Hello! I am going into my senior year of high school and am torn between taking honors physics or dropping it for an open block–where seniors can stay home for their first period which is 78 minutes–since I took AP Enviro Science last year as my science course instead. I am going into journalism as a major and I have been told that physics is still essential no matter what to boost college admission chances, but I don’t want to push myself too much in my senior year, especially after hearing that our honors physics is time-consuming and stress-inducing with its difficulty (I am not a science or math person either). Almost everyone I know has an open block and I feel like it would be a great opportunity to catch up on sleep or work since I always feel that I need that extra time, but I do not want to risk my chances of getting into any colleges by not taking it.
My top schools are Emerson College (liberal arts), Syracuse University (New House Communications School), Boston University, Fordham University, and maybe Columbia. I took 2 APs last year, and 3 APs this year (Spanish, Lit, Government), and I am enrolled in regular calculus. I was considering dropping down to regular physics instead of honors but I feel like I may not be challenging myself enough (considering that I’m taking regular calculus already) and that I should take honors if I genuinely plan on sacrificing my desired open block for physics.
I am getting mixed answers from websites and my school counselor, so I just want some insight from here to see what you guys think.
I personally think any educated professional should at least have taken Physics once at the HS or college level, because it is such a foundational science. Including journalists, because a basic understanding of how the natural world works is going to be an asset to most journalists.
And at least some colleges think the same way as me. Physics might not be a strict requirement, but it might be recommended, and in fact expected of most successful applicants, barring unusual circumstances.
That said, I don’t think you have to take Honors Physics if you do not feel up to that challenge.
The odds are good that a sizeable number of your competition has taken the traditional set of Bio, Chem, Physics. So you probably are at a disadvantage if you haven’t.
I am not a science or math person either
Not that you’ll become one, but perhaps your studying approach needs refinement. In a History or English class one learns by reading. Math and science are more like learning tennis or piano. It is only in the doing that one masters these subjects. After reading the chapter it all makes sense but then you need to practice. That means the assigned homework and then extra problems on your own until you’re comfortably solving them. At which point doing the same on tests won’t present too much difficulty.
Taking the most rigorous classes available to you across all subjects does increase your chances of admission to the top schools. However, if you are unhooked, admission to these top schools is extremely low anyway (e.g. Columbia’s total admit rate is 4%.) Maybe for you, choosing extra sleep and less stress is a rational choice to make. You will still have a variety of fine schools that would be glad to have you.