I have a cousin whose granddaughter is a sophomore in hs and wants to major in engineering at A&M. She wants advice on what courses she should take her last 2 years of high school but cannot get a response from anyone in the engineering department. Her high school counselor is not much help.

My engineering Aggie friends just said take all the math and science she could and AP courses, which she is already in and plans to do.

Any guidance?

Generally this is true. For a more comprehensive way forward they can visit https://engineering.tamu.edu/admissions-and-aid/apply-now.html or contact one of our admissions advisors at 979-458-0950

Thanks

My son is now a junior and his first semester engineering course was heavy python programming. He didn't do much if any programming in high school so this one class was by far his most difficult from a learning curve perspective. Our HS senior was accepted into engineering for next fall and he has taken two computer programming / project classes based on advice from his older brother.

My freshman engineering son said if he could go back in time, he would take a python class for sure.

Thanks for these tips.

As much math as possible, usually Calc 2 in high school.
As much physics as possible. Usually mechanics
As much chemistry as possible.
As much computer science as possible.

Of all those 4 I would say math is most important followed by computer science. If you have math down the other 2 are much easier. Good luck.

You'll want to place out of everything possible. Ours did and two and a half years in he's six courses shy of fulfilling his degree plan with three semesters left. The degree plan has a BA, two BS's and two minors. Skipping the weed out classes is good for the GPA.

He was reluctantly bumped up two levels in math and science while doing time in elementary school so, max AP by default. Turns out that was a good thing.

Parroting whats been said here. Take all the science, math, and coding courses they have access to now.

Testing out of entry level physics and math in high school is double edged sword. If you REALLY know it you'll do just fine. But there's a lot of kids who think they really know it and then find out they don't once they start taking courses that built upon college level math and science courses. Those weed out courses are good for demanding your attention and making you figure out if you really want to do this.

If you can test out of freshman level weed out courses, and keep up with the more advanced curriculum it is a very nice advantage to have. You can take fewer classes per semester. You can keep your classwork up and graduate sooner, take more interesting electives or more easily squeeze in a masters.

I would recommend watching youtube channels like 3Blue1Brown, Reducible, and Steve Brunton. Those channels helped me really understand complicated mathematics. The Efficient Engineer has some really good videos on mechanical engineering.