I just dropped my AP Physics class and got in to regular physics because I was not understanding anything in the class. So I was wandering will it effect my college choices and anything that that will effect me in the future because I am trying to become a engineer.
You do not need to take AP physics to major in engineering. Work hard, and get good grades in this new class. If you do well in regular physics, you will have a good base for understanding physics when you start college.
Yes. Taking a physics class you understand and can be successful in will be very helpful for your future engineering courses.
You’ll eventually have to take a college level (AP or an actual college class) physics class, but it’ll be easier for having had a previous exposure.
If you were not understanding anything in the AP physics class the most important thing to worry about is not what colleges might think. It’s why that happened. While many kids instinctively blame the teacher, you need to give it more thought than that. Was it study habits? You didn’t care about the subject? Too much else happening in school and ECs to give it enough time? Etc…
A lot of kids never take AP Physics until college and do fine in engineering. So this by no means rules out engineering in your future. But you need to figure out why it wasn’t happening for you and what needs to change. Keep in mind that the pace of an AP class is much slower than a college class. Your AP class met daily and by the end of the year will cover what a quarter-based college covers in 2 quarters. So that’s about 200 hours of instruction over 40 weeks vs 60 hours over 20.
Nationally 1/2 of all those starting engineering drop out. It is a tough program. If you look at a sample program such as https://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/curric-14-15/32curmech-14.html you’ll see they have you taking physics your 1st year. So think of this as a peek at your future and a chance to fix anything that isn’t working right for you before it’s for keeps.
+1 for @mikemac Physics for STEM majors is frequently a weeder class and can be quite an eye-opener for those unprepared for it. This is a glimpse of your engineering future, so in reflecting on this experience be honest in why it didn’t go well this year and doubly honest in how much you expect to change once college starts.
And one other note for posterity (not the necessarily the OP) is that service academies want to see you in the hardest classes more than they want to see an A in every class. To them moving down a level is worse than an average grade, and they take the “Did student take the hardest courses available?” question very seriously. (Not understanding anything is of course a bigger problem; earning a D is clearly worse than picking the wrong level.)
What grade are you in?
If a junior, it is okay to take Physics/Honors Physics now…next year take an AP version of Chem or Physics.
I already have AP Biology and I am A junior