Interestingly, that used to be the College of Engineering model at Penn State but they found out that in reality 1/ many would-be engineers had already taken Calculus in HS and were just reviewing the faster paced Calc1 while taking General (calc based) Physics so that it wasn’t REALLY concurrent learning and 2/ students who HADN’T taken Calculus in HS and had merely followed the recommended path struggled and often gave up (because the class wasn’t really designed for a concurrent learning model even though it had thought it did.)
They revamped the curriculum so that students would take Calculus with Engineering Applications for most freshmen (waived for students with a BC score of 4-5 I think) alongside Engineering Design. Then Calc for Engineering 2 and General Physics1 Spring semester. (To be precise, they can take any form of Calc1 but since there’s one for engineers it’s typically the one they take.)
I assume it works better to have an introduction to calculus before taking calculus-based physics. It still looks super busy and if I had a kid in ME I’d plan on one extra semester or summer sessions after freshman/sophomore years. 
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Depends on whether the student is capable of taking about 17 credits per semester in the first two years and earning a high enough GPA (3.20 for ME according to Undergraduate Advising | ETM - New and Re-enrolling Students - Summer 2020 or Later | Penn State Engineering ).
“normal” is ~15 credits, with 3credits considered “easier” to balance out harder courses. Here, it’s 17 credits and mostly nothing “easier” than the rest. It looks crammed into 8 semesters because that’s what a “typical/normal” BS length looks like when in reality there’s a semester’s worth of extra credits.
I suppose they heavily rely on AP credits.
Pease get back to the OP and stop the back and forth about AP credits.
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Adding late - but if he has never taken physics before, it might help to take it sooner, see if this subject/ direction is of interest. So in the spirit of variety.
This was our understanding as D28 chose classes for this fall. No APs available in 9th or 10th so she has already taken Honors Bio and Honors Chem. Because she wants to major in biology she decided to do AP Bio in 11th so that schools can see that grade and AP score, and then will notice she’s taking Physics in 12th.
"It seriously makes zero difference.
The application asks for senior year courses, so admissions will see"
It could definitely make a difference. First AP Bio is not considered as rigorous as AP Chem, so if the student is applying as a STEM major to selective programs, the best would probably be to take AP Physics or even honors physics in junior year, then take AP Physics or Chem senior year.
Second, that advisor is right, taking Bio, Chem, Physics before senior is also a good idea, since that’s the sequence the high school recommends. If the best students in the class are taking some form physics junior year, and the student doesn’t have that, it will raise a flag, imo.
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