<p>Hi. I’m a junior this year, and am looking forward to do engineering in college (perhaps chemical engineering). I am faced with a little dilemma concerning my course selection for my senior year. I know chemE is a lot of physics, so I originally planned to take AP Chem and AP physics C. However, I realized our physics teachers really SUCK. I really think that if I self study for Physics C, it will be more efficient than taking the course (I have a pretty strong math background). </p>
<p>What do you think would be wise courses to take senior year?</p>
<li><p>AP Chem (awesome teacher), self study AP Physics C (maybe skip a semester of college physics)</p></li>
<li><p>AP Chem + AP Physics C (bad teacher)</p></li>
<li><p>not take the AP exam for both (to retake them in college)</p></li>
<li><p>take the AP exam for both and skip intro chem and intro physics in college.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>What would you pick if you were me? (considering I have a strong science/math background).</p>
<p>Option 3, IMO. Take the classes, but don't bother with the exam, if you can. That's how it was in my day. That way you'll get a good intro to the material you will be taking your first semester in college, and that would be very helpful since you will still be getting use to going to college (because there's a lot more to college than classes). Additionally it's your senior year and I don't think it's wise to get so concentrated on classes that you can't have any fun. Finally, the direction you'll get in college will be much better than some lousy AP teacher. Don't sacrifice your foundation classes or the rest of your education will suffer.</p>
<p>I vote for option 3 also: take both AP's regardless of the teacher quality, but don't take the AP exams. They are in the spring and won't help you with your admissions anyway. Additionally, engineering school usually has a very rigid curriculum, so it will probably be impossible to graduate early. The most skipping the intro courses could to is to allow for one or two technical electives.</p>
<p>My son is a junior engineer who took every almost AP class available in hs, where he got A's. However, he intended to take the normal course of classes in college so he didn't take the AP exams. It worked out well for him. He has 4.0 while some students who skipped classes found themselves not up to the task of higher level courses. I don't think you can assume that all hs AP classes will be equivalent to college courses.</p>
<p>As an engineer you might want to be able to take some of the more advanced fascinating classes. Think upper division classes. Classes on microfabrication, robotics, artificial intelligence, and whatever else. Or you could be scrambling to finish up major requirements because you were taking Calc I, Chem I, Physics I in freshman year. Just my $0.02</p>
<p>Noooo, just check out the curriculum schedule for a few schools. You can certainly finish in four years. Keep in mind that some courses are sequential, so they need to be taken in order rather than concurrently. The other benefit to staying "on schedule" is that you will stay in class with the same people and develop study groups for homework and tests.</p>
<p>I found students at my school that did not AP out of certain classes were required to take a heavier course load to graduate in 4 years, but it is certainly doable.</p>
<p>The best advice I think I ever received with this was to AP out of as many classes as you can, which for me was Calc I and II and Chem. It kinda depends on what you plan on studying, for me, physics in college was somewhat important as a MechE major. I think intro to physics is less important to ChemE's so AP'ing out might not be a bad idea.</p>
<p>All I'm saying is that by getting the basics maths and sciences out of the way early you can get the basic major requirement courses out of the way early too which will leave you time in your junior and senior year to (A) have a lighter schedule (B) Do research or (C) be able to take classes on more advanced and more interesting topics that you wouldn't be able to do otherwise...</p>
<p>Wow! thanks for the advices.<br>
I think I will certainly not skip calc based physics then (maybe, I'll take it at a Community college before taking it again in a 4-yr university). Maybe I'll skip Chemistry if I feel that our awesome (and harsh) chemistry teacher prepares us enough for college.</p>