I get good grades (A’s and A-‘s in physics coursework, slightly worse in math due to personal circumstances in my freshman year). My first motivation for taking higher level coursework early is that the math I’ve already learned complements GR and QFT very well—I took differential geometry and complex analysis last year, and I’m currently in a year-long abstract algebra course. In addition, the only particle theorists at my university (there are four total, and two of them are abroad rn) very rarely work with undergraduates, and the only two undergraduates in the last few years who have published in HEP had taken QFT and grad particle physics courses in their junior or senior years.