<p>Recently, I've found that my school is threatening to cut AP Physics B and AP Calculus BC, much to the dismay of not only me but a lot of my friends. Even though I am arguing heavily against the superintendents and the school district on this decision, I realize that there is a high chance that I will fail. Thus, is it possible to have a decent shot at MIT if I don't have AP Physics or Calculus BC? This is my science breakdown of my high school career:</p>
<p>-Biology H
-Chemistry H
-AP Biology
-AP Physics (?)/AP Chemistry (safety)</p>
<p>However, for my mathematics course, there is nothing to fall back upon. I'm currently in Calc AB, and I have no other options to turn to should BC actually be canceled.</p>
<p>PS. How would taking physics/calculus at community college instead of taking the AP courses be seen? Better? Worse? I've heard rumors that admissions officers don't like it when we take community college courses instead of AP.</p>
<p>Of course you still have chance, many schools do not offer AP Physics or Calc BC and it’s not your fault that you can’t take either. It’s good you’re trying to change things though.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why admissions officers wouldn’t like community college classes, and it doesn’t really apply in your case since no AP alternative really exists. So yea, taking community college classes is definitely a good idea. You might want to try online classes, and both EPGY and artofproblemsolving have pretty good quality classes that you could check out.</p>
<p>^Agreed – going above and beyond the resources your school offers is always a good thing. It’s definitely not unusual in MIT’s applicant pool to take a community college course, to take a distance learning course, or to self-study for an AP test. </p>
<p>As far as I’m aware, there’s no bias against community college classes rather than APs in the eyes of the MIT admissions office. Many MIT applicants take community college classes: some, like you, come from high schools that don’t offer the relevant APs, some are homeschooled or dual-enrolled because their high school classes aren’t challenging enough, some choose to take the community college versions because they’re more convenient or more challenging than the AP versions at their schools. The AP label is not what matters.</p>
<p>I’m speaking as someone who took a community college calc class because my high school didn’t offer anything above precalc, and as someone who never took a physics class in high school because I couldn’t fit it into my schedule. All things being equal, I’d advise taking calculus and physics in high school, because it will make your first year as a science/engineering major anywhere (and especially at MIT) a heck of a lot easier. But not all high schoolers are able to make the choices they’d like to make in a perfect world.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t be taking any class “for MIT.” Not taking AP Calc BC or Physics even when your school DOES offer them does not preclude admission. Graduating from MIT requires advanced coursework in these areas, to be sure, but no one will care if you didn’t exhaust every class option your high school offered in higher math and physics.</p>
<p>Take those (or the equivalent community college) courses out of a genuine interest either for the course content or in providing yourself with an academic challenge (a surmountable one).</p>
<p>Is the opposite of what is true for MIT. We love to see students take CC classes. I hope that your course doesn’t get canceled, but if it does, you absolutely should seek out higher math courses rather than not take one at all, etc.</p>
<p>w/o AP Calc BC, you have little option besides going to the community college. Colleges know what courses schools offer and they will not hold it against you if the course is simply not available.</p>
<p>Other things to consider might be AP Stat, but I still think Calc, even at CC, is better. On top of that, if you took it at the cc you would actually learn more since you would do Calc 2 fall semester (that covers the BC material) and Calc 3 (entire semester beyond BC) spring semester. You could even sign up for the BC test w/o having taken the class and tell MIT that you plan to take the BC test b/c the class is not offered.</p>
<p>As for science, you should take some form of physics during high school but it does not have to be AP. You could take AP Chem next year and take Physics Hon. alongside. You could also take Physics at the community college, but you need to make sure it has lab and is preferably calc-based. I think taking AP Chem and cc Physics would be too much work at one time. If you want the AP, take AP Chem w/ Hon Physics (since you took AP Bio, you might be interested w/ the bio/med science path, in which case AP Chem fits better than physics). If you are into physics (maybe as a major, or you want engineering or something) take the CC Physics.</p>
<p>AP Physics B is useless for credit (very useful for knowledge) if you plan on going into the physical sciences b/c they require calc-based physics (Phys C). It’s only good if you plan on bio/medical and, even then, it is sometimes not to your benefit (some med schools, for example, won’t consider AP as filling the pre-med reqs so you would have to take Physics again).</p>
<p>To give you my experience: I used to work in my high school’s college office. We always attached out our school’s courses catalog to all prospective colleges that the students had applied. I don’t know about other schools, but my HS did.</p>
<p>AP Physics was cut just before I could’ve taken it, and we never had Calc BC. I didn’t take community college classes, and I still got in - so no, not impossible.</p>
<p>But what other people said. If you want to learn more material and think a community college is the best route to go, go for it. But don’t do it “because of MIT”.</p>
<p>To the OP - like I’ve posted before, whether or not you take these classes, odds are heavily against getting into MIT anyway. People obviously have gotten in without the classes you mention. A ton of people with those classes probably get rejected.</p>
<p>Focus on making sure you’re a well-developed thinker before you enter college, and put effort into your application to MIT. Read a good book if you want to learn more math or physics. If you’d really like to have those classes on your transcript, of course take them outside your school.</p>
<p>If only AP credit is accepted for transfer purposes at many schools you’re considering, consider taking the AP exam anyway - it’s some money, for sure, but if you learn the material well, it’s worth trying to move on.</p>
<p>If you want to study physics and math, you could take a community college class like others have mentioned, but I would supplement it with lectures from MIT’s open courseware project: [Free</a> Online Course Materials | MIT OpenCourseWare](<a href=“http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm]Free”>MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials)</p>
<p>I watched these lectures when things weren’t clear in class, and I’m sure they’d help you learn as much as if not more than what you would learn in an AP class. You also need textbooks, though, with practice problems. Since you’ll be building on the stuff you learn there in college, you need that foundation to be solid. I recommend Single Variable Calculus With Vector Functions for Ap Calculus by James Stewart; and Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick, and Walker for Physics C–good explanations and practice problems, as well as a sense of humor. :)</p>
<p>If you want, I’m sure you could then take the AP Physics C and Calc BC exams in May and get 5s. :)</p>