@Gatortristan Thanks, I had a feeling it would be a bad idea. Right now, I’m locked into either APES or regular Physics. I would heavily prefer to take the advanced class, and I think if they ask I can explain my reasoning for not having taken Physics (wanted to take more advanced science classes instead of general physics, never had time for it in my schedule).
Our school unfortunately doesn’t offer any physics classes beyond general Physics and AP Physics C: Mechanics.
Thanks @daniel98609!! Can you eliminate English at Cornell completely with a 5 on AP Lit exam (assuming English isn’t your major), I know some colleges that allow that…? I’m not gonna go for a Engineering degree just to avoid English, though. I couldn’t think of doing anything besides astrophysics.
My AP Physics 1 and 2 teacher wants to kill our school’s ability to offer Physics C next year (which would be the first time our school offers it, too) just because most of the students signed up have never taken Physics before. I disagree with her considering how it’s the equivalent of a first year college intro physics course (so kids in college take a very similar class as their first physics course ever) but also because I have taken Physics 1 and 2 already and would like to take Physics again for my senior year. I looked at the equation sheets for the class, they look just like the Physics 1 and 2 equation sheets but with calculus (same equations, but using derivatives and integrals I already used in Physics 1 and 2 anyway, with maybe 2 or 3 new equations for the electromagnetism part of the course).
Physics 1 and 2 were hard though (my entire class practically failed every test my teacher gave out, so each test had some ridiculous curve so the entire class didn’t fail the course), so I guess there is some merit to the whole “don’t take Physics C as your first physics course” idea, but then again, aren’t there a lot of kids, especially on CC (and just in the realm of high schoolers in general), who took Physics C as their first physics course? Don’t a lot high schools only offer Physics C in terms of AP Physics classes?
@Gatortristan On a completely unrelated topic, are you familiar with undergrad research at Cornell? How early could an undergrad do research (sophomore year, junior year, etc)? Is it tough to get a research position considering how they have graduate kids to give research positions to?
@ArthurDent42 Not sure when you’re allowed to( i think it’s second semester freshman year though) but everyone on the tour said it’s really easy to get research internships with professors just by asking them.
@daniel98609 If I was in your place I would take APES. I don’t think not taking physics will dock you any real points especially if you took bio and ap chem.
@Gatortristan Awesome.
So you’ve taken/will have taken 16 APs!?!?!?!? Wow!
@ArthurDent42 Looking at the Cornell AP credit page, which I’ll link: http://as.cornell.edu/information/orientation/credit.cfm. It seems like you can only get out of one of the two freshman writing seminars using AP credit. However, you can get out of lots of history and social sciences related credits with other AP tests.
@daniel98609 It’s not specified as either a requirement or a recommendation by Cornell, or I think anyone else, but it’s just kind of ‘known’ that the super-selectives would like to see bio/chem/physics.
Here’s one bit of hard data. Jacques Steinberg’s book, ‘The Gatekeepers’, where an NYT reporter shadows a Wesleyan admissions officer for a year, describes the tagging of applicant files. “…There was also a notation of whether the applicant had taken four years of the same foreign language (“LANG”) and a year of calculus (“MTHM”) as well as a full sequence of biology, physics and chemistry (“SCIE”). An admissions officer coming to the file cold would consider an absence of these codes to be a red flag, absent mitigating circumstances.”
Here’s a thread from earlier this year on CC on that question: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1734387-what-kind-of-science-do-highly-selective-colleges-want-to-see.html
AP Environmental Science is, rightly or wrongly, often not taken as seriously as the other sciences. I’m not familiar with the revamped AP Physics - when my daughter started Physics C, Physics 1 hadn’t been invented yet - but if Physics 1 is an option, I think it would be better to take it than APES. It might even be better to take non-AP Physics than APES, as long as your guidance counselor will still consider you to be taking the ‘most rigorous available’ courseload.
You’ve got great stats and ECs and may not “need” physics, but at the margins, it might help. You don’t know, can’t know, so do you want to roll the dice?
I homeschooled my Class of 2015 daughter all the way through, and she’ll be attending Cornell. She took the first half of Physics C sophomore year and would have been happy never to see it again, but took the second half senior year so that she could have that base covered, just in case it made a difference.
and here’s another thread on the same question:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1779799-ap-physics-or-ap-environmental.html
@hs2015mom My schedule is pretty fixed at this point, and all changes are pretty much hypothetical. I’m afraid that I don’t have the four years of foreign language either, but none of my friends applying to selective colleges have that (almost everyone at my school only takes three years). Physics 1, as I said in my last posts, is unfortunately not an option: if it was I would take it. We’ll see. I think I’ll roll the dice, because I don’t want an almost certain B in my transcript in I take AP Physics C at my school (which is given with the expectation that one has taken a general Physics course), and to be comparable to the other students in my school who are taking demanding curricula I want a 5th AP course. My sister also never took biology in high school or anything close to four years of language, and got into Carnegie Mellon Engineering (granted, this was seven years ago, so things might have changed).
I guess I’ll try my best not be at the margins with my essays. I’ve already started them and been doing some pretty extensive work on them. If I don’t get into Cornell, well, that’s not the end of the world. I’m expanding my list of options and I’m sure there’s plenty of other opportunities.
Not blaming you at all for this, but if what that book says is true I find that highly disingenuous. If colleges want to see all three sciences and four years of foreign languages they should note that under their recommendations. If they don’t require or recommend it I don’t see the reason why a student would believe they would have to take it to gain an advantage in the admissions process. I’ve never trusted “general knowledge” and perhaps I should have in this case, but we’ve been taught through high school to not take things at face value and find reliable sources to confirm assertions. In this case, it would appear these reliable sources either don’t exist or lie. Well, I want to be a historian. Perhaps I should have realized not all seemingly reliable primary sources are wholly reliable and done more investigating.
Again, thanks a lot for the help! I’ll be thinking over my choices, though it might be too late for that.
@daniel98609 Believe me, I don’t like being the voice of shadowy conventional wisdom, and you’re right about it all. You’re a good writer and a thoughtful kid, and I think you’re going to do very well at all of this.
@ArthurDent42 If you get a 5 on either AP Lit or AP Lang, then you only are required to take one semester of the Freshman Writing Seminar which is required of all new students. If you don’t get a 5, then you have to complete both semesters. College of Arts and Sciences has breadth and depth requirements across all topics, so yes, you will need a math, science, english, foreign language etc.
@ArthurDent42 Yeah somewhere around there if i don’t add or take off a few on my senior schedule. However cornell won’t take most of my credit anyways.
So is the Freshman Writing Seminar the only required English class by kids who are majoring in something not related to English? Or are there a few more English classes that will span well into the four years? Thanks.
@ArthurDent42 i got a research position at harvard medical school working in a lab that deals with MS through a special program
@Gatortristan ^^^^
@takudan HOOOOOOOOOOOW?!?!?!?!?
@takudan Seriously, how? Do you have connections? How are kids, who are merely high schoolers when it comes down to it, getting such positions? How can a high school kid do worthwhile, useful research when their education and experience in such fields are limited to high school? I’m not trying to insult you personally, I’m instead referring to all high school kids with prestigious research positions. Harvard Med School, sheesh.
@ArthurDent42 i applied to a program at brigham and women’s hospital and through that I was placed in the MS department at harvard medical school - during the school year i work with basic blood work but in the summer i get to do actual experiments
@takudan Do you have to publish the experiments or not? Sounds cool…wish I got that opportunity…
@ArthurDent42 I’m not sure. I think in College of Arts and Science you need an english requirement besides the Freshman Writing Seminar.
I’d love to be done with English classes forever by the end of my freshman year…aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh…no more psychopathic teachers…no more pointless essays…no more overanalyzing literary works I couldn’t care less about…no more phony socratic seminars…no more BSed timed essays that don’t truly convey my writing abilities due to insane time limits…NONE OF IT!!! I loathe English!!!
RIP MY CHANCES . PLEASE DONT APPLY FOR HUMAN ECOLOGY RIP