Zinga AddedWednesday, January 17, 2018 at 3:18 AM I am a student at a high school and I want to be a civil engineer but I don't take physics or chemistry. My question is that can I start physics at university I'm about to finish school but my teachers tell me that it is too late to start physics or chemistry. Related to Choosing a Degree, Civil, Preparation for College Reset Sort By Default Karen Strauss , Oregon Department of Transportation Answered Friday, February 2, 2018 at 12:50 PM Hi Zinga, Congratulations on considering a career in civil engineering! I absolutely love the career choice I made and I’ve been able to live in several different states and I’ve done lots of different kinds of work; environmental, land development, pavement design, traffic design, noise pollution studies, highway design, you name it! To answer your question, YES you can take any classes you need at the University (I’m assuming you’ll go to a public university; I’m not sure about the private ones, although I assume they work the same way.) The Universities realize that students are coming in with all kinds of different backgrounds and knowledge, so they offer mathematics, English, science and language classes that start at a high school level and work their way up to the proficiency you need. As an example, when I started university, the engineering program started their students doing Calculus in the first semester! My math skills were not up to that level so the first year, I took college algebra and then I took pre-calculus. The second year I was able to take Calculus. The University had the classes available for me to take to get up to the level I needed. Your university will likely have a starting Physics or starting Chemistry class you can take to learn the basics you missed in high school, so that you can then get into the regular University classes you need. The only drawback is that this can take a little more time; so instead of finishing in 4 years, you may have to take 5 years to finish. I made up for this time by taking some summer classes, which you can probably do when you graduate high school. If you know the university you want to go to, call up the admission office and ask them the same question you posted here, and they can help you. I’m sure you can earn the credits you need in order to “catch up” and be where you need to be to take engineering classes and be a success!