<p>Recreating thread on a more active forum.
I am a freshman in college. I will be starting to attend a community college in FLORIDA because my parents said if I want them to pay for a private/out of state school I'd have to go to community college first, so thats what I did.
I wish to be a physics major and work/live in California and I am looking at schools like the top UCs, USC, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, CMU, Stanford. I wish to know what classes should I take and what GPA to aim for, what professors to befriend, how to get scholarships, as well as what to do about extra-curricular.
In high school my GPA was 3.8 unweighted, all honors classes, 29 ACT, no ECs. I am attending the honors program (Free Tuition) at my community college.
I also don't know how to approach the Foreign Language requirement that is required in USC (and maybe others), since in High School I struggled with that and that brought down my gpa.</p>
<p>UCs have very specific transfer requirements that can be found here:
[University</a> of California - Admissions](<a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/transfer/tr_adm_reqs.html]University”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/transfer/tr_adm_reqs.html)
Highest possible grades are needed for admission into the top UCs.</p>
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<p>I don’t know the rigor of your particular community college, but I would wager you would need about a 4.0 to be able to transfer to most of the schools you mentioned. Since you intend to major in physics, clearly you would have to take as advanced physics classes as you can, also mathematics. Through this I would assume you would get to know those professors, who would best be able to comment on your physics ability in a recommendation. As for extracurricular, anything relating to physics or physics research would of course be beneficial.</p>
<p>Another idea for an EC - volunteer with a local high school club.</p>