<p>I'm looking to study mechanical engineering at cornell, but I have not taken AP Physics and it appears that the vast majority of people going (from CC, anyway) have. My school only offers an oversimplified algebra based hon physics course...will I be very behind with respect to the other freshman engineers at cornell? Can I just take physics in my freshman year and be fine, or do some freshman courses have physics as a prerequisite?</p>
<p>Also, I'm still very unsure about my decided major...I like solving tough m/s problems and consider myself pretty creative, so engineering seemed like a good choice. But it seems like im choosing that just because i dont like anything else - I dont want to be a businessman thats a slave to some corporation and is just concerned with making money for the company...I dont want to be a doctor...I dont want to be a lawyer who constantly thinks about his cases and worries about presentation and how to persuade people...I want to be something more than just someone working on monotonous things for an organization - i want to invent stuff, advance the state of knowledge, innovate. all the time i find myself greedily thinking of ways i can become famous, and at the same time know that it will never happen.</p>
<p>But I'm not stupid, the probability of me actually doing something groundbreaking is quite low; thats just the way life works. As I grow older, I'm probably just going to accept my fate more and more and fall back into the comfort of the "system." The system of normality that I have been trained to follow...get a good education, get a job, make money, have a family, die. There's nothing bad about it, and it allows for plenty of happiness, but I just find myself wanting more.</p>
<p>I went to a standard subpar California public school and the best it had was conceptual physics with very litle math and I went on to get my BSME from Cornell. You'll be fine if you want to be a ME, just take it your first semester and do your chemistry last. Seriously the physics won't be needed until your sophomore year and chemistry didn't rear it's head until grad school.</p>
<p>my school only offers AP physics C Mechanics and E+M courses, each is one year. They are required to use calculus, Mechanics maybe less calculus, but Electricity and Magnetism is full of calculus. I am taking E+M and it is big pain, cuz it is so hard...anyway I only took regular chemistry, and I still got accepted to ChemicalE in UCSB...so it is not really that big of a factor...</p>
<p>...Even though I placed out of physics with AP Phys C, I still re-took physics because I wanted to have a really solid foundation in physics, and I know a ton of people did the same thing, at Cornell and Cornell-caliber programs.</p>
<p>Anyhow, now that we've got the original question out of the way... I've gotta say that I felt the same way, deciding to study engineering and thinking about fame and fortune and feeling a little disappointed that I didn't try to become... I dunno... a rockstar or an astronaut or a supermodel. At the same time, though, when I decided to "settle" for engineering because I like it and I'm good at it and there's a steady paycheck in it, I went out to get a job after my masters and amazingly enough, there are some really awesome opportunities out there. I ended up getting a job as a structural failure analyst, getting to investigate structural failures, swinging from the sides of skyscrapers and bridges, living in sunny Southern California, working a half mile from Warner-Brothers Studios on Hollywood Way and traveling all over to supervise construction and do field visits... And I've gotta say, I'm deliriously excited about it... So, pursuing a career in engineering and having a fulfilling and exciting life are not mutually exclusive. =) I certainly was pleasantly surprised at how cool my professional life is turning out to be. (That, and hey! No paparazzi in engineering!)</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry one bit. Cornell builds PHYS 112 (Mechanics AP Phys C equivalent) and 213 (E + M AP Phys C equivalent) into the sample schedule for all engineers. You'll be fine.</p>
<p>that's weird..it might be that you can sorta skate by, alot of kids in my class have real issues and have to derive equations all the time, for instance Gauss Law w/ parallel plates.</p>
<p>and get some video lecturers from Professor Lewin, each video is 50 mins..watch it during the summer, prolly 60 videos so make it a daily thing, also grab a book from the library, I went to collegeboard.com and looked at recommended books, i really like this University Physics by Young..quality examples.</p>
<p>yea im a senior already accepted into cornell so i dont see the point in learning physics the summer before college when ill learn it anyway. of course, if it's incredibly difficult ill take your advice but i think ill be fine since i have no problems with MV calc etc.</p>