Which course should I select: Honors Physics or French IV

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hey CC,

First time posting, but I’d really appreciate your opinions.

As a sophomore this year, I am currently finishing up my second year of French. It has been a long grind, not because of my grades (straight A+), but because my teacher is incompetent, and the class often times made me feel as if I was losing brain cells because of all the useless work we do.

I was glad to have an excuse of dropping the class to pick up Honors Physics, along with AP Bio. In order to qualify for AP Physics C in our school, Honors Physics was an absolute prerequisite. However, recently our school has announced that they will taking away this prerequisite so that students without any previous high school Physics exposure can take AP Physics C.

Since I no longer have the excuse of a prerequisite to save me from the jaws of French IV, I am very conflicted about which class I should take. On one hand, I’m worried that AP Physics might be tough if I go into it blind, but on the other, I might appear to be lazy to the more selective colleges out there if I do not take a third year of French, despite my hatred towards the class (no hate towards the language itself).

There are also lots of other contributing factors:

  1. I take band as my elective, and I will be a Drum Major next year. I could have dropped this to fit both Physics and French into my schedule, but I love band and I would never drop it.

  2. I have been attending Chinese school for ten years (graduating this year :D) and I am fluent in Mandarin, and I plan on taking the SAT subject test for it this November. I am confident I will do well, but since I am an American Born Chinese (ABC), the language is basically native to me, and probably not as impressive to colleges.

  3. My school offers an AP Psych class, which I could self study, but the unanimous decision throughout the student body is that the class is an extremely rewarding experience. Therefore, I will not postpone French IV until senior year. I am also not certain if colleges that recommend/require three years of a FL want them to be consecutive years or not.

Here is my schedule for Junior Year: (H) means Honors
AP Bio
AP Lang
Precalc (H)
World History (H)
French IV (H) or Physics (H)
Advanced Band (H)
Gym/Study/Lab Period (Required)

Here is my planned schedule for Senior Year:
AP Calc BC
AP Stats
AP Physics C
AP Psych
British Lit (H)
Advanced Band (H)
Study/Health (Required)

So to sum it up, I either suffer through a third year of French, in order to show that I am dedicated to the language, or I can take Honors Physics and get some exposure for AP Physics C, which I have yet to do in my high school career. I have seen a lot of people on CC say that the algebra based Honors Physics is useless for AP Physics, but with my lack of Physics and Calculus experience, I’m worried I’ll struggle through the class.

Please reply, any input would be great!

2

More selective colleges see three years of a foreign language as the bare minimum. I think that you should continue of with French. I’d agree with you as far as your fluency in Mandarin not being super impressive, but it’s commendable nonetheless.

3

Update:
I am unable to take either class due to scheduling problems… However, there is a VHS AP Physics 1 course that I can sign up for so not all is lost. AP French was also an option, but with my lack of preparation, I’d rather not put myself through that.