Should I apply to college with my life passion or my academic strength?

I'm high school Junior.

For as long as I can remember, I have been endlessly fascinated by space and man's quest for exploring it. I also spend my free time building things and teaching myself how electronics work.

This lead me to my hope to be an aerospace engineer. However, in school I have A+ s in AP English and humanities classes as well as a 790 and 35 in English on SAT/ACT compared to A-/A s in AP Calc and AP Physics and a 730/32 in Math on SAT/ACT.

I'm wondering if my pursuing engineering, I'm selling myself short on college admissions chances. The thing is, my true passion is science and I much rather spend my life adding to humanity's knowledge than writing a best-selling novel. Any advice would be appreciated!

Great question.

Generally, if you are applying to college it is wise for practical reasons to go for an image of yourself that is most acceptable for the college. For example, when I was in college I wanted to either do finance (which I found later not to like as much) or be an entrepreneur. However, my mechanical strength was math and science. I applied to top universities as math and science and got it, and I feel I would have done a lot worse if I had applied to what I thought was my passion.

However, with your resume above, I wouldn't say that engineering or science would give you a better shot at getting in. Both seem like they would have similar chance of getting you in, so you should apply with your passion.