You also need to find out from other colleges that don’t require Calculus if it is necessary in order to be competitive for certain majors, like CS. We toured Stonybrook as it is considered the top SUNY (State University of New York), and we were told that because the CS department is so small, they do require calculus for that major even though it is not required to be accepted to the university overall.
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wow amazing reply thank you
Sorry should have specified, my school only has integrated math, it isn’t split into algebra, geometry, etc so it’s a lot more intuitive to skip pre-calc at my school because it is mostly used as a high school math review at my school. Sorry should have said that to begin with 
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Colleges aren’t going to penalize you for a decision you made in 8th grade.
I am sorry to say, but this is simply not true. I can tell you for a fact that your chances of getting accepted to top engineering colleges will drop significantly if you are not taking calculus in 12th grade. It is absolutely atrocious, precisely because of what you said: Kids are being penalized for a decision made in eighth grade. Worse still, many high school math departments will actively steer you away from the calculus route the moment your grades begin to falter, and they won’t bother asking what it is you actually want to do with your life. But it is a fact.
Adam: You and your parents need to tell your school counselor in no uncertain terms that you want to go for an engineering degree in college and that you do not want to miss out because you couldn’t take calculus in high school. I would be shocked if this is the first time someone lays that predicament on the table.
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Integrated math may or may not be designed to allow strong students to go directly to calculus without a precalculus course after integrated math 3. Presumably, your high school has an integrated math sequence that is accelerated enough to allow strong students to go directly to calculus after integrated math 3. This is not necessarily the case at all high schools using integrated math.
Our HS had one section each of AP Calc and regular Calc (18 seats per class) along with a full IB Programme (that doesn’t even offer Calc). The number of students enrolled in engineering or CS programs, Ivies and other highly selective colleges from my D’s class far exceeds those 36 available seats. YMMV.
There are other schools that offer CS or engineering beyond “top” schools, some of which have holistic admission policies and many which do not admit by major. More goes into college selection, too, like fit and finances. This student is only in 9th grade and doesn’t need the stress of a horse that has already gotten out of the stable.
Doesn’t IB math SL include an introduction to calculus (though not enough for colleges to allow for advanced placement in college math), and IB math HL include enough calculus that many colleges allow a high enough score to get a semester of calculus advanced placement (perhaps even a year if it is IB math HL with the extra calculus option)?
What you and I are saying is not mutually exclusive. But, with all due respect, your statement that colleges won’t penalize Adam for not having calculus is definitely incorrect: Some will, some won’t. I don’t presume to know what college Adam will want to go to, but it seems quite obvious he’s not getting the help he needs from his counselor. This is not about stressing him out; it’s about giving him the information he is seeking so he and his parents can make an informed decision.
The very few colleges which have calculus in high school as a hard requirement will be inaccessible for the OP if they do not take calculus in high school.
For the other few (though somewhat more numerous) colleges that “recommend” calculus in high school, some of them may make a distinction between applicants who could not get to calculus due to middle school math placement (like the OP) or some other reason like non-availability, versus those who avoided calculus after completing precalculus in 11th grade or earlier. But it is hard to know whether any given college makes such a distinction, since most colleges are opaque about their admission practices and policies.
I.e. where calculus in high school is “recommended”, high school students should take it if it is available to them. Those high school students who do not have it available to them (including due to middle school math placement) are presumably still considered for admission, but whether that is disadvantageous and how much depends on the college, and not generally knowable by the applicant.
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Our HS generally offered 2 different SL math courses (math and math studies) and the math class touched on some Calc concepts. The year my D graduated, they only offered math studies due to low enrollment. I think there were 8 or 9 students in her math studies class. They updated the math studies curriculum for the following year and I think it has some basic Calc now, too.
ETA - they have never offered HL math at our school
This happened to us. We were naive about how it would affect my son later in down the road. Had no idea that his math level would affect his hard sciences level and thus affect his ability to AP in things like chemistry, bio, and physics. We had like two days to decide on whether or not to keep him in the accelerated math class in 8th grade or drop down to regular math. At the time it made sense foe him to drop down. It has affected the kinds of schools he could reasonably apply to now. That said, we are not totally regretting it. My son had a good school experience and probably would have been stressed out by those higher level classes. He has been able to take APs and honors courses on other topics and done well in them, especially the CS ones. I remind him that in the grand scene of things in life, it really doesn’t matter if you went to Harvard or a state school. It’s what you do with your opportunity that matters.
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Offering only math studies SL means that the IB program at the school was only really suitable for students who will not take additional math in college (based on the intent of math studies SL). Was that clearly stated to students and parents when it came time to choose IB or not?
Not being required does not mean it is not valuable.
Many schools only “require” 4 years of English, Math, etc. This doesn’t mean course rigor is irrelevant. Someone who meets MIT’s requirement of 4 years of Math by completing Algebra 2 as a Senior is not on even ground with someone who has completed Calculus.
I think the only issue was a few students who were seniors at the time who didn’t take math as a junior. The students who were juniors that year took a chance that the other math class would be back the following year. I honestly don’t know what was communicated to families or what happened after she graduated. D did not do IB because I had issues with how our school implemented the program, but she took math studies as her 4th year of math since it was the only option that fit in her schedule. They try and manage fluctuating enrollment numbers by adding and cancelling classes all the time so it hard to plan things out. I’m not sure how it impacted those seniors - one is engineering at Buffalo, one is engineering at Union, one was accepted OOS for animal science at UMichigan but chose SUNY Stony Brook and one is bio/pre-med OOS at W&M. Could they have done “better”? Who knows but they were happy with their options.
I’d look closely at summer geometry. It’s very intense. My son could’ve taken it after 9th grade but one class in the summer was the equivalent of one week of classes during the school year. It was 3-4 hours of class time and then a few hours of work in the afternoon. This ran for 6-7 weeks. That’s fine if you are a strong math student but my son couldn’t have handled it. He’ll end high school with pre-calculus. Just make sure you know what you are signing up for. GL!
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I think you and your parents should meet with your current math teacher and whichever person is in charge of curriculum at your school, maybe math dept head if that is an option.
You need to find out first of all, do they honestly think you are a good enough student in math to attempt taking geometry in summer? OR, do they have any alternative ideas for getting to Calculus as a senior? This is now 20+ years out of date, BUT, fwiw: we moved across country before my brother started 10th: he was due to take Geometry, based on his previous school. The new school had him test for gifted (he was in it in the other school system), and based on that, they said he was very talented in math and should be in Alg2/trig in 10th not geometry, to then take Precal in 11th and APCalc in 12, the school’s advanced track. Even “back then”, they said it was better for applying to college especially as his interest was math and science and engineering. They recommended that he take Geometry concurrently with Alg2, and that is what he did, and it worked very well. The key is, this was the math dept and school’s plan for him based on where he was assessed.
So, find out what your school thinks about you and your options, and go from there.
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Assuming youre getting an A in Algebra1: next year, take geometry and algebra2 Honors together. It’s the easiest combination that allows you to take precalculus (honors) in 11th and either honors calculus or ap calculus AB in 12th. While no cs program requires calculus in high school, most expect it with As. (If you think you’re going to get less than a B in math, move to a slower pace: you’re better off with straight As in math through precalculus than a string of Bs. However if you think you can handle it, taking geometry and algebra2H together will make you competitive for cs programs in college). An alternative is geometry over thr summer, algebra2H in 10th, if your school district offers Geometry or even geometry honors over the summer.
You can support your math learning already by looking at lessons on Khan Academy.
In college the first semester calculus class (calculus1) will be filled with students who took calculus in HS and work beyond the basics to master the subject in depth.
Ap statistics is a math elective. It can be taken alongside precalculus or calculus for a student who intends to major in stem, as an introduction to concepts that will be studied through calculus in college.
Skipping precalculus is not a good idea and would never be supported by a math teacher: as the name indicates it’s the pre-req for calculus.
I was going to say most people that I know who had this issue doubled up in Geometry and Algebra 2…I would highly recommend that if you are looking to go to competitive schools.
OP’s GC already said no to that (post #16)
Sorry I missed the update on the counselor saying no but I would push back on that to understand why - they are not prerequisites for one another so it would be more curious why the counselor would make that decision versus the department. I would reach out to the school principal or whoever owns the curriculum for the school to understand why and if it is more of a concern around burden for the student, then I think the parents should help decide that versus the counselor. The counselor should help guide not restrict.
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