My son has now entered sophomore year of HS. His school has screwed up big time for Junior students. (or maybe this was waiting to happen with rising costs in bay area, CA).
I think one of the science teachers left the school, and they could not fill the vacancy. So many junior kids could not enroll for AP Physics 1. The parents of Juniors are loud, and demanding action. So are the parents of freshmans and sophomores. So far we are told that it’s hard to get a teacher because 50+ students cannot enroll the class they are interested in!
I am wondering what it takes to complete AP course from outside the school. What would the HS look for when it comes to such arrangement, esp would the student still take all courses at HS as usual?
And what are our options “outside”? (I heard ucscout.org from other parent, maybe the affiliated community college is also an option)
This might not be a popular reply…but I don’t think your school “screwed up”. There is a national teacher shortage…everywhere. And subjects like the sciences and foreign languages are particularly hard hit.
Also, IIRC, AP teachers need to have some additional expertise…so a first year teacher is unlikely to have that. Someone else can clarify.
Can the students take regular physics 1?
Another option would be a duel enrollment course with the HS and Community college.
Some students do study outside of school and take the AP exams at the school. Just make sure to register and pay for the exam in advance. Another alternative is community college dual
Enrolled classes. They are shorter so require the student to be more on the ball and you have to check the transfer equivalency to see if the course will transfer to the desired college.
Many colleges will allow a high school student to take one class a semester for free. If your child has already had calc, or is taking it now, they could take college physics.
AP physics 1 content is similar to the first semester of non calculus based college physics for biology majors and pre-meds, so that may be a choice to look at for nearby college courses.
A student who has had calculus and high school physics can take calculus based physics for physics and engineering majors at a local college.
My son will be taking calculus (mostly AP calculus AB) in junior year. He wants to pursue one of the Eng degrees, so AP Physics is kinda important to him.
From the responses I have gotten, I infer that my son has following options in junior year:
Enroll in Physics 1 in HS, and take AP Physics exam from outside (like ucscout)
Dual-enroll in HS & Community college, and see if that combo can result in AP Physics 1 on the HS transcript
Not exactly. Dual enrollment earns actual, transferable college credit. It will appear on his HS transcript as enrollment in a college class taken at [name of college]. It won’t appear on his HS transcript as AP credits/class.
Your son will need to send an official transcript from the dual enrollment college to the registrars office to have the transfer credits accepted at whatever college he ends up attending.
AP credits may earn your child advanced standing in the subject area, but without contributing quality points toward his college GPA. Dual Enrollment classes will earn transfer credit and are part of his college GPA calculations.
To take the AP exam, you have to find a High School that is hosting the exam and they have to allow you to take it at their school. It isn’t like signing up for the SAT/ACT.
Option 1: Dual Enrollment at a community college.
This option gives my son required HS credits.
It may also give him college credits at some univs (depending on whether they accept it)
Option 2: Take regular Physics 1 at HS, but see if they allow him to take AP Physics 1 exam also.
Questions:
In the second option, I am not sure whether he is required to find a tutor, or he is allowed to study on his own.
If he needs a tutor, I am curious if anyone has experice with ucscout. Looks like ucscout has online tutoring. I am not sure how they handle the labs. Of course, the amount of classes & homework is weighing on our mind with Option 2.
Any opinions whether the college credit course is more or less rigorous than the AP course.
Finally does anyone know if Option 1 or 2 is preferable from the admissions point of view.
Actual: varies based on school / instructor. Also, courses taken at the college (not “college in the high school”) will give the student a taste of how college courses are run differently from high school courses.
My kids both started an AP UCScout course last year. My comments below are based on our experience. I cannot officially say how other UCScout classes operate, however, I asked online and had many parents confirm our experience was typical (although others had more positive experiences).
PROs:
-one of the only ways to take an AP course during the school year outside your HS. The course should be added to the HS transcript (but listed as UCScout/not your home HS). At my kid’s school, they would have received the GPA bump for an AP course.
-very flexible, at your own pace.
-relatively inexpensive and/or your school may pay for it.
-easy to drop if it isn’t working out
CONs
-almost completely on your own. Do not expect any teaching or interaction with an instructor.
-course materials were substandard (and frankly, the UCs should be embarrassed to have their name associated in any way with the coursework). Other parents said the material for their kid’s courses (different disciplines) was more comprehensive than what my kids had but very dry (walls of text).
-no feedback on assignments. My kids received 100% on all assignments when there were obvious errors. The course grade was mostly based on a midterm and final and ultimately my kids dropped the class because they were concerned without feedback, they had no way to assess how they would perform in the class.
-office hours held with the teacher for 1 hour each week (for everyone in the class, not just your kid). In our case, this fell during the normal school day and was often changed the week of to some other inconvenient time.
-no interaction with other students in the class.
Like I said, this was based on our family’s experience with a different AP course. The AP Physics course may be better constructed, however, I think the self-directed, little to zero interaction is the norm for UCScout classes. Before proceeding, I would contact them and ask to speak with the person running the specific class (I wish we had done this). Inquire about how the course operates and ask pointed questions about scheduled teacher/student interaction, grading, turn-around time for emails and assignments, etc. We were led to believe by our school it would be like an online synchronous class. In reality, it was like a mail-order class from the '90s.