<p>My D in interested in pursuing an engineering major in college (not sure yet what type.) For her senior year in college, she has to choose between AP Comp Sci or AP Physics C. She has not had a formal programming class yet, although she has done some programming in her robotics club, etc. She is currently taking AP Physics B and doing well. Other STEM classes she has taken/will take include: Biology, Chemistry, AP BC Calc, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, MV Calc, Logic, Robotics and two Engineering-type electives. What do you think would be the best class to complement these - the CS class or Physics C? What would an engineering school like to see on her transcript? She would enjoy taking both classes, but it's not possible.</p>
<p>Here are just some of my thoughts, only based off of my college:
Unless she plans to be a computer or electrical engineer, she should go with the physics C (both E/M and Mech would be nice).
If these classes actually give you “advanced placement” (check policies) as in meeting graduation requirements / prerequisites, the physics courses are EXTREMELY valuable to have as they will allow an incoming freshman access to some of the higher up courses (because these physics courses are very often taken during sophomore year or even later at my college) much much much faster than the average student (even upper div is possible during the second semester of first year).</p>
<p>The CS class is to be considered if your daughter is going into computer engineering as it is an important prereq in the sequence. In electrical engineering at my school the CS class does have some value towards graduation/prereqs, but it is very preferable to learn the C language instead of Java from AP Computer Science, and as well, the physics is far more important for electrical engineers / the programming diminishes in value compared to computer engineers.</p>