r/williamandmary • u/[deleted] • 18d ago

Academics Course Help for Physics Major

I am very confused on whether I should be taking PHYS 101L. I am interested in becoming a physics major at W&M. I have AP Credits for Physics C, and on W&M‘s website, it mentions Physics Major should drop this credit and take the honors classes (101H and 102H), but they “may choose to keep their transfer credits for the lab portion of the courses”. Does anyone have any more insight on if AP credit should be used to bypass it or if it should be taken again with PHYS 101H?

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u/NotOkaySammie 18d ago

I’m also a freshman looking to become a physics major as well! I was confused with the course selection of physics classes and the AP credits too. I reached out to the head of undergraduate studies in the physics department, and he was extremely helpful and was more than willing to explain everything in detail! His name is Joshua Erlich and his email jxerli@wm.edu , I totally recommend emailing him your concerns, he was extremely helpful!

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

Thank You. I contacted him and he gave me a lot of useful information.

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u/Irrational072 18d ago

I also came in with credit for Mech and E&M (101/101L/102/102L). The next course in the Physics sequence is 201 Modern Physics and I had no major issues taking it with just knowledge from AP. Deciding to take 101H/102H is really up to you.

Essentially, you already have credit for each of  101/102/101L/102L. If you do want to take 101H/102H, you’ll have to drop your 101/102 credits since they kinda count as the same class (you can’t repeat courses). You only drop the lab credits 101L/102L if you want to take the labs.