AP Physics and Calculus

[High School Homeschool Dad]

My daughter wants to major in Chemistry. She will be a senior next year, hoping to apply to Georgia Tech. I'm trying to make sure I make the best choices for her courses next year. One concern (but not the only concern) is what Georgia Tech. will want to see on her transcript. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

1) For Physics, is AP Physics 😄 Mechanics (not AP Physics 1 or 2) the right course for her?

2) For Calculus, is AP Calculus BC (not AP Calculus AB) the right course for her? Do you think taking AB would hurt her chances with Ga. Tech? If they would be OK with AB, I might prefer that route to lighten her load a little.

3) Where are the best places online to take AP Physics and AP Calculus? Also which instructor should I look for (since some places have more than one)?

Thank you so much,
Kevin
 

[8filltheheart]

GT is very competitive for admissions. Even back when my ds applied in 2014 the avg was 9 AP/DE courses. 

THe difference between the 2 physics courses is that 1&2 are algebra based and taught as yr long courses.  Mechanics is cal-based.  Most STEM majors are not going to give any credit for 1 or 2.  

Cal AB is the equivalent of cal 1 and BC is the equivalent of 1&2.  

In general, I would say if a student is not only going to be competitive for GT, but comfortable being a student there in a STEM field, that handling BC in a yr would be the norm.

[alewife]

4 hours ago, High School Homeschool Dad said:

My daughter wants to major in Chemistry. She will be a senior next year, hoping to apply to Georgia Tech. I'm trying to make sure I make the best choices for her courses next year. One concern (but not the only concern) is what Georgia Tech. will want to see on her transcript. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

1) For Physics, is AP Physics 😄 Mechanics (not AP Physics 1 or 2) the right course for her?

Physics C is calculus based and will be more difficult if your daughter does not have prior experience in calculus heading into the course.

2) For Calculus, is AP Calculus BC (not AP Calculus AB) the right course for her? Do you think taking AB would hurt her chances with Ga. Tech? If they would be OK with AB, I might prefer that route to lighten her load a little.

You might want to go over onto the College Confidential site and look at the stats posted in the Georgia Tech forum for this year.  If you are applying from OOS, I would aim for Calc BC.

3) Where are the best places online to take AP Physics and AP Calculus? Also which instructor should I look for (since some places have more than one)?

Good luck!

Thank you so much,
Kevin
 

 

[GoodGrief]

My homeschooled daughter did not attend Georgia Tech, but was accepted in 2016, and earned the full ride Stamps scholarship. Her intended major at that time was environmental engineering, and she was coming from out of state. Her experience, fwiw:

She did not have AP Physics or Chemistry. Just Apologia, done in a homeschool co-op setting. She did, however, have decent SAT subject tests results for both. Not 800, but 700+. Her only AP science course was AP Biology, done through PA Homeschoolers, and she did have a 5 on that exam. She had AP Comp Sci in progress too, but my understanding was that Ga Tech counted that as math. Her AP score for that one occurred after graduation, so irrelevant.

My daughter had done AP Calc AB, and done dual enrollment Calc 2 and 3. She had great test scores and grades, and an 800 in SAT math. She was doing AP Stats senior year. I don't know how much that helped her, but it probably didn't hurt. Honestly, if a highly competitive college is the goal, and she is planning on STEM, I say, yes, go for the Calc BC.

I like PA Homeschoolers for AP courses. My daughter did AP Calc AB with Derek Owens, but I don't think he has a BC option. He does have physics, but don't think it is AP.

An aside, I do think essay is extremely important for Georgia Tech, so make sure she puts thought into it.

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by GoodGrief

[daijobu]

6 hours ago, High School Homeschool Dad said:

1) For Physics, is AP Physics 😄 Mechanics (not AP Physics 1 or 2) the right course for her?

2) For Calculus, is AP Calculus BC (not AP Calculus AB) the right course for her? Do you think taking AB would hurt her chances with Ga. Tech? If they would be OK with AB, I might prefer that route to lighten her load a little.

3) Where are the best places online to take AP Physics and AP Calculus? Also which instructor should I look for (since some places have more than one)?

 

 

You can take calculus-based AP Physics C concurrently with AP calculus BC, and some say it's better to do it that way.  

My dd earned 5's in AP Physics C (Mech and E&M) and Calc BC at PAH.  She preferred Kernion to Lanctot, but I don't know if that's a widely shared view.  (She started with Lanctot for mechanics 1st semester and switched to Kernion 2nd semester for E&M and was glad she did so.)

Don't bother with AP physics 1/2.  

My dd is an AoPS gal, but switched to PAH for AP calc BC because she thought she'd get better test prep at PAH.  She wasn't happy with the quality of the teaching compared with AoPS, but she got a 5 without working very hard.    

I'm not as familiar as the PPs with G Tech admissions specifically.   Good luck.  

[Roadrunner]

I want to point out that Bluetent has an amazing Calculus BC teacher and they have 2 live courses, one focused on lecturing new material and one focused on problem solving practice. I don’t know if people are aware that there are now solid alternatives for PAH Calculus BC course. 

[daijobu]

16 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

I want to point out that Bluetent has an amazing Calculus BC teacher and they have 2 live courses, one focused on lecturing new material and one focused on problem solving practice. I don’t know if people are aware that there are now solid alternatives for PAH Calculus BC course. 

That's terrific news, RR!  When my dd was looking for ap calculus bc, PAH and AoPS were the only options.  I'm glad to see Blue Tent is offering alternatives.  

IMO we don't have enough alternatives for AP level coursework in many subject areas.  Hopefully this proves to be a trend.  

[GoodGrief]

16 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

I want to point out that Bluetent has an amazing Calculus BC teacher and they have 2 live courses, one focused on lecturing new material and one focused on problem solving practice. I don’t know if people are aware that there are now solid alternatives for PAH Calculus BC course. 

Our issue with the various live courses was always the timing of them, and the commitment to be somewhere at a certain time. They typically did not work for our time zone, and were rarely home at any given time anyway. Thus my preference for the PAH courses, typically.

[Roadrunner]

34 minutes ago, GoodGrief1 said:

Our issue with the various live courses was always the timing of them, and the commitment to be somewhere at a certain time. They typically did not work for our time zone, and were rarely home at any given time anyway. Thus my preference for the PAH courses, typically.

that’s why variety is good. Up until now PAH BC course was it. 

i have a kid who simply can’t thrive in courses that don’t have a live component. 

[RootAnn]

It is good to have options. My oldest needed live classes if they were online and AoPS's online format & textbooks were a bad fit for her. Blue Tent would have been a great option to have.

My next kid hates online classes but will put up with ones which don't have live meetings. Again, it is good to have options.

[High School Homeschool Dad]

Thank you for the responses, everyone. I'm going with AP Physics C. Now the question is, does she need to do both AP Physics C--Mechanics and AP Physics C Electricity and Magnetism in one year? Or may she just take the slower paced, full-year AP Physics C--Mechanics course?

[UmmIbrahim]

AP Physics C both Mechanics and E&M is doable in one year, and would be a way of showing good rigor for a homeschooler. My son is a senior this year and is doing both AP Physics C Mechanics and E&M (both courses over one year) through PA Homeschoolers with Kernion (course is going very well, instructor is very responsive and thorough) and AP Calculus BC (he's doing Calc I and Calc II as dual enrollment classes and taking the AP afterwards). My son fell in love with chemistry during 10th and 11th grades (thought we'd be applying for chemistry this year with the way things were going!), but then changed course to pursue computer science after falling in love with that.

Did your daughter already take AP Chemistry? Has she been able to take chemistry beyond the typical AP material? I felt like as a homeschooler, one of our strengths in this crazy competitive college admissions process was being able to show advanced coursework in subjects that traditional high schoolers don't have access to. For example, when my DS was on the chem track, he took tons of dual enrollment chemistry as quickly as he could fit it in (CHM 101, 102 - beginning chem then CHM 111 and 112 - traditional university level chem/AP equivalent (he took these in 8 week sessions so he could squeeze them in 1 semester), then CHM 241 - Organic Chemistry). He has applied to competitive universities and wanted to have the most rigorous coursework he could get in his area of interest. If he had continued his interest in chem, he would have continued to go beyond orgo this year with independent projects or even higher level classes if they were available.

Of course, then he went and decided to apply for Computer Science (even more competitive than chem, *sigh*) so we pivoted to do as much CS as we could as fast as we could. He managed to squeeze in 3 CS classes at the community college, took the AP exam (he taught himself the material in a few months because he discovered his interest in the middle of his Junior year), and has created an independent study course this year combining Coursera certificate courses along with independent programming projects.

Tech is super duper competitive (as I'm sure you know). How competitive it is depends on what you apply for (I'm only familiar with CS), and whether you are in- or out of state. This year, kids with insane stats (A gajillion APs (all 5s of course), high 1500 to 1600 SAT scores, straight 800s in SAT subject tests, high GPAs) were getting rejected left and right for CS (these are out of state stats). I heard of a few who were accepted at MIT and rejected from GA Tech.

It might be worth reading more about profiles of students accepted to Tech in chemistry this year. Would you be better off with more chem coursework and a less rigorous physics class? Is there something that you notice that maybe your daughter could do over the summer or next year to boost her chem profile (a national exam? a competitive summer program? a higher level dual enrollment class? developing a relationship with a lab at Tech?). Maybe you'll get an idea from looking at the students Tech selected this year.

I hope you guys are in state (that would make admissions much easier!), and I'm also hoping that chemistry is a little bit less crazy in terms of competitiveness than CS is. The stats for kids accepted out of state for CS are just getting tougher and tougher every year. This year was brutal.

If you are out of state, and it is your daughter's dream school, I'd say you can't go wrong with too much rigor. They are also known as a school that's big on "numbers" for admission, so having the highest possible stats (almost perfect) on the SAT and SAT subject tests would be helpful. Anything you can do to distinguish her from the "top of their class/bazillions of APs each" crowd would be helpful. Whether that's special/different classes showing her passion for chemistry or anything you can think of to do "outside the box" to show a love of chemistry. 

This year of college apps has been really eye opening for our family about just how competitive things are getting. I have come kicking and screaming into this stats crazy world of competitive college admissions, because my son wanted to try for some big reach schools. I wish you and your daughter the best with Tech admissions!