My DD was told by the Georgia Tech admissions officer that without calculus, my DD would not really have her application looked at by GT. Since my DD had transferred high schools, her lack of calculus was not due to any choice on her part (prior high school was terrible in math). The rep said to do what was necessary to have calculus my DD’s senior year. Since GT was my DD’s first choice, she took pre-cal through the BYU online high school program and took AP Cal her senior year. We called it the “summer of no fun.” My DD was accepted to GT and will be graduating from it this year. Georgia Tech now routinely proclaims that 96% or 98% of the accepted freshmen have taken calculus.
I was helping one of my students with her application to Boston College and the BC rep told my student the same thing “significant disadvantage in the applicant pool” and my student was going to major in business . Since my student attended the high school my DD had transferred from, there was no option and my student didn’t want to do summer school. She was not accepted to BC.
If you are applying as an engineering major, I suggest you take pre-cal over the summer and any version of calculus your senior year. It will make your application stronger. Other admission reps from other colleges have told me that calculus is really a must for an applicant wanting to major in engineering. You can look over a college’s course requirements on the website collegedata.com and if it is “required or recommended” then I suggest you hit those targets.