In 2004, the pattern in academic pathways for high school students in the USA showed that students were completing more demanding mathematics courses. Despite the upward pattern in advanced-level mathematics course-taking, disparities among racial/ethnic groups persisted between 1982 and 2004. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002; Ingels et al., 2007), the current study sought to advance understanding of gender and ethnic differences in advanced mathematics course-taking. Furthermore, this study examined how the differences are related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathways in college. Results showed that the relationships between exploratory factors (both individual- and school-level factors) and advanced mathematics course-taking and STEM choices differed across ethnicity and gender. This highlights the need for further research that disaggregates data by both ethnicity and gender. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)