Just want to reiterate how many successful career journeys only make sense looking backwards and are unrelated to the technical skills/knowldege from a specific major.
I sat on a recurring career panel for a top LAC making this exact point. The panel has included
a Physics major who became COO of an Art Studio
an English major who manages mobile games franchises for Disney
a Politics major who leads Global Audience Research for major hollywood studios
a Philosophy major who is a Corporate CFO
a Biology major who is Chief Strategy Officer at an ecommerce company
etc etc
Many didn’t know these roles existed when they were 16, let alone chose a major to pursue them.
There are some students who do better in physics compared to biology and chemistry. Quite often these are students who do well in math, since physics is more mathematical compared to biology and chemistry. Given that you say that you like stats, to me this looks at least hopeful.
Medicine is a long and tough path and is really only appropriate for someone who is strongly drawn to it, so a good thing to skip. Art is a tough way to make a living. Another good thing to skip. This leaves a LOT of options.
If you are good at math, then this opens up a long list of possible careers (some of which you can go into with a degree in math).
There are at least hundreds of very good colleges and universities in the USA. You really do not need to attend an Ivy League university to do very well in life. This is just as well, since with a 3.8 unweighted GPA you probably aren’t likely to get a bachelor’s degree from one of the 8 Ivy League schools. This still leaves hundreds (or maybe thousands) of very good schools to choose from.
The University of Pennsylvania is an Ivy League school. Boston University is very good, but for us was one of the two most expensive schools that either daughter was accepted to.
The various Universities of California are very expensive for out of state students.
This is normal also!
You have multiple very good in-state public universities. These are likely to be relatively affordable for you.
Yes, but did your kid not take biology, chemistry, or physics during high school, any version? These are fundamental science subjects that are recommended for all college-bound students.
Writing this response for the OP’s benefit since she is currently taking a physics class. All college-bound high school students can & should take physics when offered, whether conceptual, algebra-based, or calculus-based, whichever is the most appropriate level.
Yeah, I know the rule of thumb, but both of my kids got into high-ranking and highly selective LACs (7-20% admissions rates between the two of them) without physics. They both had Physical Science H, BioH, and Chem H. D23 had APES. S26 had AP Chem. Both are generally social science/humanities people (though D did end up with a major in Env Sciences, so APES made sense for her) and had strengths in other areas. Holistic admissions allows for a sliding scale.
Physical science covers both physical & chemical concepts with basic labs, some as a 1/2 chemistry, 1/2 physics class which is considered a “lower level” class than regular physics. Physical science is sometimes offered by high schools (HS level & less common today) but more widely offered in middle schools (designated as “M/J” classes in FL). Taking physical science is better than not taking any physics at all.
I agree (and at our HS, all 9th graders take either PS or PSH), but my point is that you don’t have to have physics, even though I understand it’s preferable. With holistic admissions, there are few hard-and-fast rules (other than four years of English for domestic candidates, probably).
I’m guessing less than 50% of our very high performing school district took physics. APEs was popular with the smart, social science kids - with a reputation of easy for a science.
It’s like Calc BC and AB - sure, on a college chat board of high achieving students it will come up. But in real life, not many are taking percentage wise.
Someone posted a metric the other day, even in places like Palo Alto - it was well under half the kids.
At Williams, where my S26 attends, they offer a couple of large sections of Calc I each year, and they have a level of math below that for kids who need to brush up on Pre-Calc, I’m guessing (though the course description implies that they expect very few students to require that course). Clearly, kids are being admitted without having taken Calc.