If I want to apply to Stanford for psychology, will I need to take physics? I read Stanford’s requirements page but it doesn’t specify how many sciences are required. Please help!
From the Stanford website:
** Recommended High School Curriculum
We respect the responsibility that high schools, principals and teachers have in the development of courses and curricula for their students. For that reason, we do not have a set of required courses for admission to Stanford. We have found, though, that a curriculum emphasizing depth and breadth across the core academic subjects is the best preparation for the academic rigors at Stanford. Our experience has suggested that students who excel in a curriculum like the one below are well-suited for the demands of college academics:
English: four years, with significant emphasis on writing and literature.
Mathematics: four years, with significant emphasis on fundamental mathematical skills (algebra; trigonometry; plane, solid and analytic geometry).
History/Social Studies: three or more years. Such courses should include the writing of essays
Science: three or more years of laboratory science (including biology, chemistry and physics).
Foreign Language: three or more years of the same foreign language.
Having the biology-chemistry-physics trifecta on your transcript will keep more doors open on the whole. An applicant to Stanford or any highly competitive college should not be shying away from taking any of those.
Minimum requirement are important for open enrollment or very high acceptance rate schools. For low/very low acceptance rate schools, what is important is the profile of competitive applicants.
I’m guessing you don’t particularly like the subject and/or workload in the sciences and since you are planning on majoring in something else you can just duck out. Not going to work at very selective colleges where the best applicants are outstanding across the board. You’ll be judged against all applicants, not just the ones with your major.
As Stanford writes
You can take regular Physics but you should have it.