Is high school physics necessary for college admissions?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
What are your standards? Mine involve curiosity to learn about the world around us. |
Anonymous
And yet TJ requires all seniors to take geosystems to graduate. And their geosystems requires an AP level understanding of Bio, Chem, and Physics (all also required) and Calculus. Broad sweeping statements get you nowhere. |
Anonymous
My standards definitely don't involve being condescending and labeling people uneducated because they choose not to take physics so they can maintain a higher GPA to better secure their future education. Maybe you should use some of that curiosity to get to know people of varied backgrounds and see that single factor litmus tests are counterproductive. I took AP physics and my best friend didn't take any physics. She's incredibly intelligent and has a lot to offer. I try not to define people by one thing they did or didn't do. |
Anonymous
NP here - and I certainly agree with your sentiment about politeness and condescension. 100%. However, for those just introduced to these topics, a "high GPA" is usually less desirable than "more rigor in schedule" in college admissions. It's a frequently debated topic and there is no one answer, and yes it depends on the target college, but please don't anyone make the mistake of putting your smart HS freshman in easy classes to keep the GPA high thinking that is the path to competitive admissions. |
Anonymous
HS physics is difficult but not impossible. Plan ahead. Get a tutor, put in the hours, don't be easily defeated and try to get a decent grade in the class. It is useful to have some knowledge of the forces at work all around you. |
Anonymous
NP: Physics is required in 10th at DS's school. Every school is different. |
Anonymous
| My younger is a 9th grader in a W high school. I am pretty sure this is the first grade for which physics is a graduation requirement. |
Anonymous
I disagree with you. As an English major who became a lawyer who took physics at a very crappy public high school 30 years ago and never wanted to see physics again. Forces, electricity, magnetism and heavier things fall faster. At least a basic understanding of physics is really helpful in solving everyday problems like every time I plug in the hairdryer the circuit breaker trips and my car won’t start or is it worth paying $1000 more for this much extra power in an appliance. On a larger scale, my STEM kid has convinced me using language I understand that you can’t understand climate change without some physics. Being an informed voter and citizen and a human being able to carry on an intelligent conversation requires some physics knowledge. Physics doesn’t sit in a box alone. It’s a part of so many things in modern life. That said, I wish for non-STEM kids, they would teach a more practical, less you need Algebra II to pass the class based physics. You don’t need the mathematical solutions in everyday life to know after exactly how many milliseconds something will happen. But physics literacy is useful. |
Anonymous
Sure, but the difference here is that there are several science classes that a kid can take and still take one each year of high school - there is no stipulation that it be physics. Unless the kid is planning on a major/career that specifically requires physics, why shouldn’t that kid take AP Bio or APES or Astronomy or Anatomy??? |
Anonymous
+100 The narrow-mindedness here is unsurprising. It’s DCUM, after all. |
Anonymous
DP. And your “curiosity about the world around us” doesn’t extend to human anatomy or oceanography or the environment? I find *that* curious. Maybe broaden your horizons and your mind just a tad? |
Anonymous
Not all science is the same. It builds on itself. The foundations are Physics, Chemistry, and Biology (in that order). Everything else builds on one, or all of those. It is not possible to understand anatomy without biology, nor is it possible to understand astronomy without physics. Every student should have the three basic courses, then add as many other courses as they have an interest in. The fact that there are many interesting types of novels doesn't mean that we would find an education to be adequate if one never read a poem. Similarly, one can take as many biology classes as they want, but will have a fundamental gap in their education if they have never taken a basic physics class. |
Anonymous
Honestly, without a basic understanding of physics, you can not understand Astronomy. But, the bigger question is what is the purpose of schooling? Is it to get you ready to understand the world we live in, or is it to prepare you for a narrow focused job? In the former, you need the broad scientific basis, as well as the understanding of history, government, literature and differing cultures. |
Anonymous
Good idea to try to navigate life whatever your career with some exposure to basic science. It is an advantage to your student to understand the world around them. That won't be helpless to figure out how to solve many problems that crop up. |
Anonymous
Aren’t the “wHigh Schools” just parent of MCPS and therefore MD public schools? Why not just say MCPS or MD? I get that TJ literally has different graduation requirements. But “W schools” don’t, do they? |