I’m a sophomore in high school and I’m currently planning out my junior and senior year classes. Would taking AP Chem be better than not taking AP Physics? Would I still seek admission to most colleges?
Will you be taking all of biology, chemistry, and physics (not necessarily AP) in high school?
I haven’t taken a single physics course. Freshman year I took honors bio and right now I’m taking honors chemistry. I want to study medicine and my counselor and I were talking about skipping physics completely and taking AP Chem junior year and AP Bio senior year. I trying to apply to very selective colleges so I’m a bit worried about my decision.
Can you take AP Chem and AP Physics your junior year, and then AP Bio senior year? That’s what I’m doing this year as junior.
If you are going into a STEM field, it is best to have the most STEM classes under your belt in high school. Of course you should only take the amount of AP classes you feel comfortable with, but if your school offers AP Physics I and AP Physics II, I would recommend taking both. I took AP Bio and AP Physics I my junior year and AP Chem and AP Physics II my senior year. That’s a lot of work, so I understand if you don’t want to load up on sciences like that, but keeping the recurring theme of science throughout your high school career is important. All of the sciences intersect so having all types of science classes makes you not only a better candidate for college, but also gives you more knowledge to potentially become a better scientist in general.
Like what @musicbooksandtea it’s best to have all of the STEM classes learned. It will pay off in the end, however whatever floats your boat will do. You don’t HAVE to do it, but it will help greatly later. Good luck!
should probably take physics
see if you can do some crazy thing and double down for sciences in one year like zbth said, or see if there is a community college near you offering a summer physics class for credit
If you have to take physics in college and have had no exposure in high school, it could be tough. Why does it have to be AP?
^^ Agree - think about taking regular Physics in HS. That gives you exposure to the concepts in case you need it later. And it’s very math oriented so you should be fine getting through it, especially if it’s not the AP version
ETA: just looked at Biochem, Chem, and Biology degree requirements for a good STEM school I’m familiar with. All require a college level Physics class. Maybe other schools don’t require that but I’d be surprised. And any engineering degree will require Physics. So if you’re looking at a degree in science or engineering, I’d take Physics in HS.
My advice to you is to take both if possible. Then when you get to college you can choose which one to pursue.
Make sure you take physics.
Take physics.
You said your counselor and you were talking about skipping physics. First, make sure to check the grad requirements for your school to confirm this is correct. I imagine your counselor is aware of the school’s requirements but you should own the process and check to be sure.
Second, you said you are looking at selective schools. Go on to each college’s website and familiarize yourself with the high school curriculum the schools you are interested in would like to see. Not to say that a school won’t accept you if you haven’t completed each of these courses but you will be competing against many other highly qualified students so why put yourself in the best situation? I understand you are interested in medicine but keep in mind, there will be many students with 5 years of science so add in physics and it doesn’t need to be AP since you are taking AP classes in the courses that you are interested in.
Short answer: take physics
Longer answer (your GC should help with this):
- first determine the requirements to graduate from your hs (at ours it's any 3 units of science);
- determine the requirements for your state universities (at ours, you need 3 units total of lab science, but that has to include one each from 3 different areas: chemistry, biology, physics, earth science or integrated science}
- look up the admission requirements of other colleges you might be interested in; call or email the college's admission department to clarify anything that's not clear on the college's website.
It concerns me that your GC is letting you consider skipping physics if you want to apply to “very selective” colleges. It makes me wonder how experienced the GC is. For our state universities, for example, you could get by with biology, chemistry and earth science and skip physics. But our school’s GC’s would definitely caution you that very selective schools almost always expect physics.
Agree, taking physics would be important. It could seem like you are going into STEM but avoiding one of the main fields at the high school level. Seems like you could just take regular physics, though, if you have lots of other APs, which sounds like it’s the case. Good luck and make sure to have fun in high school too.
@JustUrBina - What’s the reason you and your counselor are thinking you should avoid physics?
If you want to be a pre-med in college, or study any science (including biology), you will need to take physics in college. If you have not had high school physics, you will find physics in college to be more difficult.
I think the GC is thinking AP chem and bio will look better for premed. But it depends on what 'very selective ’ means to this OP.
Physics matters for stem. What about summer school or DE chem or bio?
For very selective colleges, some type of physics may not be required, but it’s also expected by most applicants. In general, most of the very selective colleges want to see the STEM basics covered (calc, physics, chem, bio). While exceptions can exist, the failure to have physics in HS can only hurt you. With that said, it definitely does not have to be AP Physics. My son was accepted to several very selective schools and did not take AP Physics, but did take physics otherwise. Fwiw, he did take AP Chem and AP Bio.
Also check the college. Wesleyan University specifically looks for all three sciences, and says in their materials that 85% of their entering freshmen have taken Bio, Chem AND Physics.