I found out my school offers a physics course called “Physics of the universe” for freshman only. I think this has to do with “physics first” of something. I’m pretty sure this is a conceptual physics class which is physics minus all of the math, and I’m pretty sure it is just a dumbed-down version of regular or honors physics class which is what I’m currently taking.
What I want to know is how do colleges see this. Would they know it is a dumbed-down physics class? Would that person have to take another physics course again to meet admission requirements for some schools such as MIT which requires physics for admissions. It seems, however, any freshman in algebra 2 got honor or regular physics, yet for all the freshman going into algebra 1, they got the dumbed-down class.
No. Although an applicant for MIT would likely also have AP Physics C.
At MIT, you only get credit for the first course (mechanics) in the physics sequence for scoring 5s on both AP Physics C exams (yes, you’re required to get a 5 on AP Physics C E&M exam even though you get no credit on the E&M course at MIT). At Caltech, you don’t even get any course credit. College physics courses, especially at top schools, are taught at different levels, regardless of what physics courses you take in HS.
With regard to your specific question, I personally don’t think studying physics conceptually first is necessarily a bad thing, depending on how the course is taught, and by whom. Conceptual understandings of the “physics” of physics is actually more important than the mathematical aspects of it. For good physicists or people with good physics training, the math is the relatively simple and straightforward part, understanding how things work physically at the most fundamental level is much more difficult.
They probably wouldn’t be rejected for failing to meet the minimum requirements. But I suspect it would be a significant hurdle to gaining admission (if it’s as you describe, and the only physics class).