Astrophysics or AP physics for high school senior class choice?

My son is a junior. College major will be in STEM field…potentially bio/premed, computer science, or other area.

Senior year class schedule is:
AP calc AB
Astrophysics or AP Physics
Ap computer science A (Java)
English seminar
Econ

He is much more interested in astrophysics but if applying to the UCs with a STEM major, is AP physics (or even honors physics) a better choice?

Astrophysics is most likely going to be treated as an “elective” in the uc a-g categories. AP physics is the best route to go. Especially is he wants to compete well in physics classes astro stuff isn’t understood until after the lower div classes. I’m in Physics 1B (second in the physics series for engineers and physical science majors) and we use differential equations. Physics 1A the “basic” lol mechanics class used multi variable calculus and Taylor series expansions for gravitation. Without AP physics I would not have survived.

AP Physics…any of those majors will require Physics in college and you either want to be well prepared for college physics or place out of it.

Thank you for the replies @bopper and @10s4life. Would it be crazy to take both as well as AP calc and AP Java?

No. AP Calc ab is very basic. It’s very doable to technically self teach yourself the course. In a few weeks

AP physics 1 or c?

Ap physics 1

Definitely take AP physics 1. If the teacher does it right you’ll be set up well for college physics. As long as it’s taught symbolically without numbers it’s really good.

Thanks for your advice @10s4life

Choose AP physics 1.

@10s4life : err, do you know the content of the class? Because what you said doesn’t make any sense wrt course content.

@MYOS1634 it does. I took AP physics 1 and AP physics 2 in high school. Both ap exams used essentially 0 numbers in it. My teacher did what most good ap physics teachers do and taught the class without numbers using only variables. That way you learn the physics and not just mindless number crunching. Doing this allows you to go through the process of deriving the answer from the fundamental constants and equations. In my experience as an engineering major taking physics, all my classes have been taught his way except with calculus thrown in.

Hm, I think you’re seeing it in a very abstract manner because of your current education, but Physics requires numbers (for examples and application) as well as a good command of math (algebra2 is useful for physics 1).
If you mean it’s not as plug/chug, yes.
But physics without numbers makes no sense (at that level).

@MYOS1634 my friend too ap physics 1 exam and he said that most of the problems were either theoretical or with variables instead of numbers so its not like you need to solve anything more difficult than basic algebra 1 and some geometry, if you knew the theory. @10s4life is absolutely correct with what he says, trust me

@MYOS1634 Have you taken the ap physics 1 and 2 exams or ap physics b. Both 1 and 2 don’t use numbers. Physics b and c do.

I’m not a student but I know the classes. Perhaps we’re not talking about the same thing… for the record, I’m not talking about “difficult math” or “calculus”. I’m talking about moderate use of a calculator, a firm grasp of mathematical concepts (Algebra 1+Geometry although prior understanding of Algebra2 trains your brain for the type of abstract thinking you need in Physics 1), and scientific notions that assume mathematical knowledge, all of which would include numbers and symbols for applications. It’s very different from Physics C, but it’s definitely a STEM course.

For OP, this would be a pretty decent sample for AP physics 1+2
https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/sample-questions-ap-physics-1-and-ap-physics-2-exams.pdf