query efficiency

[supr_star]

Here's a simple query:

select name,status,min(dt), max(dt),count(*)
from mytable
group by name

I need an efficient way to get this data, along with the status of the row with 
the max(dt).  'status' is not in the group by, so I get apparently random 
statuses.  Is there any way to do this without a table join?  Or I guess the 
real question is:  What is the most efficient way of accomplishing this?  The 
table is huge, 25M rows or so, but I can create any indexes.