Even though I’ve seen previous forums ask this, they were from a long time ago, so I’m asking now because times change.
My school college counselor recommends I go straight to Calculus rather than take pre-Cal to become more favorable by MIT.
AP Calculus, by the way.
What grade are you entering?
Technically you need 2 years of Algebra and one year of Geometry plus an additional year of math, which includes PreCalc and/or Trig, Analytical Geometry, etc. So you could skip if you wanted to. PreCalc introduces Trig and other advanced algebra skills that aren’t typically taught in Algebra 1 or 2 because of time or because it didn’t fit into the lesson plan well.
Many people have skipped PreCalc and did fine in AP Calc, others have not. Just like those who skipped an academic or honors science will have to learn the pre requisites for a respective AP science, so will you for Calc.
If you want to skip PreCalc I recommend learning some Trig and/or PreCalc topics as students are often tested on those in Calc within the first few weeks of school. This will also make it easier for you to understand the class and in turn do well, instead of playing catch up for a semester.
If you are entering 11th grade or below then take PreCalc. You are already accelerated, and you can always take something over the summer to free your schedule up. If you are entering 12th grade, do whatever you feel will help (within reason!). People have been accepted into top colleges with only PreCalc, so it isn’t a death sentence.
Good luck!
I’m entering my Senior year, and last year, I had PAP Alg II. I didn’t have an PAP Alg I class in Middle School and it’s biting my butt sort of, because of the high expectations from these colleges I want to go to, although it’s great to hear about students getting in with pre cal alone 
I asked my friend about it and he said he’s been thinking about doing the same thing, so I fully plan to go through with this, preparing with Khan Academy courses, of course. Plus the Pre Cal teacher at my school is sort of infamous for bad grading.
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No problem. BTW, I use Math Is Fun and Purple Math for self studying math (Algebra 2 and Calc). They include great Trig and PreCalc lessons too!
I don’t think it is a good idea to have holes in your math background if you are going to MIT. Consider taking both at the same time. Perhaps take one at a community college. Or do a really thorough job of self studying.
What would you take after calculus?
@halcyonheather I’d probably be in some introductory Statistics course. I’d try to find the mathematics which were most important to me. Maybe a mix of comp sci and mathematics. But I feel it’s beneficial to myself to take Calculus now rather than later.
Is there some science you can take or do earlier that uses calculus if you skip precalculus? I don’t think that introductory statistics is a particularly good trade for precalculus. If there is a community college or online math class that is more interesting, that could be useful.
Would you be taking AP Calc AB or AP Calc BC?
My son skipped precalculus between 9th and 10th, but he went through much of the Art of Problem Solving precalculus book. IIRC, main precalculus topics to know about include trig identities (this was covered in his Alg2/Trig class), matrices (he’d used these for programming projects), vectors (he’d used these in AP Physics B), polar coordinates (used in programming), sums & series (played with them in a math club, and they review them at the start of calculus). High school precalculus classes maybe don’t cover all that.
Skipping precalculus bought him the ability to get into doing research in a physics lab (because he could work his way through their existing papers to understand the math–slowly because a fair bit of it was triple integrals). He will be taking Discrete Math at the community college this semester (which is a “mix of comp sci and mathematics”).
Are you planning on taking Calc II in college? Calc II should cover many pre-calc topics with more depth, like polar graphs, trig identities, series, matrices, parametrics, and vectors (at least this was my experience with Calc BC), so I think it would be much easier on you to have prior pre calc knowledge.
However, if you are naturally good at math, I don’t think you should have a huge problem with skipping precalc and taking AP Calc AB. I would still study some more precalc material on your own (especially trig identities) and you should definitely know the unit circle.
I also skipped precalc at my school, but I took it through an online independent study course over the summer between 10th and 11th grade. While it didn’t make a huge difference in Calc AB, having the precalc knowledge was a big bonus in Calc BC.