Hello, I am a junior who has taken APES as a freshman, AP Bio as a sophomore, AP Chem as a junior, and I am deciding on my classes for senior year. I was advised by multiple people (teachers, other adults) to take AP Physics next year (to round out my sciences, and because I am considering pre-med in college). However, the physics teacher at our school is awful and doesn’t teach, I am going to be taking two other AP’s and a community college math class, and frankly I don’t think physics is interesting. I was planning on instead taking a community college class at our school that will offer Health during first semester and Psychology during the second. Should I heed others’ advice and take AP Physics, or take the college class? Will not taking physics during high school hurt me that much?
I would say it depends on what kind of colleges you are applying to, and how important it would be to them if you take physics. Since you already know the physics teacher is someone you don’t want as a teacher, and you also don’t even like physics, my suggestion would be that you just take physics your first year in college and give yourself a little break for your senior year. It sounds like you’re pushing yourself hard enough. No point in making your senior year miserable unless you really need to. I applaud you for having the courage to make your own reasoned decision. However, I don’t have enough facts to know whether this would make a difference in your college acceptances.
@CorpusChristi Thank you very much. I’ll probably consider it a little further but I’m pretty sure I’m leaning against it now.
There are two issues here:
- Does it look bad to not take a science senior year?
- Does it look bad to not take physics during high school?
The answer to both questions is “yes” especially at the top schools and especially for a pre-med major!
There’s even a third issue here, namely that it will hurt you to take college physics as a pre-med without having taken high school physics. You’ll be competing for those scarce A’s with students who’ve taken AP Physics and gotten 4’s and 5’s.
What are your career plans? Major?
@goldenbear2020 Hm. Thank you for your advice. You definitely sound like you know what you’re talking about. Would taking an online physics class (probably non-AP) suffice, do you think?
@lostaccount I’m not a huge fan of the hard sciences, maybe public health? I would love to work with the WHO or CDC, honestly, and deal with the more-PR side of medicine. Then again, I recently heard a speech from a general surgeon and I’m considering that pathway as well. Of course, that would require more science…but I could deal, I really love anatomy and physiology and solving problems.
If you really want to avoid your high school physics teacher, you can take physics either online or from a local community college.
@goldenbear2020 Thank you!