Charleston Business Daily

aerospace?

im a freshman in high school in algebra 2 and id like to know what type of math/science classes i should take (and excel in) and what classes i should take / major in in college

Public Comments

1. Take every math and science class in HS as you possibly can. The catalog from the university you choose will have all the info you'll need to know about what to take at uni. Most universities assign academic advisors who are professors for the particular major the student has chosen.
2. I'm majoring in aerospace engineering right now, and this is what I wish I'd done: Calculus is important. If your school offers AP/IB classes or you can take them at the local college, take them. Schedule your classes so that you end up taking the highest level of math your school offers during your senior year of high school - don't take easy math classes your senior year. Take physics classes. The more and the higher levels the better. If you don't like physics you will hate aerospace engineering. You might need to take some more math classes before your school will let you take physics - do all of that ASAP. Take the SAT and ACT early, you want to know what to expect when you take them for real during your junior/senior year of high school. If you're interested in designing airplanes, you probably want to go for Aerospace Engineering, or possibly Aeronautical Science. Check out the websites of your state's engineering universities. You should be able to find which high school AP classes you can get credit for in the humanities. Get absolutely as much of your humanities out of the way as possible before you go to college. Aerospace engineering is one of the most difficult majors you can choose, so you want to save as much of your time as possible for aerospace classes while you're in college. You don't want to be wasting time on english and history. Once you get to college, your university will have planned out for you which classes you should take, so don't worry about that. Summary: be good in math and physics, get AP credits for humanities (english/history/arts), and be prepared to work hard. Aerospace is one of the most difficult things to major in, but also one of the most rewarding, once you see a plane you've designed take flight. Good luck!