<p>Science and math have never been my strong point, throughout my whole academic career. However I'm a passionate person when it comes to history and art. My high goal is to double major in art history and Egyptology (only offered to undergrads by Brown and Yale), but my more <em>realistic</em> goal is to double major in art history and archaeology (my favorite school is Wesleyan). </p>
<p>My GPA is certainly high, but I go to a ridiculously competitive school and compared to other students (focusing in sciences/maths) it's not that fantastic. There aren't many students here, at least the ones ranked near me and higher, that are into the humanities. </p>
<p>In regards to my transcript, if a college app reader knows I plan on focusing on humanities and sociology, will a not-so-wonderful math/science grade hurt me badly? I've never gotten below a B in my science courses but that has affected my GPA. </p>
<p>While not every student is a math/science kid, selective colleges such as Yale, Brown and Wesleyan seem to suggest that students NOT forego math and science for other courses they might be more interested in. </p>
<p>I imagine each college will review your application holistically. If your guidance counselor or one of your teachers says “malpal97 is not a math/science kid, but is much stronger in humanities” that might help to counter your lowish math/science grades. But those B’s will still be factored into your overall GPA . . . so not sure what you can really do about.</p>
<p>FWIW: At Yale, Brown and Wesleyan students are admitted as liberal arts majors and choose their major during their sophomore year. While Admissions asks about your “intended major,” Admissions understands that most students switch their major at least once during their 4 years of college, so colleges don’t hold you to what you write down on your application. And because most students graduate with a degree other than the one they wrote down as their “intended major” Admissions Offices can’t even use that information for recruitment purposes as the data doesn’t pan out when kids graduate.</p>
<p>@gibby thanks so much for the info! Ahhhh I’ll be in precalculus my senior year. Oh well I guess ://
I took challenging math and science my sophomore and junior year (hence Bs), but due to weird prereqs I did not make it into the college-credit honors level precalculus, so I will be in regular college prep precalc. And as far as physics goes, the only classes offered are the regular college prep and AP, I just cannot bare AP physics. Does this look absolutely horrible? </p>
<p>Another thing (sorry for all the questions!) I know that these schools don’t look too seriously at intended majors, but if I show how serious I am about it through ECs and perhaps something talked about in an essay/interview/recommendation, is that a plus? Thanks!</p>
<p>^^ It’s difficult to say how much demonstrated interest in a subject area would sway an Admissions Committee. Colleges suggest you take math and science every year; none of them say you have to take the AP version of the course though. So, I think college prep Physics would be fine. Talk to your guidance counselor though, as they will have to rate the rigor of your course load as compared to all other college bound students at your school in the Secondary School Report (SSR).</p>
<p>Having intellectual interests and pursuing them is a good sign of suitability for a top college, but they don’t expect you to specialize in hs. Having not so wonderful grades in math and science will hurt you at highly selective colleges where students are usually strong overall. They are not having trouble finding kids interested in humanities if that’s what you are getting at. If you have some extraordinary accomplishment that would help.</p>
<p>Realize that the Ivies are all just overgrown LACs and as such still follow the Liberal Arts ideal, where one is educated in all areas of knowledge. Some have gotten further away from that than others with the elimination of core courses, ranging from Columbia, where it’s still in full force, to Brown, with no cores at all. But in all cases, they like to see students come into the school with a full range of core courses - humanities majors should have some grounding in science and math and STEM majors should have some humanities courses.</p>