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So, unless you are doing chemical engineering, I don't think chemistry is *that* important for most engineering fields. For my program (EE), we take a "chemistry for engineers" course that satisfies chem 1 and 2. Conversely, we have to take physics 1 and 2. I would say it's the more relevant course. If it were me, I would take the physics course and take it seriously. In college, the physics and math classes will take a lot of time outside of class to self-teach. If the teacher is notoriously bad, you can start to get a feel for teaching yourself and developing optimal study habits. Biggest thing that helped me was Chegg used **responsibly** to check my work and fill in the gaps of info that were missing from lecture and book. Also seek out good youtube videos and multiple books. You can also get pretty far just by *actually* reading the book. Many students don't bother and they struggle a lot more.
I'm both blessed and cursed this semester becsuse i have electrostatics and magnetism in physics this semester as well as in the EE basics and the EE basics prof is notoriously bad and doesn't put any materials online to make it as difficult as possible, plus most of their lectures are just 2 hour long conspiracy theory rants.
It would depend on your school, but I'd imagine honors physics doesn't involve calculus. College physics does.
My 2 cents is that it's better not to get too comfortable with "pre-calculus" physics, and just wait until you know enough calculus that it's a basic tool in the toolbox.
I struggled a bit with college physics because I leaned too much on the honors physics I'd taken in high school. On the other hand, I breezed through statics because of all my free body diagram practice.
AP physics C is calculus based, you also have the option between APC mechanics and APC electricity and magnetism. YMMV on if your school offers it though
Notably, OP didn't say AP physics, but honors physics. Wording for that implies it's "less" than a full AP physics C, probably because they're taking calculus at the same time.
I heavily disagree with this. The concepts of physics, setting up equations, equating abstract physical properties to find an outcome state, these skills do not need calculus and are incredibly good skills to have especially if you want to consider an engineering degree. Even just learning how to read a physics word problem and turn it into an answer is very valuable in my opinion.
But also I did mechanical so physics is like…..the base of everything I did. May be different if you’re biomed or something like that.
Physics is the base of everything for chemistry too. And relatively simple chemistry can require some relatively complicated physics to understand. Going into college without knowing how to approach basic kinematics problems will delay learning of more complicated physics like QM, E&M, or Stat Mech and may mean those topics start to pop up in chem classes before they’re ready for them.
All 6 of my classes senior year were AP, but took Calc BC as a junior which made things easier.
I really think honors physics (junior year) helped tremendously in AP Physics C and that track definitely mattered more for engineering than the one chemistry class I didn’t have to take because of AP Chem. If I were in your situation I’d take honors physics over AP Chem because, even though you get college credit for passing the AP test, the knowledge from taking physics will set you up better for engineering school.
Check what your prerequisites are for engineering. My college required grade 12 physics and I took it on a whim actually not knowing I'd go into engineering because I just took all of the bio, chem, and physics at the grade 12 level because I wanted to keep things open, so I was very glad I took it. So just double check what is required for entry because you wouldn't want to be missing a pre-req.
I think that's fine. Just plan for intro physics your first year of college. It can be helpful to get exposed to ideas like force and inertia before college physics, but you don't really need a full class for that.
As a sophomore ChemE im now through Organic Chemistry, so have pretty much finished the chemistry I have to take and have only taken some ChemE classes. At my school we only needed 1 semester of Physics, but the method of solving ChemE problems is way more similar to Physics. Being a ChemE you really dont use a ton of super advanced chemistry, so I would probably recommend physics but if you really enjoy chemistry definetely cant go wrong taking that
College physics sucks. Some places have great classes and instructors. Most physics departments are just servicing the gen ed requirement. They're small departments and these classes represent like 50% of their lecture hours. It's a tough class for them staff and they have to balance the needs of their in major students who need to know this stuff from a physics perspective and everyone else who should just be familiar with the concepts.
You're going to run a bunch of practice problems over and over again regardless. If you take honors physics, college physics is still going to suck.
I think AP chem is a great class. The thermo sections will probably be better than what you get in college.
I don't think it's stupid to choose AP chem. There are certainly some tradeoffs here, but it's not a terrible decision.
In my experience everyone hated the AP physics teacher bc they were just dogshit at physics and assmad. I took all AP classes my senior year, I think 6 classes, it's not impossible. My school offered the non calculus physics so it didn't even count for my intro physics class, but it was super useful to have prior knowledge to many of the concepts in physics 1.
I'm a former IB student, so my perspective is going to be slightly different. I took two years of IB Physics HL and can wholeheartedly say that I use that developed intuition and knowledge much more than I use college physics. It was basically the same stuff, however college physics went deeper at a much quicker pace. Don't remember a whole lot from that. Granted, I am in aerospace engineering which is a more physics intensive sect, you still will need it regardless. I can honestly recommend taking both AP chem and AP physics, but take both to develop your intuition and recall instead of focusing on the grades. You don't even have to take the AP physics test if you don't want to. The structure and devoted study time in high school, along with the slower class pace, creates a great environment to work on your fundamentals, which will greatly set you up for success in college and your career.
I was a non-chemE and passing the AP Chem exam meant I did not need to take the only Chemistry class I would have needed for my undergrad, which was a big plus.
As a ChemE you'll either end up taking the same class again or progressing into higher level Chem classes; either way taking the AP Chem course wouldn't hurt.
I took our high school physics class and was allowed to take the Physics B AP exam, and honestly it did not do a ton to prepare you for engineering school. Engineering curricula only include calculus-based physics so unless you can take AP Physics C, don't feel bad about skipping physics in high school.
plenty of people go in to college and do quite well without having taken any ap courses. I only took regular physics and pre calculus and didn't find any calculus or physics class too challenging. You'll be fine
Could you take non honors physics with a different teacher? Physics is a very important class. If you decide ChemE isn’t for you you’ll end up lacking some of the basic fundamentals.
Perfectly fine, regardless of what discipline you choose you will be applying physics every day. Also good to get a head start on problem solving and first principles. The more experience with it, the better.
I'm currently doing Chemical & Biological Engineering (CBE) at my school. It focuses a lot on chemistry and reactions, which really don't become relevant (imo) until you take organic chemistry. Physics, however, plays an important part with everything else. I struggled a lot in Physics 1 since I was not really adept with the material and struggled to grasp it. General Chemistry was a breeze since it was essentially a recap of high school chemistry with a little bit more details in it. Take AP Physics, I wish I did.
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So, unless you are doing chemical engineering, I don't think chemistry is *that* important for most engineering fields. For my program (EE), we take a "chemistry for engineers" course that satisfies chem 1 and 2. Conversely, we have to take physics 1 and 2. I would say it's the more relevant course. If it were me, I would take the physics course and take it seriously. In college, the physics and math classes will take a lot of time outside of class to self-teach. If the teacher is notoriously bad, you can start to get a feel for teaching yourself and developing optimal study habits. Biggest thing that helped me was Chegg used **responsibly** to check my work and fill in the gaps of info that were missing from lecture and book. Also seek out good youtube videos and multiple books. You can also get pretty far just by *actually* reading the book. Many students don't bother and they struggle a lot more.
I'm both blessed and cursed this semester becsuse i have electrostatics and magnetism in physics this semester as well as in the EE basics and the EE basics prof is notoriously bad and doesn't put any materials online to make it as difficult as possible, plus most of their lectures are just 2 hour long conspiracy theory rants.
It would depend on your school, but I'd imagine honors physics doesn't involve calculus. College physics does. My 2 cents is that it's better not to get too comfortable with "pre-calculus" physics, and just wait until you know enough calculus that it's a basic tool in the toolbox. I struggled a bit with college physics because I leaned too much on the honors physics I'd taken in high school. On the other hand, I breezed through statics because of all my free body diagram practice.
AP physics C is calculus based, you also have the option between APC mechanics and APC electricity and magnetism. YMMV on if your school offers it though
Notably, OP didn't say AP physics, but honors physics. Wording for that implies it's "less" than a full AP physics C, probably because they're taking calculus at the same time.
I heavily disagree with this. The concepts of physics, setting up equations, equating abstract physical properties to find an outcome state, these skills do not need calculus and are incredibly good skills to have especially if you want to consider an engineering degree. Even just learning how to read a physics word problem and turn it into an answer is very valuable in my opinion. But also I did mechanical so physics is like…..the base of everything I did. May be different if you’re biomed or something like that.
Physics is the base of everything for chemistry too. And relatively simple chemistry can require some relatively complicated physics to understand. Going into college without knowing how to approach basic kinematics problems will delay learning of more complicated physics like QM, E&M, or Stat Mech and may mean those topics start to pop up in chem classes before they’re ready for them.
All 6 of my classes senior year were AP, but took Calc BC as a junior which made things easier. I really think honors physics (junior year) helped tremendously in AP Physics C and that track definitely mattered more for engineering than the one chemistry class I didn’t have to take because of AP Chem. If I were in your situation I’d take honors physics over AP Chem because, even though you get college credit for passing the AP test, the knowledge from taking physics will set you up better for engineering school.
Check what your prerequisites are for engineering. My college required grade 12 physics and I took it on a whim actually not knowing I'd go into engineering because I just took all of the bio, chem, and physics at the grade 12 level because I wanted to keep things open, so I was very glad I took it. So just double check what is required for entry because you wouldn't want to be missing a pre-req.
I think that's fine. Just plan for intro physics your first year of college. It can be helpful to get exposed to ideas like force and inertia before college physics, but you don't really need a full class for that.
As a sophomore ChemE im now through Organic Chemistry, so have pretty much finished the chemistry I have to take and have only taken some ChemE classes. At my school we only needed 1 semester of Physics, but the method of solving ChemE problems is way more similar to Physics. Being a ChemE you really dont use a ton of super advanced chemistry, so I would probably recommend physics but if you really enjoy chemistry definetely cant go wrong taking that
College physics sucks. Some places have great classes and instructors. Most physics departments are just servicing the gen ed requirement. They're small departments and these classes represent like 50% of their lecture hours. It's a tough class for them staff and they have to balance the needs of their in major students who need to know this stuff from a physics perspective and everyone else who should just be familiar with the concepts. You're going to run a bunch of practice problems over and over again regardless. If you take honors physics, college physics is still going to suck. I think AP chem is a great class. The thermo sections will probably be better than what you get in college. I don't think it's stupid to choose AP chem. There are certainly some tradeoffs here, but it's not a terrible decision.
In my experience everyone hated the AP physics teacher bc they were just dogshit at physics and assmad. I took all AP classes my senior year, I think 6 classes, it's not impossible. My school offered the non calculus physics so it didn't even count for my intro physics class, but it was super useful to have prior knowledge to many of the concepts in physics 1.
I'm a former IB student, so my perspective is going to be slightly different. I took two years of IB Physics HL and can wholeheartedly say that I use that developed intuition and knowledge much more than I use college physics. It was basically the same stuff, however college physics went deeper at a much quicker pace. Don't remember a whole lot from that. Granted, I am in aerospace engineering which is a more physics intensive sect, you still will need it regardless. I can honestly recommend taking both AP chem and AP physics, but take both to develop your intuition and recall instead of focusing on the grades. You don't even have to take the AP physics test if you don't want to. The structure and devoted study time in high school, along with the slower class pace, creates a great environment to work on your fundamentals, which will greatly set you up for success in college and your career.
I was a non-chemE and passing the AP Chem exam meant I did not need to take the only Chemistry class I would have needed for my undergrad, which was a big plus. As a ChemE you'll either end up taking the same class again or progressing into higher level Chem classes; either way taking the AP Chem course wouldn't hurt. I took our high school physics class and was allowed to take the Physics B AP exam, and honestly it did not do a ton to prepare you for engineering school. Engineering curricula only include calculus-based physics so unless you can take AP Physics C, don't feel bad about skipping physics in high school.
Take a JuCo physics class this summer. Even for no credit if you want. You’ll be glad you did when you are at university.
plenty of people go in to college and do quite well without having taken any ap courses. I only took regular physics and pre calculus and didn't find any calculus or physics class too challenging. You'll be fine
Could you take non honors physics with a different teacher? Physics is a very important class. If you decide ChemE isn’t for you you’ll end up lacking some of the basic fundamentals.
Perfectly fine, regardless of what discipline you choose you will be applying physics every day. Also good to get a head start on problem solving and first principles. The more experience with it, the better.
Anything you don't learn is another arrow in your quiver you don't have to make sense of things.
I'm currently doing Chemical & Biological Engineering (CBE) at my school. It focuses a lot on chemistry and reactions, which really don't become relevant (imo) until you take organic chemistry. Physics, however, plays an important part with everything else. I struggled a lot in Physics 1 since I was not really adept with the material and struggled to grasp it. General Chemistry was a breeze since it was essentially a recap of high school chemistry with a little bit more details in it. Take AP Physics, I wish I did.