Rigorous enough math track?

I’m planning my high school schedule and I’m wondering if this high school math track will be accelerated/rigorous enough for me to be considered for top STEM schools. I’m interested in going into engineering.

Freshman year: Algebra II/Trig + Geometry
Summer 2018: Pre-calculus + DE College Algebra
Sophomore year: Fall - DE Calculus I, Spring - DE Calculus II
Summer 2019: DE Finite Math
Junior year: Spring - DE Statistics, Fall - Discrete Mathematics
Summer 2020: DE Multivariable Calculus
Senior year: Spring - DE Differential Equations, Fall - DE Linear Algebra

You’re currently a freshman taking Algebra 2, so already advanced compared to your peers; I would think the question is rhetorical. But, yes, it’s rigorous enough.

The unasked question though is whether spending your summers taking math classes will be viewed favorably by the colleges you are targeting.

Seems like a more sensible progression would be:

9th: Geometry
10th: Algebra 2
11th: Precalculus
12th: Calculus

Or if you really like math and are good at it enough to want to get more ahead than that:

9th: Geometry and Algebra 2 (assuming that it is allowed if Trigonometry is included in Algebra 2)
10th: Precalculus
11th: Calculus
12th: Your choice of some of these college math courses: Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Discrete Math, Calculus-based Statistics

Regarding the courses you have listed, College Algebra is a subset of Precalculus, so it is not necessary if you take Precalculus. Finite Math is typically a lower level (in a college context) course for students who need to fulfill a quantitative reasoning requirement but do not want to take calculus; it may sample a selection of topics relevant to business majors. So these do not need to be in your schedule.

At several colleges precalculus is required after taking college algebra to take calculus 1 rather than a modified calculus that often meets the needs of specific majors so see what your particular college requires for calculus 1

Oh I think I should have mentioned that the credits most likely will not transfer to the uni I go to, so it’s not like I’m trying to skip math courses once I get there. I’m just really interested in math and I feel like it will help me as I study science, and having it on my high school transcript may give me an extra edge.

Is it not worth it or something?

It won’t. It’s not that unusual. And if doing so makes your application appear one-dimensional, it may hurt you.

I know it’s not amazing or anything, but it seems acceptable at least. As for looking one-dimensional, I’m not too worried about that because my other subjects + out of school activities are strong and well-rounded.

It’s more than acceptable. No college, no matter how top-tier, requires math beyond HS calculus.

I agree with skieurope. No college is going to look at your schedule and say “well this person didn’t take math classes over the summer and did not enroll in DE Multivariable Calc, therefore this schedule is not rigorous enough.” Don’t try and rush your math progression because it can do more harm than good.

My concern is that your summer should be used in other ways if you’re truly aiming for top schools.
The schedules outlined in #2 would be equally useful for top colleges and would leave you more time to develop skills and experiences top colleges want.

This is a very very very very rigorous math curriculum.

Hi there. I have no idea how gifted you are in mathematics, but I’m going to assume here that you’re rather gifted, because you’re looking at/asking about the top STEM schools. Honestly, I would skip those courses in the summer. I’d suggest looking at getting olympiad training in the summer, if you like mathematics (olympiad training for Informatics, Physics, Astronomy or any other olympiad works too). This could be MOP if you score well on the USAMO, but also another camp that doesn’t require you to do well on the USAMO first. You could also just do some self-studying if you don’t get into the training camp(s). I personally love the book ‘How to solve it’ by G. Pólya and would definitely recommend it. Besides that, other books I have used (and use) are ‘The USSR Olympiad Problem Book’ by D.O. Shklarsky et al. and ‘The Stanford Mathematics Problem Book’ by G. Pólya. Moreover, there’s lots of stuff on AoPS (Art of Problem Solving: a great website for olympiad stuff) and online in general. If you would like to know more about that, message me ;).

If you do get in one of the camps, you’ll probably learn some multivariable calculus and some other very cool things along the way. One example of learning some multivariable calculus was when we were dealing with bad boys like inequalities. I learnt how to bash them if I couldn’t find a beautiful solution, and that required some multivariable calculus. You bash an inequality by using Lagrange multipliers, but to use them you need to know about gradients, which require partial derivatives etc. Of course, you could do everything by yourself in your spare time, too.

Good luck!