OP might not be accepted to UCLA considering the competition (4.0 kids with 5’s on 22 AP exams and perfect test scores) , but I doubt that a non-honors/AP/IB physics course with a C or B grade vs. APES with an A would be the deal breaker.
I would not advise a kid to take a class to please ONE college. The emphasis in HS should be to take a rigorous, well balanced course load. That includes the basic sciences (Bio, Chem, Physics), English, Math, Social Sciences, Foreign Language. After completing the basics there should be room for academic electives of the student’s choosing.
At our school the GCs advise the kids to take Bio, Chem, Physics at some point during HS. In order to take AP Bio/Chem students have to complete a HS level course. Physics can be taken as AP, Honors or CP as long as the student has taken the right math (pre/corequisite Precalc). There is no problem taking APES as junior and Physics as a senior but you really should take Physics at some point in high school.
It doesn’t matter if the OP is interested in STEM or not. All HS students should have a basic education in the sciences and that will include Physics.
You should have physics, but if you don’t, it isn’t the end of the world. It just means you might not get into your top choice.
Someone said APES is a fake science. I disagree wholeheartedly. I am fed up with AP snobbery. Not everyone wants to major in STEM. Are the only intelligent people ones who major in engineering? No. If that was the case, would MIT or Stanford even bother with a humanities department?
At our high school, APES is a very difficult class to get an A in. Many students take it assuming it is easy and then freak out when they get a B. The test is not easy, and it is hard to get a five.
If you like physics and chemistry, do those. If you like psych and Environemental science, do those. If you like Spanish and history, do those. But stop telling others that they are taking “fake” APs because you don’t think they are as “hard” as other ones. AP courses are college level courses, and when College Board says they no longer are, then you can be as snobby as you like. I am quite sure there are students at Harvard who don’t do AP Physics and AP Bio.
These are not DE courses on campus, among college kids, taught by a college prof.
What some of us are reflecting on is the crazy competition for a spot at UCLA. Once a kid sets that level of target, he needs to be aware of the particular challenges and how to show his prep.
If everything else lines up for OP, I think he could be ok with AP calc, as a humanities kid. But in this case, several of us are stopping short of saying he’s “fine,” just based on gpa and/or taking what interests him.
Not sure if this is helpful, but when my D had a very similar question, she called her #1 and #2 schools and asked their opinion. Now, she was sure of her major (elementary education) and was fairly sure that she would apply ED to her #1 school.
Both schools said that she didn’t need Physics and that she’d be fine with her preference, honors anatomy.
(Also, she did apply ED and was admitted).
So if UCLA is your goal, I’d call them and ask.
Psychology and political science (and education research), like other social sciences, make use of quantitative and statistical analysis, sometimes requiring math skills more advanced than AP statistics (e.g. more in-depth calculus-based statistics). I.e. the M in STEM may be useful or important for your possible majors.
Not sure if this means anything, but one of my friends got into Princeton and another got into Williams recently and didn’t take physics. They decided to take APES and AP Bio respectively instead. I personally didn’t take physics and I’m still applying to “top” schools. The kid going to Princeton is going for poli sci and the kid going to Williams for mathematics. I think it really depends on what you’re interested in. I HATE the type of math that physics is based on, so I opted to take AP Bio instead and I have no regrets. As long as you are taking a rigorous class in its place, you should be fine.
On that note however, I would take AP Calc instead of AP Stats, or maybe both if you really want. I know Kenyon has a stat on their student profile that says something along the lines of “85% of accepted seniors took either Calculus or Physics”. You don’t need to do both, but you do need to do one.
@megkell898 - that’s reassuring to hear. You said you opted for AP Bio rather than Physics; what was your 4th year of science, or did you only take 3?
My goal is to take AP Calculus AB my senior year. Although I don’t care for math, I recognize the importance of it; physics is a different story, however.
You might be referring to me, since I called IT a pretend AP. The more common term is “AP lite”, and I regret calling it pretend. It is real science and it is also a legitimate AP class, albeit one that is widely considered the least rigorous of all the AP sciences.
I’m a passionate proponent of physics for everybody, especially the college bound, for a few reasons. First, I took basic physics in HS (no AP offered) and loved it for its beauty and clarity. I’m far from a STEM guy, as I majored in History at a small LAC, but I consider that HS class one of my favorites of all time.
Second, because of my son’s experience studying Physics at Princeton. He took his Physics studies to a much higher level than I did, graduating magna cum laude in the concentration, but his reasons for pursuing the field were the same as what appealed to me thirty some years ago in that HS class; he enjoys it for its logic, its (complicated) simplicity, and because he found it to be a reasonable path toward trying to understand the fundamental truths of the world. For him it was going to be Physics or Philosophy, and he’s never regretted choosing Physics.
So, in my opinion, everyone should study at least a little bit of physics.
@uclafuture01 My science track was General Science freshman year, College Prep Biology 10th grade, and College Prep Chemistry 11th grade. At my school, College Prep Bio is a prerequisite for AP Bio. So I have 4 years of a science, but technically only covering 3 “fields” of science. While my school offers both regular and AP Physics (I almost took AP Physics but decided against it) the teachers are absolutely horrible. Very few kids even score a 3 on the AP physics test and the College Prep course is widely considered a joke. I knew that I wouldn’t succeed in Physics without a good teacher, and I didn’t want to ruin what many people believe is a beautiful subject because of a poor HS experience (sorry for that long winded response!)
I’m taking AP Calc AB this year, and while it’s challenging, I enjoy it a lot and find it fascinating. I’m a strong believer in studying what you enjoy and would be eager to learn about rather than doing it simply to get into college. If you think you’ll get a lot more out of APES, take it (as long as you at least take Calc).
If it’s any further comfort, I’d say more than half of the graduates from my high school that end up at Ivies and schools with under 30% acceptance rates never took physics, but they did take Calculus.
I’m not taking calc, but I am in AP Physics. I think it is important to, at the very least, take either physics or calc like others have said. I think colleges just want to see that you have challenged yourself.
Take regular physics over the summer before senior year, and APES junior year, this way you’re covered.
There’s a diverde body of knowledge and disciplines you’re supposed to be exposed to before you apply to selective colleges. The idea isn’t that you’re interested in them or will need them, but rather that you need to be intellectually well-rounded.
So, knowing what physics is, how it works as a discipline, even just the basics, is considered valuable.
In addition, your ability to understand that intellectual well-roundedness is important matters to top colleges.
That’s why taking CP physics is important, even if it’s a joke at your school, even if you take it during summer school where it’ll be even more of a joke (at least ou’ll be done quickly and will be rid of it) - and why you should take APES during the year, when you can learn it for real, at a good pace.
My son did not take AP physics, but did have 1 other year of HS physics. He did take AP bio and chem, with AP chem taken his senior year. With that said, he took a rigorous curriculum (every class he took was at the highest level offered). He just chose to not take the AP physics course. No college seemed to care.
It is somewhat expected or preferred by the more selective colleges that high school applicants have all of biology, chemistry, and physics, but it is not expected that all of them have to be at the AP level.
It is odd that so many high school students want to dodge physics, even though far fewer want to dodge biology or chemistry.
My Sons school doesn’t even offer Physics, so we had to take an Online Physics class in his sophomore year… He had a hard time with that class because it was essentially a self thought class, but he got through it with an A. Take the physics class somehow. BTW he just got into Stanford