Do top colleges such as UPenn, Duke, and Cornell who have separate engineering schools expect students to have taken AP Physics 2 and C? Could a student who has just taken AP Physics 1 get in as long as they have taken other rigorous courses in math and sciences?
You should check on the individual sites of each college about the HS class mix expectations. Each college is different, but all will expect the most rigorous math and sciences classes that are available at your high school and excellent math scores on the ACT/SAT. That doesn’t mean you have to take all of the Physics AP tests, many students take just one. If you take Calc in your HS, you should take the Calc BC test over the AB test.