Hello,
I was close to finishing my application for Duke when I realized that my Computer Science degree I am applying for requires calculus. It is not offered at my school or the local college. Should I still apply to Duke, and is there any chance I would get in? I am a pretty strong applicant besides that missing course. Thank you for your time.
I do have some calculus experience from a college instructor, but it is not official. Perhaps I could report that under additional information?
I’m not an application specialist but I think that’s exactly what you should do. Duke realizes that many high schools don’t offer calculus. It says at Duke admission page “If you are applying to the Pratt School of Engineering, calculus is required before you enroll.” Physics is strongly recommended. Are you applying to Pratt or Trinity? You can get a BS computer science at Trinity, that’s probably where you should apply. Even though you explain your situation in the additional info section, they may rule you out for Pratt nevertheless. You can also transfer from Trinity to Pratt once you’re there. You can look through old discussions on college conf about how easy or not it is to transfer. One advantage for you would be that you could take calculus your first semester while in Trinity and then transfer to Pratt better prepared.
I think when it says “before you enroll” means they might accept a calculus class done in the summer before starting at Pratt. Not sure though.
This would be a good question to email your admissions rep.
If you’re interested in computer science, you could also very well apply to Trinity under the CS program and then transfer second semester to Pratt ECE. It’s a fairly easy process, and there are many students each year that apply under one school but have to wait until second semester to transfer.
Your calculus experience under another instructor is probably helpful, and depending on what it was and how much (put it under additional information and have your counselor talk about it), may be what you need. (Since Pratt four year plans do allow for starting with the first course of the Duke calculus sequence, 111L).
However, like sgopal2 said, email your admissions rep. Also, what kind of local college doesn’t offer calculus I? You could also look into online coursework for calculus (there are many virtual schools out there).