Rising junior, I'm very confused
Edit: if you know me irl no you don't
Hi all, I'm an Asian student from a good private high school in California (I think at least 30% seniors got into T20), albeit our school heavily leans towards the humanities. I'm pretty interested in philosophy and read philosophy regularly but my current angle is pure physics, which I am not as interested in, to say the least.
Now I'm kinda confused on which path to go down. I have friends who are lwk experienced and they tell me I should def switch to physics because I'm pretty much hopeless in getting into T10 w/ physics or engineering (which I agree). But my parents insist on my doing pure physics because they think I'm not getting any well-paid job if I do philosophy (which I also agree). So now I'm kinda stuck.
Here's my background, for reference:
- Standardized testing: SAT 1560 w/ superscore, might do better next year
- GPA: 3.8ish unweighted 4.1ish weighted (only sophomore year, I wasn't locked and got too many A minuses), might do better next year
- ECs:
- Published a paper on AI and psychology on an academic journal (not high school journal, but now I'm working on R&R for jhss submission)
- Qualified for AIME freshman year, not planning to do any AMCs again because they are a pain in the ass to prepare + people cheat
- Does some regional math competitions with school math team
- Did an internship on AI and robotics over the summer in one of the best unis back home in Asia, but imo it was a bit sloppy bc the stuff I did was fairly easy
- I am preparing for ISEF. I'm 80% sure I'll qualify for California state ISEF, but I don't think I'll be able to go beyond that.
- I will probably do good on F=ma next year and qualify for USAPhO if I REALLY lock in
- AP: our school doesn't use the ap system, but I'm about to take AP Calc BC, AP Chem, and AP Physics C next year at another school. I probably can score a five on all of them.
- Courses: Highest level Math/ English/ History/Science that our school has to offer. I'm only taking honors in languages bc I'm sure I'll get cooked if I do advanced.
The thing is, if I can get into T15-T10 for physics I'll def do physics, but if I can't even get into T20 I might as well do philosophy and maybe switch departments (or maybe not).
TL;DR: Should I do phil or physics?
Edit: format
u/GuntherFehlingerBot — 23 days ago