<p>My son is entering 11th grade and wants to apply for selective engineering schools. </p>
<p>The problem is our high school only offered a one-semester physics course. Although there are many AP classes in other subjects, there are no AP, Honors, or second-semester physics classes available. Dual-enrollment at the local community college will also be problematic, since their campus is about 1 hour away.</p>
<p>My son completed that single physics course in 10th grade. He took the SAT II Physics exam afterward, and scored 750. </p>
<p>Do you think this lack of higher level physics courses will be a serious problem when engineering colleges review his application ? Also, would there be any advantage in trying to self-study and take the AP Physics examination ?</p>
<p>I have no experience with the sites listed on the CC thread, but I thought the professor in the MIT videos was really good. As for a prep book, I believe Barrons is considered the best for Physics.</p>
<p>If he has the time to self study, he may want to look into Stanford U EPGY physics courses. EPGY is a online H School run by Stanford U that offers many advanced math and physics courses, including AP and beyond. Taking a course would show interest and initiative on his part in preparing as much as possible for college level work at selective engineering colleges.</p>
<p>^Stanfords EPGY Online program is different from the EPGY OHS which
allows full or single-course enrollment. The EPGY Online courses can be started
(in Math, Physics) in any month versus termtime only for OHS.</p>
<p>Yes doing AP PHY C by yourself is impressive and it helped me get admitted
to MIT and Caltech EA in '08.</p>
<p>I took the P051 AP PHY C Mech in my Junior year starting in December
and finished it in time for the AP exam. The course material is very thorough
but keep in mind the final exams are ridiculously hard and this is not a course
to take lightly (you will have to declare the grade and send transcripts to
colleges). Though I got an A in the course and a 5 on the AP the course
was much harder than it could have been since it really teaches Physics
(not just for the AP).</p>
<p>Unless you have someone you can run to when you are in physics trouble I would
not recommend taking this course.</p>
<p>I doubt that your son will be penalized because of what his schools offers for physics, but it could be a problem when he starts taking classes, but the SAT II score is pretty good, so I don’t think it would be a big deal.</p>
<p>And I also recommend the EPGY physics classes. I just took the Physics C sequence (P051 and P053), and I agree that they are pretty difficult, but I was able to take them and do well without someone to get help from besides the tutor that they provide. And it helps a lot if you have a strong math, and especially calculus (up to Calculus AB) background, since there’s a lot of math involved and it can get confusing.</p>
<p>I went to the EPGY website and it says it requires SAT or PSAT scores
I haven’t taken the SAT yet but I took BC Calc and AP Computer Science A
and got A’s and 5’s
are these enough to get admitted for P051?</p>
<p>Thank you, everybody, for your thoughtful responses !</p>
<p>We were not aware of Stanford EPGY prior to this. It sounds like it would work well for my son’s situation. I’ll encourage him to do some research regarding EPGY.</p>