We had this same situation- a really terrible AP math teacher vs. a wonderful honors teacher. Based on experiences of older friends, my son opted to drop down to the honors class for this class- the only time he did such a thing in HS. He ended up learning a lot and receiving an A. Several friends who stuck with the AP class ended up with D’s. My son was still accepted into most of the very competitive colleges on his list in a science major, so it did not affect him as far as we could see. One of his friends received a D in the AP class, retook it the next year but in the honors track since he felt that he would do no better in the AP class the second time around. Since it was not exactly the same class the honors A did not replace the AP D grade on his transcript. He had slightly better stats than my son but was only accepted into the safeties on his college list. Who knows how much that class really affected any acceptances, but it was not an issue as far as acceptances for my son.
If your cousin gets one A in a non-honors class its not the end of the world for selective colleges. However, it might put into question the rigor of their course schedule, especially if your cousin plans to major in STEM and refuses to take a honors level science class (particularly if she has taken honors science classes in the past and suddenly isn’t taking one junior/senior year). Speaking from experience, I can say being in a class with a horrible teacher can be stressful (at my school, it was AP bio thats the worst designed with the most frustrating teacher)-- however if your cousin really is interested in fully learning about the information in that class (was it chemistry?) and possibly majoring in college in a related field she should strongly consider taking it to learn as much as possible. For the more selective college your cousin is applying to, an A- or higher in a honors science class would be much more impressive for a potential science major also. However, if the rest of her schedule is stressful rigor wise besides this one class and/or the class would be truly terrible and result in very little learned by the end of the year it might be okay just to take the regular level class. In the end I wouldn’t worry about this too much. Your cousin should take whatever she feels is right. If she does well in the class overall and has a strong STEM trend all throughout high school with the right test scores, essays, etc one regular class won’t make or break the colleges she gets into.
Always pick the best teacher - even if you’re not that interested in the subject.
Having one regular class (especially if the teacher is great and can write excellent recommendations) will not hurt in college admissions as long as your cousin has strong class rigor otherwise, which it sounds like she does.
@SaphireNY Don’t know if you mentioned it before but it’d also be well if she took AP Chemistry/ AP Biology instead of physics implying she’s going to be a senior. If she already took those courses then put her through Regular Physics with the great teacher.
The original post indicated that she would be a junior. The lack of physics would be much more problematic as a prospective STEM major than taking on-level physics.
@skieurope True, Physics is vital for STEM… In that case she’d have to go along with the regular teacher who could teach her best, the regular course.