This will depend on which school you end up attending. Look at the specific requirements at each school on your list. When my son was going through his list, he found that some engineering schools did not accept either Mechanics or E&M (that is, you might get units but wouldn’t be able to skip intro college physics classes), and others accepted Mechanics but not E&M. My feeling is that I wouldn’t bet on this particular exam being useful towards an engineering degree; it seemed much less likely to be accepted compared to Chem, Bio, etc.
Even if the credit IS accepted at a given university, Physics is so important for aero that you may be better off taking the intro class in college anyway.
My son did say that E&M was useful background for his college intro physics, but he was also lucky to have a great teacher in HS. If you are looking at self study, I don’t see how that is a time saver compared to simply studying for your class in college…
Like many things, “it depends.” My kid used all of his AP credits to skip ahead as much as possible and he is doing great with a 4.0 so far in college.
In retrospect, he had great HS teachers that prepared him very well and covered more material in more depth than strictly what is required for the AP test.
You can feel more secure about doing this, if you do some homework first. Look at the college syllabus, textbook, and past year final exams for any classes you are skipping. You should be in a pretty good position to skip if you did well on the AP test, are familiar with all the material covered in the college course, and feel that you could have done well on the past final exams.
According to everyone’s views, I think I’m going to avoid studying for Physics C E&M. My parents also support the idea of taking E&M in college instead. They would rather have me take CSP and raise my GPA. I’m only going to take CSP if it will make me a valedictorian or salutatorian at my school. Otherwise, I will take a free period. I took a free period for a semester this year and it was great. I used it to improve my extracurricular profile, which is severely lacking in my application.
Given what you said here, you might want to go for the free period + spending time on some EC that you like. I don’t know what schools you are targeting, but once you have strong enough academics, you hit a point where your ECs might turn out to be the factor that distinguishes you from the other kids taking physics and multivariable calc etc. If you feel that your ECs are weak / lacking, that’s something to think about.
Also I agree that it might look funny to the AO to see you taking a “lower” CS class after the “higher” one.
However if you are excited by the idea of working towards being valedictorian that could also be fine… if that might make you feel more motivated and engaged in all your classes. You could also maybe do some peer tutoring in this CS class and help others who don’t have the background you have… or something like that.
True, I don’t know the rankings of other students. It’s hard to figure it out.
But Georgia Tech wouldn’t know my class ranking during the admission season. Georgia Tech is one of the school’s I’m considering.
I mean in senior year, is 2 months really enough time to drastically improve my extracurriculars? I could use the time to work on additional programming projects or be a teaching assistant for my AP Chemistry or Computer Science teacher.
I can’t be certain that it will. It’s impossible to tell.
If something you do or learn along the way makes it into your essays, it could make a difference. You might also find personal satisfaction in helping others or learning something new and different, even if it doesn’t move the needle on college applications. Or just have a free period to be a bit less busy in senior year, there is nothing wrong with that.
My son’s senior free period was at the end of the day, purely because of a scheduling glitch. He told me that he ended up being so thankful that he could get out of school early each day through senior year, and have that extra time to work on homework, college applications, music practice, go sit in the counseling center and help other students, or just go for a walk / run / bike ride.
Multivariable Calculus
AP Physics C Mechanics
AP Economics
AP Language
AP French
Gym & Robotics (electives)
Study hall OR AP Computer Science Principles
I’m leaning towards a study hall but at the same time I feel like I’m wasting my time by not taking a class. My parents want me to take AP CSP, but I feel like 6 APs is too much for me. But I also feel like I’m wasting my time by not doing anything academic by taking a study hall.
I think I’ve found my solution: As of now, I’ll put down AP CSP on my schedule for next year.
When the school year starts next year, if I keep like I need the study hall to improve my ECs or keep up with college apps, I can drop AP CSP in the first week of school without any academic consequences. It’s much easier to drop a class in the first week of school than to add a new one. I’ve also got AP Enviro, in case I want to do AP Enviro instead of AP CSP. I think doing Enviro will benefit me more than CSP in terms of learning.
But like I said, if I feel like I need a study hall when 12th grade starts up, I can easily drop my 6th AP class without any academic consequences within the first week of school.