I am currently signing up for senior year classes in high school. Aside from AP physics, the harder classes I would take are AP Literature, Honors trigonometry and Honors precalc simultaneously (this is scary because you are tested at the end of every week), and if not physics I would go for AP computer science or honors forensics (my school is retrenching their budget so we lost a lot of class options). I am also in regular physics this year.
My ultimate goal is to major in civil engineering, and I know AP physics would help me out for college quite a bit. My concerns are that we have a VERY difficult teacher, and I have talked to current students (very smart AP students) who struggle to keep B’s and even C’s in the class. I will have a 4.0 GPA by the end of this year and I just don’t know if I want to risk it dropping next year because it is a huge asset for my applications.
I should also mention that I am not as concerned with having a physics background for college (I know I can spend hours in tutoring) as I am with having an impressive transcript. Basically, what I would like to know is would a college rather see me take this class and hurt my GPA or would I be better off taking a “safe” class such as AP Computer science? I am looking to get merit aid from schools.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this!
Which AP physics? If it’s C, do not take it because you need calculus.
If you really think you could only get Cs or low Bs, I would also skip.
Have you taken AP chem? Most colleges, especially for engineering, want to see four years of science - bio, chem, and physics, plus one AP. CS is usually considered a math course.
That all said, engineering is very physics heavy. It could help you in college to have more exposure now.
What schools are on your college list? Be aware that not having reached calculus could be an obstacle at some colleges IF your school offered it. You mentioned that course offerings were few, so in that case, schools will look at your course rigor based on what was available for you within your HS.
Thanks for your advice. It is not C so I think I might just go for it. I plan on taking a non credit calculus summer course so that way I understand it better before diving in in college.
Take AP physics1.
Your college physics class will be much harder because college classes go at twice the pace to a HS class - taking a hard Physics class with a hard teacher will be good preparation.
In addition, that college class… it’ll be calculus based. You’ll officially be taking calculus 1 Fall freshman year. As a result,
your choices will be 1) take all non engineering requirements (calculus, gen eds , chemistry, cs) while you take calculus, and take General (=Engineering) physics the following semester along with calculus 2 or 2) take general Physics alongside calculus (it’s allowed) but almost all students who fail happen to be in that configuration so it’s very risky. Keep in mind that 2/3 freshmen who start in engineering have to or decide to switch majors.
Regardless of the plan, having the most advanced physics class along with a tough math class will serve you well.
At many colleges, calculus 1 is explicitly a prerequisite for the first calculus-based physics course for engineering majors. So the course maps for engineering majors may start something like:
Semester 1: calculus 1, chemistry 1, English 1, other course(s)
Semester 2: calculus 2, physics 1, English 2, other course(s)
Obviously, a student who has advanced placement in math (starting in calculus 2 or higher) may be able to start calculus-based physics in the first semester.
Attrition rate is usually lower at more selective schools with stronger students. However, some schools (commonly state flagship level schools) weed out students with a secondary admission process or progression requirements after students complete a few semesters of college courses.