Admissions penalty if student doesn't take high school physics?

[Anonymous]

DS is currently interested in majoring in biology, ecology, animal science, or something similar at a Virginia state school, out-of-state public, or possibly a private school. His weighted GPA is 3.5-3.6, ACT is 31. He's taken honors biology, chemistry, and AP chem, as well as various other non-science AP classes. He's scheduled to take physics this year but has asked his counselor if he can switch to ecology (his counselor actually suggested it after learning of his interest in this area). He's currently on the wait list. I was looking at University of Delaware's website and they state that biology majors should take physics in high school, as well as biology and chemistry. So that made me wonder if the lack of physics on his transcript would hurt his chances of admission at his match schools. Except for stumbling across this information on the Delaware website, I've seen only generic requirements on other schools' websites, like 3-4 years of lab science. For what it's worth, I think he'd like physics and I want him to take it for that reason, but he's also interested in ecology so I was going to let this go. Until I thought about the possible admissions penalty. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

I would not worry.

Almost all of the websites said 4 years of history/social studies were strongly recommended. My DD hated history and took something she liked more senior year (not easy, just in line with her interests). When they see that, it adds up and I did not perceive ANy penalty (i.e., my child got into 7/10 schools she applied to). Good luck to your son !

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t recommend skipping physics if he’ll be applying as a science major

[Anonymous]

It's odd to be any kind of a science major and not to have taken some level of physics in high school, when offered

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't skip it. Biology majors (including those on an ecology track) typically take two semesters of general physics (with labs). He is better off having some background in physics prior to college.

[Anonymous]

Is the ecology class a lab science? Problem solved.

You're letting one university's catalog dictate HS course selection when several other universities don't say the same thing re: physics specifically. Ask the HS counselor and also have DC contact colleges of interest to ask this. You'll be surprised how responsive colleges can be on questions like these.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is currently interested in majoring in biology, ecology, animal science, or something similar at a Virginia state school, out-of-state public, or possibly a private school. His weighted GPA is 3.5-3.6, ACT is 31. He's taken honors biology, chemistry, and AP chem, as well as various other non-science AP classes. He's scheduled to take physics this year but has asked his counselor if he can switch to ecology (his counselor actually suggested it after learning of his interest in this area). He's currently on the wait list. I was looking at University of Delaware's website and they state that biology majors should take physics in high school, as well as biology and chemistry. So that made me wonder if the lack of physics on his transcript would hurt his chances of admission at his match schools. Except for stumbling across this information on the Delaware website, I've seen only generic requirements on other schools' websites, like 3-4 years of lab science. For what it's worth, I think he'd like physics and I want him to take it for that reason, but he's also interested in ecology so I was going to let this go. Until I thought about the possible admissions penalty. Thank you.

DD was accepted for Bio (and Penn state and Binghamton) and took the following sciences:

Honors Bio
Honors Chem
Ap Chem
Honors human physiology
Ap Biology

1310 (flame away). Honors precalc as a senior. Only two physics classes were offered and only offered to seniors: reg physics and AP Physics I. Very high FARMS high school. $15k/yr merit + $2k/yr grant FA at Udel

[Anonymous]

Sorry forget to mention she was accepted to UDel

[Anonymous]

Also this was last year

[Anonymous]

Take regular physics. He will be taking enough higher level ecology in college. I understood that bio was the science of the big, chemistry the science of the medium and physics the science of the tiny, so it helps to take them all.

[Anonymous]

My child did not take Physics, and got accepted to 7 schools as a bio major.

DCUM will never tell you anything is enough, when you could be doing more.

You do you.

[Anonymous]

Not recent, but I was accepted to Duke Engineering a couple of decades ago despite not having taken physics at all in high school. I missed regular physics because I changed schools in 10th grade and then AP Physics didn't fit in my schedule senior year.

If your son does skip it in his regular school this year, I would recommend taking a physics class prior to starting university either through a community college or online school, etc. One of the worst parts of my experience taking physics in college after missing it in high school was that I was in with an entire lecture hall of kids who had already learned the material once and the instructor was definitely teaching it at a level that was hard for me to keep up since I had not covered it before.

[Anonymous]

Your DS seems like a good candidate for colleges like VT, Delaware, Penn State, etc. He's got plenty of sciences and not having physics is fine. Ignore the TJ posters who think he'll be a failure if he doesn't get into a <10% admit rate school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your DS seems like a good candidate for colleges like VT, Delaware, Penn State, etc. He's got plenty of sciences and not having physics is fine. Ignore the TJ posters who think he'll be a failure if he doesn't get into a <10% admit rate school.

Where did you get that from?

[Anonymous]

Your DS seems like a good candidate for colleges like VT, Delaware, Penn State, etc. He's got plenty of sciences and not having physics is fine.

I think most posters would agree that not having physics is likely fine for admission to these schools for this student.

However, he should be aware that he is going to have 8 credits of physics in order to progress in a biology major. Perhaps he is aware and still opted to drop HS physics, maybe he doesn't know and will opt to take physics after all. AP Physics 1 is similar to the course that biology majors have to take, but even regular or honors physics would give him some valuable background.