<p>No, I still don’t think it’s convincing. MITChris, an admissions committee member, could say more definitively. However, it isn’t always appropriate for admissions committee members to explain how things work lest people try to game the system. Pretty much what they’ll say is something like you need to have exhausted all of your schools resources.</p>
<p>Regardless, calc-based physics and regular physics are very different. </p>
<p>To answer your second question, I’m about 99% sure you can’t defer matriculation to another school and then try for something better senior year.</p>