My D22 is planning for an economics major in college ( not going the sciences route). so far she has done AP Biology, Honors Anatomy Physiology, Chemistry in school and is planning to do ( Honors Physics in senior year ( to complete the basic branches of science, she is very interested in doing it ). Other courses for senior year include 4 APs - AP Stats, AP economics, AP govt, AP Spanish plus regular English ( in addition to Honors Physics) .
I am wondering if she can optimize the work load by dialing down Honors Physics to Physics . Question -how much more course material does honors physics cover over regular physics? Is there any upside to taking Honors Physics over regular Physics.
She is going back to school this week ( bay area) and I believe they have couple of weeks of grace period to make adjustments to course load.
Depends on where she’s applying to college. Rigor often but not always matters. If your desires College seeks rigor, keep Honors. If it’s a school like Arizona that you are applying to that looks at grades but not rigor, fall back.
What they call Honors today is basically the college prep of 30 years back. So is keep Honors.
If she struggles as she’s got an aggressive schedule otherwise, it will not be do to this.
Her schedule is plenty rigorous without out honors Physics. I applaud her for taking Physics even though she is not interested in pursuing a science major. It is one of the most fascinating core science classes for a high schooler and I’m always surprised that it is not a prerequisite (as well as basic chemistry and biology) for high school graduation.
By the way at my kids’ Bay Area high school there is no honor Physics, just regular Physics and AP Mech and E&M, the regular Physics teacher is not great and a tough grader to boot so a lot of kids just take the AP Physics if they want to round off their science curriculum. I’m not advocating for your kid to go that route, but rather look into what the best classroom experience for her might be.
All the best for her senior year!!! My Dad is an economist but the economics gene must have skipped a generation!
I agree, the quality is more important than the level. My older kid took regular physics (no other choice that year) and it was literally the worst class she ever had in high school (and not for lack of competition, as you might guess). Younger kid had the option of AP Physics 1 a few years later. It was vastly better and really not that demanding. Consider the instructor and the peer group, and go for the better experience. Some schools have a better “regular “ track than others.
Honors classes have the advantage that most of her peers will WANT to be in that class, WANT to learn and that controls how interesting the class is, how the teacher is handling the class,… So I recommend taking it.
In my experience, for high-achieving students, the honors level will not truly add much as far as difficulty, rather it will eliminate a lot of frustration with and distractions by other students!
It’s different from AP classes, where the time-table is much condensed, the expectations are high and teachers have little lee-way to adapt the class to accommodate who might be taking the class that year.
For a student taking 4 AP courses, and having taken a previous AP science course, I think honors would be the best fit. IME, the honors teacher is typically better and the material is going to be a bit more advanced, but not significantly.
Rigor matters at (at least) many schools, though one course is going to swing the needle very little.
Sorry for the off-topic, but what school is this? I tried the CDS for University of Arizona and Arizona State but they say rigor is Very Important and Important, respectively.
They can say it on the CDS and on their website but it’s not true - they accept practically everyone and your scholarship is based on your unweighted GPA in core subjects. Perhaps it’s true for Honors, etc. but for admission it’s not true at all - or their interpretation of rigor differs from what you or I probably thinks of as rigor.
So yes you need to hit the minimum core topics - but it’s a very easy admit - and you are penalized merit wise if, for example, you take an AP and get a B.
The person to talk to is her guidance counselor. The guidance counselors rate the rigor of each student’s HS schedule in their letter of recommendation. Your D should ask the guidance counselor if he/she would change the rigor classification if she drops down from honors to regular physics.