The academic requirements for Mellon College of Science are:
4 years English
4 years Mathematics*
1 year Chemistry
1 year Physics
1 year Biology
2 years Foreign Language
3 electives
My problem is that I have 5 years of physics and 1 year of biology, but I have not taken a chemistry course in high school. I’m going in to my senior year and I was considering taking Honors or AP Chemistry, but our really good chemistry teacher left my school, which means that there may not be Honors or AP Chemistry offered at my school during my senior year, or if it is, the teacher is someone who has never taught before, never taught chemistry before, and just graduated college with a degree in physics.
My question is, first, does not having chemistry immediately disqualify me from applying and being accepted to Mellon College of Science? And second, if it does disqualify me, what is the best course of action for me to take?
Take Chemistry. It’s pretty clear MCS expects it. Also, how did you take 5 years of physics in your first 3 years of high school?
I meant to specify that I’ll have 5 years by the time I graduate. It’s because I took AP Physics 1 sophomore year, AP Physics 2 junior year, and I have AP Physics C Mechanics and E&M, along with AP Physics Lab (not actually an AP class, just something my principal created for me to be in and take courses online since I can’t get to local universities for concurrent enrollment).
As for chemistry I’m not sure my school has a chemistry class this year, as we’re over budget, lost all our chem teachers (except for IB), and can’t hire more teachers. If we do have one, it’s going to be atrocious, which scares me to death.
@KingNerdIII Unfortunately, regardless of your situation, Mellon College of Science requires that one year of chemistry. Maybe consider an online option such as FLVS.
@MandomeLife thanks. Do schools accept the class from FLVS as a supplement to the transcript I have from my high school? Also, I see classes listed at my school called Integrated Physics & Chemistry or Integrated Biology & Chemistry. Do these count as a year of chemistry or does the class need to be pure chemistry?
Edit: also, do I have to be in the Florida school system to use FLVS?
@KingNerdIII Yep, FLVS is accredited, so colleges do accept transcript from them as a supplement to your high school transcript.
Regarding if you have to be in Florida, I just checked and found out some bad news. To Florida residents, FLVS is free (because it’s essentially part of the public school system). But to OOS students, it’s $400 for one semester. I’m not sure if you’re willing to spend money on that – it’s basically a self-study platform where you read-to-learn. You can read more about it here:
https://www.flvs.net/global-school
@MandomeLife I’m going to look for schools like FLVS in Colorado. Thanks for the tip.
@KingNerdill what did you take for science in 9th grade year? One of my kids did her chem. at that time.
You should check with CMU on the physics/chem integrated course question because that may work (and your thing is obviously physics).
Caveat: You have a lot of just one science on your transcript. For a PhD student that works, for a hs student that may not work! You are still young and should be exposed to a variety of sciences (you are applying to Mellon College of Science, not the Mellon College of Physics). You should look into a straight-up chem. course. Otherwise your transcript will continue to look like you are avoiding this class (not good - you’ll probably have to take Chem in college as well so you don’t want to give the impression that you can’t do or won’t do it).
Good luck to you!
@Mamelot for 9th grade I took Biology. Sophomore year I was supposed to take AP Physics 1 and AP Chemistry, but when the teacher for AP Chemistry had never taught chemistry before, and after two weeks the class was dissolved since she obviously had no idea how to teach the subject (she spent the first week of school reading the textbook to learn what chemistry is) and the school did not have the money to find a replacement.
After talking to my counselor at school, it’s either integrated chemistry and physics or nothing, since AP Chemistry and Honors Chemistry are full with 45(!) students in each.
@KingNerdIII you should definitely speak with your CMU admissions rep and find out which makes more sense: the integrated course or independent study. Latter will have some challenges due to need for lab work.
Also, Get on the wait list for both Chems because one of those 90 kids is going to drop shortly after the school year starts! Then the problem fixes itself.