I’ve heard that AP Physics is very important if applying for an engineering school, which is what I plan to do. I’m not taking it next year because I didn’t find out about its importance until too late and the majority of students who take AP Physics at my school do really bad in the class and mess up their GPAs because the teacher is bad. I am a junior currently taking AP Chemistry and AP Calculus AB and am taking Calc BC and regular physics next year. I just wanted to hear personal experiences or expert opinions on how important it is to take AP Physics. Also any acceptances/rejections from colleges like Virginia Tech, UVA, UMD, etc. that anyone received while not taking AP Physics would be super helpful since those are schools I am considering applying to. Thanks!
Which physics AP?
I don’t think it’ll make or break your college application. Tons of the kids in my school (Purdue) have had little to no exposure to ANY AP classes. Every college curriculum assumes that the student hasn’t taken AP Physics.
However, most of the intro to physics professors at the college level are pretty bad as well (since all the super great teachers tend to teach upper level classes).
It’s not one of the schools you’re asking about, but I go to Penn State and my honors-only physics background hasn’t really hurt me at all so far (finishing up Mechanics with a very high A right now). I thought I would have to completely relearn physics, since I had been taught algebra-based. But really you just add in a few more concepts. Most of it is still just formulas.
Can’t say anything about E&M, though.
@bodangles Thanks! I’ve been looking at Penn State too. What are you majoring in?
Engineering (I’m thinking chemical).
@bodangles Are you in or out of state?
In state. I don’t know what your stats are like, but if your grades are good and you wouldn’t mind writing a couple of short extra essays, consider applying for the honors college, Schreyer. The scholarships from it can really sweeten the deal, even for OOS students!
@bodangles thanks for the suggestions! Just out of curiosity what were your SAT scores? for some reason I just can’t seem to get a good score on the math part (my highest is a 610) and I don’t want that to hold me back from getting into a good college.
My math scores were 690 and then 750. Have you been studying or just taking it cold?
I’ve been studying
The main advantage was that my son was able to get out of two semesters of physics in college. So while many of his peers were taking engineering AND physics classes, he could focus on the engineering classes. Lightened his load significantly.
"my son was able to get out of two semesters of physics in college. " Always check first with the college. Credit may vary by college. Both my sons had AP Physics in high school and 5’s on the AP test. They still had to take physics in college for engineering. The AP credit could not be used in the engineering department. They had AP Physics B ( C was not offered) . Perhaps C would make a difference but not sure if that would have been the case or not. Each college is different and can have different requirements and ways of awarding credit .
Checked the registrar’s site for one of the schools. Still not offering credit for AP Physics B in the engineering school.,
Only credit is if you have a 4 or 5 and want to use the credit for other types of degrees. Credit for Physics C is not available currently for a score of 3 or 4 in the engineering department. Only a 5 will get you any credit. So, in this particular school, unless you have a 5 on the AP Physics C test , you will not get any credit in the engineering department. So, definitely always check with the schools you are considering. You don’t want to think you are definitely going to get credit ,and then budget your time and money to assume that, and find out the credit is not good in your college.
Since engineering majors need to take calculus-based physics, and AP physics B (or 1 or 2) is not calculus based, it is no surprise that AP physics B (or 1 or 2) scores give no advanced placement for engineering majors.
Since both AP physics C courses are meant to be suitable for high school students concurrently taking calculus (which is AB in most schools, equivalent to college calculus 1), many colleges may not consider it fully equivalent to calculus-based physics in college, where mechanics is typically taken concurrently with calculus 2 and E&M is typically taken with calculus 3.
And even when a kid takes both AP Calculus AB and BC in high school , many schools do not also offer AP Physics C, That was the case in our high school.
For my D’s HS, you need to take AP Calc before or along side with Physic C. My D got 5 in the AP Physics C and received credits for 1 semester of Physics (Phys 140) in engineering school, but she still need to take the second Physics (Phys 240). To make the regular semesters lighter, she is taking the Physics 2 in CC this summer.
But for OP, you need to bring up your Math score. 610 is weak for good engineering schools. You may also need to take SAT2 Math2 and a science for top engineering schools.
Thank you for reminding OP to check with any possible schools for what their AP acceptance rules are (this goes for ALL AP classes; my son’s AP stats class, for ex., wasn’t accepted as it’s an upper level requirement in college and can’t be avoided). I wish the physics rules were written out more clearly because many seem confused by them. I was just talking to parents from ds’s hs about this. There were two complete years of AP physics (I believe they are now changing their names?). The first year’s AP class did not count for anything at many Unis-it was a broad and somewhat surface-level coverage of physics. The second yr of physics went in depth covering two topics (electricity and magnetism?). From that class, ds took two AP exams and then received credit for two college physics classes where he now attends, getting him out of a full yr. Many peers, however, took it so OP certainly wouldn’t be “behind”. Agree about raising the math score. Remember that a Uni’s acceptance score ranges are, for the most part, lower in math than the acceptance scores for engineering majors.
I also agree about doing everything you can to bring up that math score. That is quite low for the 3 schools you already have in mind (Virginia Tech ,UVa, Maryland) for engineering. You might also want to think about adding different engineering schools into the mix that are still in the Virginia/Maryland area but not quite as selective, like GMU. It is still selective but not quite as selective as the other schools you are considering.