Physics major but I don’t think she has what it takes.

[Anonymous]

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-01sc-single-variable-calculus-fall-2010/

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/8-01sc-classical-mechanics-fall-2016/

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-02sc-multivariable-calculus-fall-2010/

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-06sc-linear-algebra-fall-2011/

https://oyc.yale.edu/physics/phys-200

https://oyc.yale.edu/physics/phys-201

https://waves.caltech.edu/lectures-recitations

Here are some free online courses, roughly in ascending order of difficulty/progression.

She should consider applying to a SLAC and/or a women's college where she can get focused teaching rather than a sink or swim approach

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (senior) is planning to apply as a physics major.
She took one physics class in high school and struggled and got a 3 on the AP test. She’s not taking physics now.
She’s currently taking linear algebra and struggling.
This doesn’t seem like a kid who should be a physics major. I don’t want to discourage her, but I also don’t want to waste money on tuition while she flounders.

If she struggled with physics class, why she wants to major in physics?

OP here. She says she thinks it’s interesting. She likes some of the theoretical ideas.

She may do fine. The most likely scenario is freshman year physics is a huge challenge and she barely manages a C and rethinks her path. I think it is unlikely she would completely fail any classes. Undergrad GPA doesn’t matter unless going to med school or wanting to to grad school at MIT or something. Getting a couple low grades but still passing the classes freshman year is really not a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (senior) is planning to apply as a physics major.
She took one physics class in high school and struggled and got a 3 on the AP test. She’s not taking physics now.
She’s currently taking linear algebra and struggling.
This doesn’t seem like a kid who should be a physics major. I don’t want to discourage her, but I also don’t want to waste money on tuition while she flounders.

If she struggled with physics class, why she wants to major in physics?

OP here. She says she thinks it’s interesting. She likes some of the theoretical ideas.

Sometimes al it takes is someone to show them how to problem-solve, and then it all clicks. I love physics, and I remember when that “click” happened.

[Anonymous]

Anecdata, but I know 2 kids who recently graduated from lesser SLACs (Skidmore, Macalester) with physics degrees and they are both unemployed. I don't think STEM majors are necessarily the hot ticket people on this forum think they are.

[Anonymous]

It’s actually okay to struggle in college classes and find a new focus if necessary. When did that stop being okay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (senior) is planning to apply as a physics major.
She took one physics class in high school and struggled and got a 3 on the AP test. She’s not taking physics now.
She’s currently taking linear algebra and struggling.
This doesn’t seem like a kid who should be a physics major. I don’t want to discourage her, but I also don’t want to waste money on tuition while she flounders.

If she struggled with physics class, why she wants to major in physics?

OP here. She says she thinks it’s interesting. She likes some of the theoretical ideas.

Physics is a hard major. I couldn’t do it and ended up taking easy way out - engineering. A lot easier for me than physics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anecdata, but I know 2 kids who recently graduated from lesser SLACs (Skidmore, Macalester) with physics degrees and they are both unemployed. I don't think STEM majors are necessarily the hot ticket people on this forum think they are.

I think stem majors mostly move on to grad school. The only stem major that has decent employment immediately following undergrad is engineering

[Anonymous]

They change a lot in college.

My kid loved and did well in a particular class in HS and decided to major in it. By the time he graduated college, he not only discovered that that career was not for him, but found a completely different path that he never knew was an option.

Flip side, a close friend was terrible in a particular class, but was motivated to make a career of it, majored in it in college, didn't do great, but well enough to get a job eventually, and ended up with a wildly successful career.

They have to go on this journey themselves.

[Anonymous]

My mom thought this about my brother's choices, and all I can say is good thing he ignored her!

[Anonymous]

Why did she start with AP Stats? Perhaps if she started with an intro class she would have done great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got a 1 on both physics 1 and 2, and a 3 on physics C mechanics. I am now going into a PhD program for physics at a school you’d approve of.

It’s a slow journey and you shouldn’t expect that people who do well in the beginning are actually better at physics. Linear algebra is a difficult class in general and makes sense to a lot of physics majors when they take upper division quantum mechanics. Don’t kill your daughters dreams just because she isn’t perfect.

Thank you for writing this. I have a kid like this. She killed her humanities classes in high school (5’s on what seems like a zillion APs) but struggled with calc BC and Physics C. But decided she wanted a physics degree and is pursuing at a very hard school. Lots of tears. Much better grades in her intro humanities classes. Her math isn’t as strong as others and she isn’t fast so tests in physics and problem sets take a long time. But she has found a lab that she loves and is well supported there. Publishing (along with her grad student and PI) in high impact journals. Participating in undergrad clubs. Still determined to go to graduate school in physics and really loving the subject matter. Given her research record, she probably will have some good options for grad school. Her thorough, slow, methodological personality is better suited to research and persevering in open ended problems than class work, it seems. We have never been anything but encouraging and I think that was helpful to her when she would call struggling.

Support your kid. She may take a couple of classes and decide it’s not for her. She may switch out to engineering. She may go in a completely different direction. But college is the place where she should figure out if she 1. Likes the subject and 2. Is willing to do the work to get the degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD (senior) is planning to apply as a physics major.
She took one physics class in high school and struggled and got a 3 on the AP test. She’s not taking physics now.
She’s currently taking linear algebra and struggling.
This doesn’t seem like a kid who should be a physics major. I don’t want to discourage her, but I also don’t want to waste money on tuition while she flounders.

My spouse has a PhD in physics. She’s one of the smartest people I know, and breezed through her HS classes. I seriously doubt a kid who struggled with physics in HS and is struggling with LA is a good fit for physics. I’d support her, but make sure that wherever she goes has lots of options in case she has to change majors.

[Anonymous]

So much of this seems like it will depend on the school. If she goes to MIT I would be very worried. If she goes to a big state school the reality is the population of students is normal kids like her. Smart kids (if your daughter is in LA obviously she is quite sharp), but it isn’t like a wildly fundamentally different set of kids than the reasonable smart kids in your HS. She might be fine.

[Anonymous]

I started as a Physica Major (I had a 5 on the AP exam and placed out of the first year of physics with an exam administered at school) and pivoted out pretty quickly. Fortunately a lot of the early physics classes (which it sounds like she won't place out of) are prereqs for other majors (engineering and chemistry). So none of my classes actually went to waste at all.

Lots of people shuffle around in the first year. I know someone who transferred from Engineering to History someone who went from Journalism to economics, and someone who went from music to engineering.

[Anonymous]

I think it's too early to tell, and if physics is not for her, she will find out quickly soon enough in college in her freshman level classes and have plenty of time to pivot. I would just encourage her, without disparaging her ambitions, to decide on a second choice major and to also take courses in that second option her freshman year. Tell her that freshman year is a good time to explore a number of interests and majors.