I’m a junior in high school and I’m interested in majoring in Physics during college.
At the moment, I’m in AP Physics after skipping regular Physics and I’m in AP Calculus AB after skipping Pre-Calc. In my school, there is not anything after AP Physics I (I think, it’s algebra-based). I’m really not interested in the other AP science courses in my school which are chem, bio, and environmental. These classes are also really time consuming for something that I’m not interested in.
I talked to my guidance counselor and my AP of science about this problem. My AP of science said that I could take two math courses next year, AP Calc BC and AP Stat and no science. I would be really happy to do this, but I’m worried that it would look strange on my transcript to have taken five math classes in total (Algebra, Geometry, Trig/Algebra II, Calc AB, and Calc BC) and only three science courses (Biology, Chemistry, and AP Physics).
Would this decision make my chances for getting into certain colleges decrease? Can I take a summer college course in Physics where only Calc I is a prerequisite to make up for this? If I HAVE to take an AP science class, which one would look best for my goals of majoring Physics and then maybe moving into Astrophysics or Quantum Physics?
Thank you!
PS- In addition to these classes I’m taking APs in every other subject, except Language, which I dropped. So that’s English, History, and then Math and Science.
Personally I’d take AP Chem. I just looked up the physics major four-year plan at my school, and they’re supposed to take Chem 1 and a lab first semester. AP credit would get you out of that, and you’d get experience in another AP science.
You have plenty of options. I would suggest striving for the 4th unit of science. Like @bodangles said, AP Chem is a strong option. Note that at my college, chem is not required for a physics major, but the experience is still valuable.
A summer college course is also an option, although IME, there generally are not many summer offerings in physics past the intro class, but it might be different in your area.
You have a year of each of the three main sciences, so you should be ok for most colleges. But the most selective ones may prefer a fourth year of science at an advanced level.
Some colleges’ physics majors do have chemistry requirements, which can sometimes be fulfilled with AP chemistry credit. If this is the case for colleges you are applying to, then you may want to consider taking AP chemistry and the AP test so that you can avoid those giant general chemistry courses filled with grade-grubbing pre-meds.
I was just talking with my Physics teacher and he mentioned wanting to create a new Astronomy course. I don’t think it would be AP, if they even have AP Astronomy, but would that be a good option? I don’t know how it would look not taking all APs after doing so this year. If it was AP, I would definitely join no question
This really depends on how the course is structured. My guess is if this class were to be offered, it would be targeted to the non-STEM kids, in which case, no, it would not be your best option.
Astronomy courses (and statistics courses for that matter going back to your original post) tend to be more rigorous in college (and are often calculus-based) so in the long run, you are better served taking those types of classes in college.