So I’m a junior about to go to my senior year in high school and I decided I want to get ahead in math to take AP Calculus. My Counselor told me some online programs where I can take classes online. But my counselor has told me this that if I do take a Pre-Calculus class over the summer and get into AP Calculus, I won’t be able to take Physics since AP Calculus and Physics would be conflicting in my schedule as in both are in the same period. My school doesn’t offer honors or AP Physics just regular. I plan on going into Engineering and trying to get into a UC.
So my question is: Should I take Pre-calculus with Physics or take Calculus only and which route would help me get into a UC?
Heres some information on where I stand in my school
GPA:3.8 (weighted), 3.5 (unweighted)
Class rank: 7 out of 170
SAT: (took it in June, still waiting for scores to come in)
I have took AP English language and Composition, AP US history, AP Biology, and AP European History.
Also these would be my schedule for my senior year depending how things go:
1.AP English literature and Composition
2.AP Calculus AB 3.US government (1st semester) and Economics (2nd semester)
4.Spanish 3
5.Project lead the way Principles of Engineering
6. My counselor and I will discuss another class I can take when school starts up
or
1.AP English literature and Composition
2.Physics
3.AP US government (1st semester) and Economics (2nd semester)
4.Spanish 3
5.Pre-Calculus
6.Project lead the way Principles of Engineering
I agree with NASA2014 you should take the precalculus and physics next year since you are interested in engineering. There is a section on the common app (not sure about the UC app) to explain difficult circumstances so you could explain this scheduling conflict there which I’m sure would help you.
Your high school offers physics and calculus in only one time slot which happens to be the same one? Seems stupid, since some of the same students will want to take both.
In any case, physics in college will be harder if you have not seen it at the high school level before.
Yeah its probably due to that if my school set it up with another time slot/period it would probably create more conflicting classes so they probably set it up like this to avoid that issue.
Expand your school horizons too. Engineering is very competitive at the UCs and, depending on your test results, a 3.5 might not get you in. Good luck.
what @eyemgh said. You can look at the various UCs to see their admit GPA. At Davis, for example, the 25% percentile weighted gpa was 3.92 (https://www.ucdavis.edu/admissions/undergraduate/student-profile) and you have a 3.8. While a 3.8 is pretty good, the competition is tough and you’d be in the bottom 25% of all admits. I suspect the gpa for engineering is even higher. So for you the UCs seem to be reaches.
No harm (except the expense) in applying to UCs but be sure to apply to the CSU campuses too, including your local one since they have local service areas.
I agree @mikemac that my GPA is either slightly on the low side or very low for some of the UC schools but it does fit in the ranges on a few UC schools but the UC system does look on other things listed here: