My D is debating on taking physics her senior year, but she wants to keep her gpa up so she will go right into taking AP. I hope she can handle it. She’s is currently taking AP calc AB and next year she will take BC so I hope that helps. She was told to take physics if she wants to be competitive. So stressful for these kids today.
Thanks everyone for the input! She is taking pre-calc next year…the interest in engineering has come a little late in the game. It’s looking like pre-AP or AP 1 physics may have to work. In hindsight she probably should not have done IB Math SL.
@carachel2 – I agree with you; pre-calc and Physics C would not go well together! I know nothing about IB as we really don’t see it in the northeast (sweeping generalization), so don’t know if any of its content would help with physics.
@greeny8 - agree with you that it is so much stress on these students. My younger son is a stronger student than my older one, so for him this is all fine, but the younger one really struggled with wanting to take a few APs as his friends were. Not the right path for everyone.
If she will be taking Pre-Calc in her senior year, I don’t think she should consider AP Physics C in senior year.
Honors Physics or Pre AP Physics sounds fine for her.
She could try to do a summer Pre-Calc course at a community college or an on-line course with a prior approval and understanding from school math department that they would move her to AP Calc AB or BC in the fall.
DS17 did on-line Pre-Calc course during freshman summer, but without school authorization unlike another student. They did not allow him moving up, so he ended up repeating Pre-Calc in sophomore year. He is in BC calc in junior year and will take Calc 3 (diff eq) and AP Physics C in senior year.
My gripes. DS diid not take AMC12 even though it was offered at his school after school.
He refuses to go to math club/competitions when he would be the best mathlete at school. He was in the math club during middle school and made MathCounts school team for three years.
The AMC answers are on-line, and yes, from that, it is possible to determine if one made AIME or not.
I love the terms mathlete and mathletics 
Who’s doing tours spring break?
@2muchquan – Feb break (survived) and April break (trying to brace myself).
We are driving to UIUC for an academic competition and then visiting UKy on our way home. Dd has arranged to sit in on a class and meet with the 2 depts she is interested in. The 2 other schools we need to visit are in different directions. We will turn those into day trips probably in late April. Then we will have visited the key schools she is considering.
We are visiting Univ of Penn on Tuesday of spring break week and Temple on Wed. May try to just walk around Swarthmore Haverford and Drexel if we have time. We are only about 1 1/2 hours away. Then Thursday S gets wisdom teeth removed so that won’t be fun.
We are going a little south to get away. Duke, Elon, Davidson, Furman, Clemson, UofSC.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek – if you have time after your UIUC visit, please update with your thoughts. It is on my son’s list, but just impossible to fly around the country to every school on his list. Thanks!
We were going to visit and sit in, but now we are going to the beach and relax. AP exams are coming up…and the SAT to hopefully qualify for NMF. I thought it would be better for us all. Now I am thinking…should we? We are sticking to regionally…midwest and south/southeastern.
A change of subject. GC told DD that the school can provide her ranking to schools or whatever she is applying, but they can’t give the ranking directly to her. Is this a common practice?
Will the ranking count first two years at this point? The ranking when she applies college will be 3 years ranking, right?
Thank you!!
2muchquan, if you are going to the Carolinas, may I suggest Wake Forest. If you are looking at Duke, it is an interesting slightly easier alternative. Beautiful campus, ACC Sports, similar size. MY S and I really liked it. We also saw Elon, UNC, and Duke on the same trip. We will be doing a middle atlantic and midweek trip this break. Enjoy.
@CT1417 be aware of budget issues with UIUC. We are in IL, and it is broke and dysfunctional! Have not looked closely at UIUC, since in-state it is kind of expensive. We did visit on the way back from a WashU trip.
FYI, we are 5 mins from Northwestern in case anyone wants to send their kid solo, or has questions.
@SincererLove …wow that’s different! Ds school updates the school grade portal twice a year to reflect the rank change/ update. And then the kids tweet about it within seconds lol.
Our school doesn’t rank. Period. I asked our College/Career Counselor if they provide it to schools that need/use it for scholarships, and she just re-iterated: “We don’t rank, and couldn’t provide it if we wanted to.”
At first I was kind of PO’d about the policy. But, having done some research, I really don’t think it’s an issue, even at schools that say ranking is ‘important’ in admissions (CDS C7). Our HS is pretty large and well known (not ‘great’ or anything), so I think they just ‘know’ where kids stand.
D and I are doing JHU (total reach in every way but I’m a healthcare geek and want to see it!); spending a few days in DC, driving up to Hershey, PA and then west to Pitt. We are spending an entire day at Pitt then to Miami University and then to Purdue. Hopefully will be a fun mother/daughter trip.
So far D’s big exciting “must do” activities for the trip are DC; the Hershey factory, the Cathedral of Learning and did you know that Pitt has “Therapy Dog Tuesdays” at Pitt in the Cathedral of Learning?
Husband had a new project given to him at work and can’t make the tour. That’s ok, he will get to come along to see UA, Clemson, Furman, etc. in late spring or summer.
Our spring break is the last week of March. We’re going to visit the campus and a friend at UC Santa Cruz (plus check out the beach boardwalk) on the first weekend, but not do a tour. We have tours scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at Stanford and UC Berkeley, respectively.
I had been thinking that we could also fit in UC Davis before visiting my dad and CalPoly SLO on the way back, but he passed away last week. So we’ll be heading up to the Sierras for his memorial service after the college tours instead of visiting him. =(( (My executor thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1862757-need-advice-on-being-an-executor.html#latest)