Next question: DS will have 2.5 credits of science, and will have taken 3 AP science exams, one for a course not complete, and one for a course not offered. So, for colleges that want 3 yrs of science, but he has 3 AP exams with good scores (for despite it all, we anticipate decent scores) what will they think? Argh.
Short answer it depends on the school. Look in the fine print.
A friend's son had a very rocky freshman year and I helped her look into some of the details for the CA State schools & UC's. CA State school's won't accept you unless you get at least C on their "required" list of classes. It turns out that they have rules that if you get more than a certain grade on the SAT 2 Subject Test it can mitigate a F in a regular class and I don't remember the details but a 3 or better on the AP test probably would have as well. Mitigated only mean it class then counted on their list of "passed" classes, not the grade was replaced on the GPA.
The other thing that was more relevant to her son was a better grade in a higher Language or Math class would also hide a lower than C grade. For instance getting A's in Spanish II would replace D's in Spanish I. And a good grade in Algebra II could hide bad grades in Algebra I.
Took a bit of hunting to find these rules but they are there. And don't quote me on them.. I can probably find the web page again for the Cal States & UC's with a bit of effort.
As for Physics. My DS will take AP Physics next year. Our school hasn't really caught up with the changes in the Physics AP. They refuse to offer Physics C (with Calculus) - dumb because they have a large number of kids who take Calculus junior year. DS didn't want to take Physics because of this but I convinced him that if was considering Engineering colleges were going to expect it. Our school ONLY calls their class AP Physics I, but they teach it the same way they did 4-5 years where it still includes Electricity & Magnetism and they allow the kids to take both Physics I & II exam. Not sure how that works.
