So I am starting school in two weeks and I am going to be a senior.
My Schedule for senior year is:
AP Calc AB
AP English Lit
AP Art History (Required art course)
AP Gov. and Politics
AP Psychology
Honors Physics
Spanish 4
Phys. Ed.
At my high school, honors physics is the hardest class that can be taken. I have taken AP Chemistry, and it is supposed to be harder than that. It is known as the infamous GPA killer, the teacher is unreasonable and students seem to not like him. Since i still have to take my SAT for a higher score, and I have subject tests and my other classes, I feel as if Honors Physics will give me so much unneeded stress that may not even make too much of a difference to colleges. Should I drop physics? I am not applying to a STEM major, I am applying for either business or political science. I am applying to pretty selective schools however (Berkeley, UCLA, NYU, Northeastern, Boston University)
Will colleges think less of me if I don’t take a science my fourth year?
(Honors Bio freshmen year, regular chem sophomore year, and AP Chem junior year)
Taking regular physics instead of honors is an option, but the curriculums are very similar and the teacher is the same. Help me out, what do you think?
If you are good at math (which you are since you are in calculus in high school), then high school physics should not be that difficult.
Your question and variants does seem to be fairly common around these forums, in that many students seem to be afraid of high school physics for some reason.
@ucbalumnus I am decent at math, but many of student who are much better than I am (top 10 in the class) have taken this course and have gotten Bs. I want to know if it is worth all the stress because it will be a huge weight off of my shoulders to not take it. With that being said, I am keeping an open mind.
I was in same situation. Taking regular physics as senior because I felt it was very important to colleges. Many colleges have BCP checklist—biology, chem, physics. Not a science person, but this will be first regular science class I’ll be taking.
There are many more than nine students ranked higher than me. I do not know exact numbers and grades, but a good estimate would be that 90% of students who took honors physics got a B or lower. Especially since I will be dealing with college apps and many other things, It will be ridiculously hard for an A. And towards the end of the year with senior trip, prom and stuff like that, a B will probably be hard to maintain
I strongly encouarge you to take physics. I think most colleges, especially selective ones, expect to see physics. Why not drop one of your five APs, especially if you already have a few under your belt. If anything is going to negatively affect your grade, it’s going to be taking five APs. At the very least, take regular physics. Taking regular courses, when the rest of your courses are most rigorous, isn’t going to kill your chances. My D had a couple of non-honors courses on her transcript, but still had the “most rigorous” designation.
Here is what it says on the UC website:
Two years (three years recommended) of laboratory science providing fundamental knowledge in two of these three foundational subjects: biology, chemistry and physics. The final two years of an approved three-year integrated science program that provides rigorous coverage of at least two of the three foundational subjects may be used to fulfill this requirement. A yearlong interdisciplinary science course can meet one year of this requirement.
Note the word “recommended.” The competition is fierce. By not taking physics, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.
Definitely choose a physics course, if not honors. All the most selective colleges are going to be looking for the “holy trinity” of sciences (Bio, Chem, Physics) and if they don’t see them you will be immediately at a disadvantage in the admissions process.
It will make a difference; take it. Your admissions decisions will be made before you finish the course (so killing your GPA at end of senior year is not an issue unless you were gunning for Val or Sal) and it is unlikely you would be rescinded for a B or even a C.
A student will not be rescinded for a B ever. Being rescinded for multiple Cs MIGHT possibly happen, but I highly doubt it, even then. No college will rescind for a single C. (But there is probably a CCer out there who will refute that:-)
At my kids’ school there was no option to skip Physics. It was mandatory and for a reason. These days, you need Physics, Bio, and Chem to be considered for competitive colleges.
Can you take regular physics online instead of at your school?
If not, take regular physics, not honors - it sounds like your honors teacher uses the coursebas a sort of weeder for future stem majors and you’re not going to be in that field.
Thank you for all the feedback!
I gather from these responses is that it is okay to not take honors, but I should definitely take regular physics because many colleges look for the three sciences and I will be at a severe disadvantage if i skip one. @MurphyBrown I am going to either be majoring in business or political science so science will not be very relevant. There only online physics course that is offered through my school is AP Physics B, (because there is no AP physics taught in class at my school). So that is definitely not an option. I think i am going to go the route of regular physics. What do you guys think?
And just to clarify, the only AP Classes i have taken already were AP Chem and AP English language. I got an A- in chem and a B+ in english. They were both in my junior year. (No APs offered freshmen year, only APUSH offered sophomore year wasn’t an interest of mine at that time)
AP physics 1 is more in depth but less broad than honors physics so the online class may be an option if the teacher at your school is terrible/attila.
But taking regular physics is okay, too.
I never took physics (awful at math, prospective English major) and applied to NYU & BU and was accepted to both. However, if you are decent at math you should be fine. Since your schedule is pretty challenging already, I would say regular physics seems like a good option here.
Even to gain admission at the most elite colleges, it is not strictly essential. I know a # of HYPSM level admits who did not take it.
I would though recommend AP Calculus and at least one of the AP Sciences: Biology, Chemistry or Physics. But you have apparently already accomplished that.
But… if you are applying for a STEM undergraduate major, they will, in all candor, likely look more favorably on you for having attempted it, even if it leads to a B vs an A. Neither of my daughters took AP Physics. If your plans are not STEM, as my daughters weren’t, I would personally take something else and relieve yourself of the obvious stress about it
