Hello,

It seems like my dreams are bigger but I know what has to be there. I just think about the bigger then the smaller. My big dream is going to Penn State for a BS in Nuclear Engineering. No I can not do that yet? The reason why is no college wants to accept me because I didn't take that many classes for a college to accept me.

As I am writing this, I have a list of Course descriptions from CCP (Community College of Philadelphia)

Let's start with Math first:

Assuming like always place me in the beginning level. Last college placed me in Arithmetic, I moved to Lehigh County they placed me in Pre-Algebra. I failed because I thought the tutor at home will help me. I found out he knows very little of Math. He never done anything with Science or Math. I might move again in Philadelphia County.

The first class they have is

Arithmetic
Elementary Algebra
Intermediate Algebra
Probability sounds good for a college to accept me?

etc....

Some Physics and Chemistry?

What typed of Physics and Chemistry?

Take care everyone.......

Tell us what level you have achieved so far in these important subjects. I assume you've had the basic one year of high school physics and one year of high school chemistry?

Judging from the confusing things you've said, I can't figure out how old you are or how well you performed in your high school courses. If you're talking about attending a two-year junior college then presumably you have already completed high school.

But then you say you took a class in pre-algebra. If you're interested in science and have graduated high school, there's no way you wouldn't already have completed algebra (maybe even two years of algebra if you went to a really good high school) plus plane geometry and trigonometry.

So either you haven't finished high school, or you didn't develop your interest in science until after you graduated so you didn't take any science courses in high school, and/or you went to a mediocre high school that didn't offer the courses you need.

In any case, if you intend to pursue a degree in physics (nuclear or otherwise), you need the basic high school physics course, basic high school algebra and plane geometry. If you hope to be accepted into the physics program at a top-notch university you'll need far more than that. Advanced algebra and just more science and math in general. Basic high school chemistry, a second year of physics if you can get it, trigonometry and maybe solid geometry, and some independent study like a seminar or a project.

However, if you really don't know algebra yet, and you could not pass the pre-algebra class without a tutor, I would recommend that you stop dead in your tracks right this moment and fix that. You can't hope to get anywhere in physics unless you are a WHIZ in math. Not just competent, but BRIGHT. All of elementary physics is nothing but math. Calculating velocity and momentum, acceleration and moment of inertia, power and energy... those are all algebraic equations, many of them quadratic. Some of them also require knowledge of trigonometry because you have to use sines and cosines if an object is rotating.

Before you get your heart set on becoming a physicist, you absolutely have to become a mathematician first. Not an Einstein, but considerably smarter about it than the average person who can't calculate a mortgage payment without looking it up in a table. Notice that here on SciForums we have "Math & Physics" combined into one single subforum, because they are that closely related.

Most people who go on to become physicists discover that they love math and have an aptitude for it when they're very young, and master algebra when they're twelve or thirteen. My father taught it to me when I was eleven. If you weren't intrigued and enchanted by math at an early age, you've got two problems. One is that you may not have the personality to be a physicist because you're going to be up to your eyeballs in math every day and you have to enjoy it like it was pizza. The other is that you're getting off to a very late start. Most math and physics majors already have an intuitive grasp of algebra at your age and are already playing around with differential calculus. You have a lot of catching up to do, in a subject which apparently has never interested you very much. I'd say you need three years of math before you're ready for the university work you want to do. And that's just the math. You also need the science courses.

Here's a simple quadratic equation for you:

x^2 + 3x = 28 [x^2 means x squared, I'm not messing around with superscript fonts]

Can you solve for the value (or values) of x ?

When you can do that, then it will be time to decide what you're going to major in in college. How quickly you can learn enough algebra to solve that equation will be a good indicator of whether you have the aptitude and motivation to be a scientist.

Good luck!

Alright,

After reading what you said. I did graduate from High School. At that time, kind of liked Math but didn't take enough. I am 26. By the time after graduating from High School, I really didn't think about College until many years later. I did go to Algebra 1 in High School but so many years went by and without using it, I never remember it.

Is it still possible for what I want to do? I also know Community Colleges has them High Schools classes. The list I gave was from the college catalog and they are High School classes.

I didn't solve the problem. I tried too but didn't work out. Even without solving that problem, is it still possible to be a Nuclear Engineer? I really don't want to waste my time by picking major that I don't think is interested. I don't even want a job without having a degree. I think all jobs I want requires a high level Math/Physics Engineer degree. In fact every where requires some kind of degree. Even if it's Environmental Engineering. I don't mean Environmental Science or studies but I mean an actual Engineering degree.