<p>So at my school, I'm given a pretty broad amount of classes to choose from, of which i took great advantage of. For example, My major is political science, and i make my interest for law very evident in my app. So will admissions put greater emphasis on As in classes like political philosophy, logic, criminal justice, sociology, etc.. rather than Bs in math or science classes? </p>
<p>The ideal candidate is strong in all areas and takes the hard classes in all areas. Since you won’t be a STEM major, you obviously won’t be dinged for weakness in math and science, but you don’t do yourself any favors by not excelling in those areas either. Your top competition for top schools will have top credentials in all areas, so that’s what you’ll be up against. You might still make it, but you won’t be first pick unless you can make it up with great essays or ECs.</p>
<p>In high school you don’t have a major. Yes they will notice and I think it helps show your interests though your electives, though. But I think excelling in core classes is more important. You will specialize in college. HS general foundation courses are considered important. Some people are more lopsided than others, and that’s okay to some extent. It depends on how reachy your colleges are I suppose. What can I say?</p>
<p>First of all, the colleges will pay more attention to your performance on core subjects first. Sometimes, they only consider GPA from those core courses. So having Bs in core subjects may hurt your chance. Second, electives may demonstrate your interest particularly if you do good on them. However, that may have minimal impact on your admission. As most schools are not accepting students into specific majors/programs, they probably care less on your elective interest. For the schools that have direct admission into specific programs, having AP or SAT2 on relevant subjects would help if they consider those scores.</p>
<p>^^I agree. Selective colleges look for students who take the most rigorous core courses available to
them – that means they want to see students take English, Math, Science, History, and Foreign Language every year and do well in those courses. Electives matter, but not at the expense of top grades in core subjects.</p>
<p>I would say they would most strongly consider the grades related to your major, and a few core areas too.</p>
<p>I don’t know for sure.</p>
<p>
If that’s the case, you shouldn’t attempt to answer questions like this one.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what schools the OP is considering, but here are a couple of quotes from various college websites stressing the importance of overall strong performance in rigorous core courses – not just those relating to your intended major.</p>
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<p>@BrownParent, perhaps he means concentration? My D’s HS requires them to choose a path from among a list, and they must take X amount of courses in that path in order to graduate. Some of the kids refer to that as a “major”, when it’s really just a concentration.</p>
<p>@authormom Well my school doesn’t have majors or concentrations, however it is a dual enrollment program located on a college campus, so most students do take classes within their potential major. For example, my chem friends are taking Organic chemistry right now.</p>
<p>@glibby- There are few questions in the known universe that can be answered with 100% certainty. </p>
<p>if you’re doing Early College, then definitely colleges will notice. Much to everyone’s surprise (not), a great predictor of college success is… succeeding in college classes 
ie., if you got an A in a college class while in high school, odds are good you won’t flunk out freshman year and ruin the retention rate.
In addition, having an identifiable academic path showing coherent choices is a definite plus too.
As for the B’s, it depends where you expect to apply. Regular B’s in math/science won’t look very good if you apply to Princeton or Pomona, but won’t matter for your flagship if your GPA is good or won’t matter to colleges with holistic admissions who thus take rigor into account .</p>