TJ AP Physics or Physics Honors

[Anonymous]

Do top 10 schools care whether student has taken AP Physics or Physics Honors from TJ?. Kid in Bio track so is it better to get an A in Physics Honors vs B in AP Physics?

[Anonymous]

It's always better to get an A.

[Anonymous]

A is always better.

[Anonymous]

But do the admissions officers consider they took Honors class when AP was available at TJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But do the admissions officers consider they took Honors class when AP was available at TJ?

Yes, they care. Data from another big governors school in Virginia shows that course level matters a lot when both are offered, and an occasional B in a really hard course(AP Physics C, AP Chem, AP Euro) still gets kids into T10 while the straight A kids who avoid the harder path do not get in. Occasional B at this school will still be in the top 10% if they have max APs. UVa in-state cares a lot about relative rigor—this is not just a top10 concern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A is always better.

Strong disagree.

[Anonymous]

For the T10 schools, you'll need the A in the AP.

[Anonymous]

I know a TJ grad in the past few years who only took Honors Physics and is at Yale. But had a few hooks.

[Anonymous]

A in Physics Honors.

There is no point taking one of the hardest courses at TJ - just for admissions.

Plus the time saving the kid will get by taking Hons vs AP - will help boost grades of other course or in EC's

Taking hard courses just to impress some random admissions reader, who is paid $25/hr is not worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But do the admissions officers consider they took Honors class when AP was available at TJ?

Yes, they care. Data from another big governors school in Virginia shows that course level matters a lot when both are offered, and an occasional B in a really hard course(AP Physics C, AP Chem, AP Euro) still gets kids into T10 while the straight A kids who avoid the harder path do not get in. Occasional B at this school will still be in the top 10% if they have max APs. UVa in-state cares a lot about relative rigor—this is not just a top10 concern.

This would be consistent with my kid's experience with college admissions (albeit from the TJ class of 2020, so a little dated now). He was straight A student after his freshman year (which was - relatively speaking - a little rough gradewise with B's in a few classes). He did not take any AP science classes (other than CS) and took both AB and BC Calc (and the associated AP exams) in consecutive years. He took a lot of humanity-related AP's (World History (the exam, not the class), US History, Spanish, US Gov't English), plus AP Computer Science. He did not get into the highest ranked schools he applied to (Williams, Amherst, Carleton). He did get into Grinnell with good ($28K per year merit), William and Mary, and UVa. Ended up at William & Mary, where he double majored in CS and Math.

[Anonymous]

DS took physics honors, got an A, and got a 5 on the AP physics exam. Got into top 10 schools, but not a HYPSM school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know a TJ grad in the past few years who only took Honors Physics and is at Yale. But had a few hooks.

Your first sentence, compared to your last is the equivalent of saying:
I know of someone who lives in a multimillion dollar paid off house with one parent not working and the other earning $130k a year. But he also inherited $20 million.

[Anonymous]

There are 2 (or 4) versions of AP Physics.

Which are you talking about?

[Anonymous]

Colleges don't nitpick like this. They look for an overall gist, then move on to EC achievements.

[Anonymous]

Don't make our mistake. Take whatever you can get an A for. TJ curriculum is already way more rigorous than every other school in the country.