties with multiple professors. If you have solid research experience pertaining to your field of interest and professors that can back you up, your school isn’t anything to worry about. Summer research at outside facilities (you go to school in IL, so look into Fermi or Argonne) would also be advisable.</p>