10 Classes in High School to Jumpstart your STEM Career
Picking classes on short notice can be very stressful. Not only are you very involved with finishing up your current classes, but you don’t want to take new classes that won’t maximize your competitiveness for college, internships, and other programs.
I was in your position too. In fact, I still am. Every few months or so, I need to pick a new courses for my master’s degree program. But as a mid-career engineer, I have a little bit more perspective on which classes I choose to invest my time and my hard earned dollars into. As a student, you might not have a lot experience to pull from to help inform your course selections.
In the end, you want to select classes that are going to be the best bang for your buck…er time.
And as much as school is a game of having the highest GPA, what you learn in your last 2 years of high school really is your foundational knowledge for lifelong learning. As you get older, it’s truly about the content of the courses that you want to maximize instead of just your GPA.
I recommend taking AP level courses, with some exceptions, because they have the potential of offering you college credit and you end up getting more out of these courses than lower level ones. However, do know that if these courses are not available at your school at the AP level, the highest level your school currently offers them at will be just fine.
With that in mind, here are 10 Classes to take in your high school career that will help jumpstart your future career in a STEM field.
💻 AP Computer Science
Taking AP Computer Science isn’t just about learning a programming language, it’s about learning how to use code to solve problems. Even though I think that everyone should learn to code, learning the basics will be helpful for other STEM-based majors.
This class was run for only 1 semester when I took it and man has it paid off. The foundational coding knowledge you gain in this course has helped me in a lot of my engineering homework with using programs like MATLAB, in developing small scripts for my lab-based coursework, and most importantly, an understanding of what the needs of software were in the context of a larger system.
Additionally, developing your own online portfolio yourself to host some of your own personal projects and experience will go a long ways in the eyes of an interviewer.
🧮 AP Calc (all of them)
Calculus is the language of science and it’s so important to take these courses. You will learn how to take limits, derivatives, and integrate, with examples similar to what you would see in a Calculus I course in college. If you are wondering what exactly you might be getting yourself into, check out Khan Academy’s course in Calculus.
What I recommend to students taking calculus is to always ask your teacher: “what is a real life example of this concept?” The reason for this is that in industry, a STEM professional might not be taking derivatives or doing integration explicitly, but they understand the relationship between different phenomena through their understanding of calculus. It’s important to know why you are learning these concepts.
Personally, I would also recommend that you reach out and get involved with your local FIRST Robotics team to quite literally put calculus into action, especially in the development of a robotic control system. Applying theoretical concepts from your coursework in actually building something doesn’t just help you understand the theory better, but it is also extremely fulfilling.
⚖️ AP Statistics
I took the honors version of Statistics, not the AP level, due to schedule constraints, but I really wish I took the the AP level of this course. Statistics is the way how we actually do science in the real world. Nothing is ever truly exact, only modeled or measured with a degree of uncertainty.
Having this understanding going forward will assist in future studies and research in college.
🍎 AP Physics (all of them)
I think that Physics is the most important discipline out of all of the other AP science courses. Not that I am biased or anything.
Unfortunately, I ended up messing up my course schedule in high school and was not able to take the AP level of Physics. This is one of my biggest regrets during high school, but in the end, it didn’t really matter all that much as I ended up taking a lot of physics courses in college as part of my degree.
All STEM majors will need to take some form of physics in college, so taking AP Physics to potentially skip a course might be beneficial, especially if your degree doesn’t require many physics courses. Additionally, getting the option of testing out of a Physics I course in college will also save your valuable time and money.
👨🏻🏭 Career Technical Electives that interest you
This will take some explaining.
I ended up taking elective courses through what is called the Career Technical Education (CTE) program. This program had elective courses that allowed students to learn about knowledge and skills required by a specific career field. After completing the course program, students could apply for college credit, similar to that of AP courses, but not as widely accepted.
So naturally, with an interest in engineering, I ended up taking the Intro to Engineering course sophomore year. This course actually helped me get into a more advanced modeling class in college instead of taking the simpler introduction to modeling course.
I highly recommend taking technical electives in a field that you might have interest in pursuing. Not only do you gain skills that are useful in those careers, but most of the time, professors that teach these courses were industry professionals in the field that they teach. However, if your school doesn’t offer these types of courses, don’t worry. Just move on down to number 7 on this list.
👩🏼🎓 Finishing the Career Technical Elective curriculums
I recommend next to finish out the remaining technical elective courses that you have interest in. In my example, the next courses were options to take Engineering I and II in my junior and senior years, respectively. However, I ended up taking a slightly different route instead: I ended up taking 2 years of shop class.
That’s right. Machining Technologies I and II…and I am so glad I did.
Not only did I learn how to use manual mills and lathes to help build parts for the robot on my FIRST Robotics team, but the idea was suggested by a mentor of mine at the time, a mechanical engineer who already worked in the aerospace industry.
Because I was going to be taking engineering courses in college anyways, he figured it would be best to learn how the machinist feels when they receive a drawing from the mechanical engineer. As a result, this has provided me with valuable insight in how to markup drawings to make it easier to manufacture.
So in summary, don’t be afraid to try different technical electives in different fields. If you end up not liking it, it is far cheaper to find that out in high school than it is in college. Changing degrees and having a later graduation from college is extremely expensive.
🧪 AP Chemistry
Chemistry is next on the list. There are many instances where having a foundational knowledge of chemistry comes into play. Of course, you will take this course again in college (many times over depending on your field of study), but will most likely encounter its use in industry as well.
For myself, I used it heavily during projects that dealt with areas of material science, specifically in a foundry environment. In a past job, I worked closely on the stabilization of a copper alloy and how process control variables during the melting and pouring process impacted the scrap rate of finished parts. Without my foundational knowledge of Chemistry that I began in high school, I would have struggled contributing as much as I did on this project.
🧠 AP Psychology
Now this is a class that I didn’t take in high school, but wish I did. Psychology gives you some knowledge on how our mind works, therefore making it an important class to include on this list. From working on a team to networking with other students and professionals, understanding how the inner workings of our brain can have big impacts in interacting with others when developing technology.
Another area of interest is in business. It is common for some STEM professionals to go back to school for an online or in-person MBA. This is so that they gain business experience when moving up the corporate ranks to high level leadership and management positions. Most MBA programs require organizational behavioral courses, which Psychology is a large part of.
🗺 AP US History
Why US History for a STEM career? Having an understanding of “how we got here” is really important when trying to create technology for the future. Learning about old technology, processes, and how it impacted the growth of a country is critical in trying to predict or understand future impacts.
Another important reason is a surface-level understanding of politics. Politics, unfortunately, exists everywhere in the workplace and is another variable that must be considered when creating technology. Everything is so interconnected, particularly when it comes to money and personal interests, therefore it is important to understand how different examples played out in history.
Note that US History can be replaced with your country’s respective history course.
🖋 AP Language and Composition
This was probably my least favorite class in high school, but I took it anyways. Why?
The reason I suggest taking this, especially if you are considering a STEM field, is that you end up doing a lot of writing for this class. This class involves a good amount of reading too, which inevitably STEM professionals do on a daily basis.
Writing, like most other activities, takes practice to have high levels of proficiency. In a STEM field, communication of results is a critical skill. After all, you can be the most technically savvy, but if you can share your results and methods with others, then your work won’t have the same impact and reach as it should.
I have an interesting story about STEM fields and communication that I will be sharing in an upcoming article, so be on the lookout for that.
Summary
Which class should you take? Well that really depends on what you have interest in, what you might see yourself studying in college, and which field of STEM you are considering.
Although taking these classes equate to skills that are directly applicable to STEM careers, my number one piece of advice is to take classes that you have an interest in. In general, the more effort you put into it, the more you are going to get out of it.
If you have any questions or want specific feedback on your course selection, don’t hesitate to drop me a line at hi@natecordova.com or connect with me on socials. I’d be more than happy to help.
