AP Physics C. But if your school doesn’t offer it, it won’t be held against you by admissions committees.
Math league and science oly are good. But you didn’t initially mention your activities. And for the most competitive colleges, anyone needs, imo, a rational approach, understanding these are tough schools to get into. We may think some combination of courses and ECs is “fine,” but it hangs on adcoms and what other applicants offer. It’s good to have happy, affordable safeties and matches.
I’d apply with the major you actually want to study. Internal transfers can be difficult at some schools.
My daughter was accepted to ChemE and she hadn’t taken any of those classes. She decided on civil, but she was accepted to chemE. She would have had to take all those chem and physics and math classes from the beginning (chem 1 and calc 1, which she did anyway) and the ChemE requirements were 17-19 credits per semester so no wiggle room to drop a class, but it could be done in the 4 year time table.
She did not go to a top 20 school but many of her friends went on to top grad schools (Columbia, GT, VT).
Chemical engineering does not appear to be an especially college-elitist field (unlike, for example, management consulting, or law with respect to law school), so you may want to consider expanding your college application list to include safeties. At the “top 20” (most selective) college, anything that could appear as a “defect” (e.g. not taking the hardest or most advanced courses relating to your intended major that are available at your high school) could be an admission problem.
In terms of actual preparation for your major (as opposed to college admissions competition), the minimum preparation for chemical engineering technical courses would be precalculus, high school physics, and high school chemistry. More advanced courses in these areas would be a bonus (e.g. with AP calculus, you may get advanced placement in math, freeing schedule space for an elective and allowing more flexibility in scheduling courses with calculus as a prerequisite). Note that AP physics 1 and 2 should be considered as a more in-depth high school physics course, since it is not calculus-based. You will have to take calculus-based physics in college.
@ucbalumnus I do plan on applying to a good deal of safeties as well.
@happy1 If I still apply under some sort of engineering major, unless the Chemical Engineering school were much better than every other type of engineering at the school, shouldn’t it not be too difficult to change the type of engineering major considering how many of the freshman year classes overlap?
@RogerNadal. Instead of asking open ended questions like that why not to look at some of your targets and look that up?
So at a place like Michigan switching is considered pretty easy with cross campus transfers https://www.engin.umich.edu/admissions/undergrad/cross-campus-students/admissions/
At other colleges you might need a much higher GPA and some specialities might be very hard or impossible to transfer into
Each school is different and looking at their websites or calling engineering admissions might be helpful.
Make sense?
OP, over the past year, you’ve asked a lot of questions about whether X will look bad or Y be an issue. It’s gotten to the point where “looking good” seems the main concern.
It really is time to see how you can take this into your own hands, as @Knowsstuff suggests.
I do believe it’s important to consider. But the sort of applicants who best fit into the highly competitive environment of a top 20 - and top adcoms know this - can do this research, have the ability to grab the reins, not just ask. One of the traits top adcoms can look for is this ability, some persistence, resilience, etc. It’s more than what “looks better,” or which course should I take.
It does mean learning some background. Eg, that they won’t fault you for courses your hs doesn’t offer. Or finding the best ways to be active (depth and breadth, plus the right community engagement.) Then the right approach in all the written sections of the app/supp. Think about it. Mid junior year is a good time to get revved up, develop some strategy, and do any needed fine tuning. But you need to start with the right understanding.
What science are you taking junior year. If you have taken a physics course already, you should be taking AP Chem. If not, then you definitely need at least one year of physics.
My D is a freshman STEM major at a T20 school. In highschool she was very limited in the number of AP’s she could take based on how her school did their scheduling. She did not take AP Chem or AP Physics but took honors of both. Did it hurt in the application process? Maybe…it’s hard to say. She didn’t get admitted everywhere she applied, but she did get into a couple of T20’s that are very strong in her major.
That said, she is now taking Chem and Physics with a bunch of kids who took AP Chem and Physics and it’s definitely a challenge. If she could do it over again she would take one of them instead of AP BIo that she took because she was planning to major in BioMed Engineering. But, she wouldn’t have been able to take both because of how the AP scheduling was done.
My suggestion is to not over think it. If your school requires Physics, it should be fine. Like others have said, I would have your counselor mention it in the letter they have to write for the common ap. Colleges will get a school profile that will likely show/explain the course sequencing at your school.
@Knowsstuff and @lookingforward, I actually did do my own research for a good deal of colleges, I was just inquiring as to whether @happy1 had any specific examples.
If you really prefer to take AP Chemistry rather than AP Physics, I would enlist your parents and with them talk to the high school to see if there is a way to get an exception to the pathway requirement. (I wasn’t sure from your posts, is there is also a scheduling conflict?)
It seems you have a good case/argument to make for replacing AP Physics with AP Chem given your desired college major and given your school doesn’t offer AP Physics C. High schools are often willing to make exceptions, especially for parents.