<p>I'm a Junior in High School as of right now. I am in the IB Diploma Program. This previous semester, I gotten all A's except for HL physics (I got a B)(4.75 GPA). Well, now our school's DP program offers HL Biology. I really want to take HL Bio instead because Physics was really difficult for me and I don't want to hurt my GPA. I want to go into college at USC, UCLA, or Berkley. I want to enroll in Medical school as well.</p>
<p>My questions:
1. Do colleges like those require students to have taken Phsyics in high school?
2. Would it make me look "weak" to colleges if i switched out of HL Physics (getting a B) and went into HL Bio and getting an A in that class?
3. Overall, should I switch into HL Bio and leave HL Physics? Which would benefit me more when going into undergrad. Because isn't physics more for future engineers or math/research individuals?</p>
<p>I'm thinking very carefully about this.... I don't want to make a huge mistake with this decision..</p>
<p>You’re worried about a B in physics over an A in biology? Geez. </p>
<p>Here’s your answers:
No school REQUIRES physics before undergrad other than maybe an engineering school.
As far as “how it looks” it doesn’t look bad. Biology is a respectable subject I think, in everyone’s eyes.
You’re going to be a doctor. You need to take physics <em>someday</em>. It’s part of the MCAT…if it’s a matter of a bad teacher, yeah, postpone it to undergrad…but you’ll be better off taking it now in high school if that’s not the case. If you graduate with your courseload, a 4.75W GPA, and a 2000+ SAT, you should be pretty good for all those schools, and you’ll cruise through physics in undergrad which means a better GPA for med school consideration.</p>
<p>Hello, I’m a Senior in Highschool and I’m doing HL Physics… I’m getting a 4-5ish for Physics when I’m getting 6s and 7s for the rest… This is only my opinion, but I think it’ll be better if you change to HL Biology. I was also debating about it last year, but decided to just stick with Physics, I think that was one of the worst decisions I’ve made… Right now, for you, you may be thinking you’ll get better, and the teachers are probably telling you that it’s a learning process, so you’ll get better. It may be true for you, but in your senior year, when everything gets extra tough, Physics will just be a pain in your butt… I don’t know much about you, so I can’t tell if you’ll improve, but I personally think you should change to Biology,</p>
<p>Don’t switch just for a b . U are perfect for Berkeley and la depending on you sat because your gpa is almost perfect. Just choose what you want because they won’t really care about this. Except I would recommend staying because you have only finished half of the entire class and you will miss half of bio too. So it all depends on you but I’m sure they don’t care.</p>
<p>I guess the IB running joke isn’t very well known, which may work to your advantage. Generally, HL Biology is considered one of the easiest IB classes to take for the HL requirement and HL Physics is always considered the hardest. If you’re pulling off a B with just average grade inflation/deflation, you’re doing really well. If schools know about the contrast, that’s to your advantage; if not, the B isn’t really going to kill you in admissions and I’d honestly rather have the experience in a harder class to get really far ahead of typical student bodies. Sure, an introduction to biology is nice, but it just depends on if you think you’d need more help in that or early physics for med school.</p>