Hey everyone!
I wanted to hear some opinions on this. I am a rising senior, and am interested in applying to top colleges as a History/Political Science major. This year, I am taking 6 AP classes (Euro, US/Comp Gov, Research, Calc BC, Spanish Lang, English Lit) and Environmental Science (regular). Would it look bad for me to not have taken physics? I have taken Honors Biology and Chemistry, as well as AP Biology and Chemistry in past years of HS.
Switch out environmental science for physics.
Why not take physics instead of (regular) environmental science?
The reason I chose to take Environmental was that I thought it would be more applicable to my major in college. The problem is, right now it might be too late to switch to Physics. How much do you think it would hurt me to stick with Environmental?
Your guidance counselor can tell you if environmental at your school is considered the fluff course for kids who can’t hack real science, or something substantive. It is certainly not more applicable to your college major- a college level course in geology or climatology or oceanography is going to help you- a class taken in HS won’t do much for you. At my kids HS, environmental was the scientific equivalent of “yearbook”, i.e. the kids who couldn’t hack a real literature course with critical reading and writing took yearbook senior year, and the kids who couldn’t hack physics took environmental. But your GC will know the answer.
Depends too on what colleges you are targeting. The competitive schools are going to want to see bio, chem, physics and an AP in one those subjects.
So you guys think it would negatively impact my application? Even if my counselor designates my overall high school course load as “most rigorous”?
It depends on college and the rest of your application. My daughter got in with similar stated goals on APES instead of physics to a top 30, but (1) you may be aiming higher than that and (2) without going into details, she had some unusual aspects of her application that may have offset some of the more usual expectations. Then again, APES at my daughter’s school was a very tough course, but they didn’t have a non-AP environmental course so I’m not sure it’s really comparable to yours. That said, I’m going to dissent slightly and say that with two APs already in bio and chem, and what sounds like a highly rigorous schedule otherwise, I don’t think it’s a dealbreaker even if it’s not ideal. I do still agree that physics in place of environmental would be better.
Update - my GC was able to switch me into Honors Physics instead of Environmental!!!
That’s great. You don’t want an added stress through senior year of worrying about your subject choices. Good luck for the year!