<p>I heard that the theoretical physics is a weed out class for all engineering students before their upper level coursework. Will Dwight Look let me take some of my core classes at any community college during the summer and transfer them (I am still in high school)? I wanted to also just get a jump start on the other core curriculum classes, Political Science, Humanities, U.S. History 207, etc... I'm currently a junior in high school, but I wanted to take 6 hours this summer and another 6 hours before the fall of freshman year...</p>
<p>For the best advice I would suggest looking up the advisor in the engr department you are hoping to enter and email them directly. </p>
<p>And yes, my son is taking 208. It’s hard. He said there are a lot more empty seats in the class now than at first.</p>
<p>PHYS 208 is the class you are hearing about. There are way more poor professors than good ones for this class. The professors make the exams (they aren’t all common exams) therefore the difficulty of the class largely depends on them. You can take it at community college and I have been told by multiple upper classman engineers that this was one of the best decisions they ever made. But do not let this scare you if you are really into physics. Success here mainly hinges on how you as a student apply yourself to the class. It is very much possible to do well in this course, but it is definitely not easy and the cards can be stacked against you from day 1 if you are not careful.</p>
<p>I would ask the department. For my department (Biochem) I can take anything except upper level classes and chemistry. And for university-required courses, A&M will let you transfer pretty much anything that has a Texas Common Course Number. Use their website (TCCNS) to cross check A&M courses to your local community college. Be careful though; too many credit hours will take you out of the running for many freshman scholarships.</p>
<p>PHYS 208 is a weed out class, and it can be challenging, but it is completely do-able. Look at the Registrar’s grade distribution for the different 208 profs as well as websites like pickaprof to find the right professor to take and you will be fine. </p>
<p>You can take it at another school contingent on it being approved by the department, however you might as well get used to taking difficult classes at TAMU as upper level engineering courses only get more challenging and time consuming. Even at the Junior/Senior engineering level, a third of the class failing is common in many classes. Not trying to scare anyone, but I want people to know the reality of engineering at TAMU (as well as other top engineering schools).</p>
<p>^completely agree with what gstein is saying.</p>
<p>I’m taking my physics class at Blinn. BEST DECISION EVER! I think the similar class at Blinn is 2425 or 2426?? Not sure, that’s something for your counselor and yourself to lookup. Back to the point, I’m a Civil Engineering major and I decided to take some of my classes at Blinn for half-tuition… So I’m kinda a Blinn-Team student at the moment and I have to say. It’s wonderful! 3.8 gpa this semester feels so good!</p>
<p>I took ENGL 1301 (ENGL 104 at A&M) and HIST 1301 (HIST 105 at A&M) before arriving on campus this semester. The ENGL is a CBK course so that was an easy A that will help me get into upper level if it gets down to that which I’m hoping it will not. This winter minimester I will be taking HIST 1302, and then this coming summer I’ll be taking PHYS 208’s equivalent and both governments. 1 year of hard work and then I only have my upper level engineering classes I can focus on. Also if I mess up in one of them it won’t hurt my A&M gpa. I know I’d probably slack off in a govt class at a&m with all of the other work to do an probably get a B or C.</p>
<p>has anyone taken honan or freeman for physics 2426 at blinn? Their ratings are quite poor but is it still much better than any prof at tamu? there is one prof at tamu by name of eruckimova. she has by far the best ratings, but regardless would blinn still be better option?</p>
<p>if you can take it at Blinn… take it at Blinn
It was very difficult for my daughter, she ended up with a B but it took tutoring at A+ 3 times a week, two hours at a time for her to squeek out with a B. She ended up with an 80 average and was extremely happy.
She is a 3.78 gpa student, smart girl - physics is just tough!</p>
<p>I had Erukhimova for 218. She is the best you can hope for at A&M in regards to the common exam professors. I think the don’t panic common exam physics is dumb becuase I didn’t learn anything related to what I need to know that many other kids do know for one of my later classes. Try and take the regular physics because you’ll actually learn something there. </p>
<p>I took Physics over the Summer at Austin Community College with Kumar Mitra. Wow what a great teacher and laid back guy. I in no way earned an A in that class but he gave me one anyways.</p>
<p>Too many horror stories with 208 at A&M for me to risk taking it there.</p>
<p>I recommend taking Physics 208 at A&M because with the right professor this topic of physics can be one of the most elegant and fascinating things you learn. But that being said, you have to put in a lot of work to come out with that kind of appreciation of it. And even with all that work, Physics 208 is extremely basic in the grand scheme of it all.</p>
<p>I would certainly recommend 208 to all Electrical Engineering Majors for sure. You will have to take a future class on electric/magnetic field theory, and a true university level introduction to the subject matter would be fairly helpful.</p>
<p>thanks… considering blinn very seriously now :)</p>
<p>Wish my daughter had taken it at Blinn… She is taking it this semester with Bassachis (*sp) and it’s a bear! If she can’t pull through with at least a C, we will be considering Blinn for the summer. I know the necessity of weeding people out that aren’t really cut out for engineering, but seems like many of these top engineering schools are weeding out too many young people who really would be good at engineering but give up because of the weed out classes like this one.</p>