<p>I am a junior interested in going in to engineering. I know that most engineering programs recommend taking physics in high school, but I have a problem. My high school only offers a regular physics course, and no one really takes this course. I would take it, but I am trying to get the best GPA possible in order to raise my class rank and this class is not weighted. Do you think it is a bad idea to try to go in to engineering without taking physics in high school?</p>
<p>If you do not take high school physics, university physics will be more difficult for you, since you will not have seen the basic concepts at the high school level. In addition, you will not have gotten a taste of the subject in high school to help you decide whether you like it.</p>
<p>Are you at or near some sort of important class rank threshold for admission or scholarships such that taking an unweighted course will significantly increase the risk of falling below the threshold?</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus I am currently 28 out of 282 so I am in the top 10% but I would like to get my rank as high as possible.</p>
<p>Are you a Texas resident looking at the top 10% automatic admission threshold?</p>
<p>If so, note that UT Austin’s automatic admission threshold is top 7%, while other Texas public universities have additional automatic admission possibilities (e.g. Texas A&M top 25% with high enough SAT or ACT score).</p>
<p>You should take physics. Colleges will understand if your school only offers regular. Many colleges recommend or require one year each of bio, chem, and physics for admission.</p>
<p>Many colleges will also only look at unweighted GPA’s and not the weighted ones. HS’s weight their GPA’s in many different ways and colleges want to use an even playing field.</p>
<p>If the HS Physics class is as weak as you say, don’t bother, but if you are planning on attending a challenging engineering program, I highly recommend you self study at least the equivalent of a Physics B or the new Physics 1/2 curriculum.</p>
<p>The Intro to Physics sequence at most of the top engineering schools can be BRUTAL. Especially so if you have zero background. You don’t need to master the material but you will have a much better experience in college if you are already familiar with the basics.</p>
<p>What do they mean by “regular physics”? Is there any math level required like Alg II?</p>
<p>Are there any dual-enrollment or online options for which your school would grant credit so that physics would be on your transcript? AP Physics 1 is the new course, which is supposed to work as a first course in HS physics.</p>
<p>If your high school physics teacher is bad (this wouldn’t surprise me) then I’d suggest taking physics online or maybe at a community college if you have enough math for that. If you are just trying to protect your rank, that is a pretty lousy reason to skip physics, and I think you don’t want to be in an engineering program without ever having studied physics if you can possibly avoid that situation.</p>
<p>It’s pretty unusual to want to major in a science, and not take physics in high school.
Colleges do not generally use weighted grades.
Both my daughters took physics, although without calc.
Different high schools, but neither school weighted grades. They each were accepted to all their choices.
What you take and how you do in it, is more important than rank, especially when you have students trying to score as high as possible & disregarding what classes they should be taking.</p>
<p>What will your math education be? Will you have Calculus? AB? BC? Personally, I think your math preparation is the most important factor. And I teach college physics.</p>
<p>Agree you should take it for all sorts of good reasons. The final answer depends on where you want to go to college.</p>
<p>There are many good online high school physics classes. Edx.org and Stanford EPGY are ideas. Community college might be better as it may easier to be engaged if you are taking it in person. </p>
<p>Engineering is a pretty rigorous and structured curriculum, and engineering schools within universities often do not make it easy to transfer to a different school within the system. Therefore you need to be pretty sure you want engineering if you start a degree program. Physics is an important class to help you figure it out. Most engineers I know really made the commitment to engineering after high school physics. If you take it and do not love it, it should give you pause. In the scheme of things understanding yourself is more important than whether you are 28 or 22 or 30 on the class rank list. I also do not recommend taking your first physics class ever on line - it is helpful to be able to ask questions and get extra help.</p>
<p>most schools use class rank based on the end of 11 grade. so senior year courses will not count towards ranking. take physics senior year.</p>
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<p>If you’ve done calc 1, you’ve likely already solved word problems in physics involving velocity & acceleration. Picking up basic physics will be a snap.</p>
<p>Definitely take Physics if you can. I would think that an admisisons person would look askance at a prospective engineering student who has not taken physics if it was offered. Yes, you can it first in college, but you will be competing against people who have already taken it. Don’t worry if it is a good or bad course, take it.</p>
<p>I took college physics (a real lab course required for pre-meds and architects) back in the dark ages without any high school physics. It wasn’t impossible until they got to the end and assumed I knew a bunch of chemistry I had never had. (I had had high school chemistry BTW.) I’d be a little more worried though if I was going into engineering since my understanding is that engineering first year physics courses might be even zippier than the one I took.</p>
<p>Don’t skip Physics.</p>
<p>A bopper notes, you have to get past adcoms. Unless you are targeting colleges that basically just look at stats, it’s much more than rank and whether you think you want engineering. You need to be alert to this and make decisions that reflect the smarts colleges look for. </p>