I am currently sophomore and ended last semester with a B in regular chemistry. I am taking 2 honors classes and AP World and got As in everything except chemistry. How much do you think a B will hurt my chances of getting accepted to highly selective universities? I am not planning to go into a STEM related major, but I am still concerned about my B in chemistry because it was a regular class, not honors.
The first thing that hurts is not understanding what highly selective colleges look for, beyond stats. Skip the 2nd hand info and go directly to their web sites.
How your B affects depends. Besides major, it can matter how much competition applies from your local area. Also, what makes you what they want and need, whether you have any special attributes or talents, any hook, how well you actually present yourself in the app and supps, including any “why us?” sorts of questions.
And get some experience related to your potential major, not just in your hs.
Since you’re just in 10th grade, you have plenty more time before you start applying to colleges. The selective colleges are going to care the most about junior and first semester senior year, since those classes will likely be your most advanced.
One B will not kill your chances. There are plenty of kids who every year get into top colleges without a perfect 4.0GPA. What gets them in is their story, their essays, their LORs, and those personal characteristics that top schools want to see in their applicants.
to be honest, it’s so much more than that. I just got a B in regular chem first semester as a junior with other challenging classes that pertain to what I want to pursue in college, and did well in those. my circumstances were a bit different, considering that I wanted to go for honors chem, but since I transferred into the school kind of late from a year round school, the only class that they thought was “too far ahead” for me to jump into was the honors chem, but it shouldn’t be a deal breaker for you or me, and especially since you don’t want to go into a STEM-related major! a transcript is only a fraction of what highly selective and holistic colleges are looking at. best of luck 