Appreciate your comments. Kid likes to work with their hands and has been doing advanced math course work over the years. Has preferred physics over bio and chem, as well as a college DE Python programming course. So, given their course exposure and some small past summer experiences, MechEng does speak to their current interests. (Of course, this could change, but it’s not coming from me as I didn’t do engineering in school, but my spouse and father both did, so there could be a generational component - just a different branch of engineering from what they studied).
The school does offer AP Bio and AP Environmental Science, but my student may not be able to take them (sport gets in the way). So if they could test AP 1 & 2 Algebra-based (with review and supplemental study) that would help the transcript make sense to AOs.
The OP brought up a good point about courses taken in order to do well on the AP Physics 1 test. Their query as to coursework differences between AP Physics versus honors-level Physics is what inspired me to ask my question. Appreciate that they asked this question.