Hey! I’m a freshman in high school taking an upperclassman Environmental Science class. As of now, my grade is a 96%. I really like Environmental Science (it’s what I want to study in college). Would it be a good idea to try and take upper level (college) ES classes? I’d take APES but we don’t have it. Also, would I need to have a high level in math? I’m in Advanced Algebra 2 right now. Second semester or next year I’m going to take Pre-Calculus. Then either sophomore or junior year I’ll take AP Calc, then whatever college Calculus or Stats class comes next.
In terms of science, make sure to take the core 3: chemistry, bio, and physics, then supplement with more ES if you want.
For math, after AP Calc BC, the general sequence goes Multi-variable Calc then Ordinary Differential Equations. These are very important for engineering, but I think less so for other degrees. Still good classes if you want to go further in math. Other options however are linear algebra, calc-based statistics, etc. I would look up some of the colleges you’re interested in and find out what math they have Environmental Science majors take. That could inform your decision, but of course you don’t have to decide right now.
I’m taking Bio 1 right now and Chemistry next year, Physics junior year. I’ll make sure to look into the math classes I should take! I’m really leaning towards Stats after Calc but we’ll see. Thanks for the advice!