Is it too late for a good school?

Also by top schools i mean MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley, UMich, UIUC, CUBoulder, UTAustin, GeorgiaTech, UCLA, Cornell, Princeton, etc...

By now I dont have much hope for the first four, but maybe the others I could get into?

And would performing summer research at a university help chances to get admitted there?

Start talking/emailing admissions departments of schools you are interested in, and just be frank with them. Tell them your interest, and yet your insecurities of the situation. Talk to your current school about your options.

Don't go to top schools. There's a strange wave of poison passing through academia, and the famous ones are the biggest targets.

Especially don't do Ivy League. They became famous in the first place by playing football, and they only held onto that fame by being picky about who they admit. They might admit you, but it's not going to promote you into the elite class and the non-elites are just going to think of you as a trust fund baby.

What's more important, the name or the qualifications? Do what you gotta do to get the qualifications.

Just like dating or jobs or buying things, you're supposed to weigh multiple options. Send out a bunch of applications to varying places, and make your choice after you've gotten your responses.

Also: don't go to school in California, even if you live there. Hell, especially if you live there. If you were born and raised in CA then treat university as your one big chance to escape. Apply for jobs all over the country after you graduate, and go live where you're hired.

>>18294579
Yeah I probably won't go to any of the California schools unless they are my last chance.

>>18294569
Okay I will email a few and see how they respond. By current school do you mean my major adviser or maybe the career/grad school advisers or both?