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Duke University
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Enrollment Policies Page
(Enrollment, wait lists, permission numbers)
If you are not sure what
class you should enroll in, you should read the content of the Placement Page and the Placement FAQ Page.
Important Information For All Students:
- This
page discusses the process of enrolling in the following courses:
Math 105L(25L), 106L(26L), 111L(31L), 112L(32L), 122L(41L), 202(102),
212(103), 216(107), 353(108).
- Enrollment in full sections of these high-demand courses in the Mathematics Department is mostly handled by the wait lists.
- While wait lists are in operation, you should
not need a permission number to enroll in any open section (a section with available seats) of any of these courses that would be appropriate for you
to take. The Mathematics Department does not use permission numbers to control enrollment in these courses.
- The Mathematics Department does not give permission numbers
for these courses while the wait lists are in operation, other than in
exceptional circumstances (such as a second-semester senior who needs
the course to graduate).
- Please do not contact instructors
of these courses in the Mathematics Department to request permission
numbers for their section of a course while wait lists are in operation.
- The Associate Chair and the Supervisor of
First-year Instruction will be keeping a close eye on enrollments until
the end of drop/add, and will make every effort to accommodate as many
students as possible.
High-Demand Courses and Wait Lists:
If your preferred section is full, please enroll in any section that is
open that fits your desired schedule. If that is not possible,
you might need to consider adjusting your other classes to get into an
open section.
If your conflicts with open sections involve classes that you must take
next semester for your major, then add yourself to the wait list for
any other section, ideally the one with the fewest other students on
the wait list. This will maximize the chances that you will get
in as other students shuffle their schedules. Also be sure to
have a back-up plan, because putting your name on the wait list does
not guarantee that you will get any section of the course.
Students in the Pratt School should make sure to communicate their scheduling problems to Dean Simmons.
After the wait lists have been erased, if you have been unable to
enroll in any section of the appropriate course without sacrificing
courses critical to your major, please contact the Supervisor of
First-Year Instruction at sfi@math.duke.edu. (See also the section below called "After Wait Lists Are Erased".)
For incoming students: Before you arrive at Duke in the Fall of
your freshman year, you will not be allowed to join wait lists. This is
a University policy, not a Mathematics Department policy. You will be
allowed to join wait lists in the week before classes begin, after you
have met with your pre-major advisor.
Note, if you want to get onto a particular wait list as soon as
possible, you can ask your advisor for his or her earliest possible
meeting time, usually on Wednesday of that week. After your advisor
talks to you about your courses and makes you eligible to enroll, you can then
add yourself to a wait list.
Wait List Scenarios and Strategies:
Students should be sure to understand that we cannot guarantee seats
for all interested students when courses are in high demand.
Along those lines, note that if you play one of the "risky" strategies
below, the risk is entirely yours.
Below are some potential scenarios and some strategies to consider.
- If one section of a course is more desirable to you than the one that you are enrolled in:
Recommended: Stay in the section you are currently
enrolled in, and keep a regular eye on the wait list for the other
section. Sometimes, especially after classes begin, students
shuffle their schedules around significantly, and there might be
significant movement on that wait list. If open seats become
available, you can then add that section.
Risky (not recommended): You could drop your current
section and add yourself to the wait list, hoping that with movement on
this waitlist you will be in line ahead of students following the
recommended strategy above.
While
this does increase your chances of getting into the desired
section, note that it also increases your chances of not getting into
the course at all. Wait lists do not always move significantly,
and are impossible to predict. Note also that other students on
this and other wait lists for the course in question could easily
decide to play it safe, and enroll in your previous section. All
of the sections could fill up in this way, leaving you unable to take
the course this term. So, if you do take this risky strategy, you
should make sure to keep an eye on the enrollment and wait lists for
all of the sections of the course, and be prepared to move back into an
open section.
- If all of the sections that fit with your desired schedule are full:
Recommended:
Realize that you might simply not be able to get the desired schedule
that you were hoping for. Some of the other classes on your
desired schedule might be electives, and you could consider taking a
different elective to get into an open section of the needed math
course. Some of the other classes on your desired schedule might
be required for your major, but could be taken in a different term, and
you could consider taking a different course that would be equivalently
effective for your major.
Or, it could be that the math
course you are trying to get into might be the one that is of the
lowest priority. If you don't need to take math for your major,
or if it can be postponed without serious consequence, you might
consider arranging a new schedule for the semester that does not
include math. You can still add yourself to a wait list, and hope
that you might get in, but you will have a fall-back plan in case you
do not.
Note, if you are taking math
classes because they are required for your major, it is very possible
that those math classes are prerequisites for particular courses in
your major. If this is the case, postponing your math classes
will delay your preparations for those courses. For this reason,
it is very often more desirable to prioritize your math classes, and
choose other courses on your desired schedule to delay.
Risky (not recommended):
You could join a waitlist for a math section that fits your desired
schedule, in the hopes that it will all work out. Of course there
is no guarantee that it will, and you might end up unable to take the
course. If the other courses on your desired schedule are
sufficiently important that it is worth that risk, then this might be
the right gamble. If you do take this gamble, be sure to have a
back-up plan in case you do not get into the math course for which you
were waiting.
Remember though that math classes very often are prerequisites for
other courses that might be important for your major. So, for
many students, this will be a gamble with a significant potential down
side.
- You are on a wait list, not sure if you should attend that section, since you are not yet enrolled.
Recommended:
Attend the lectures for that section as if you were enrolled! It
is also recommended that you let the instructor know that you are
attending the classes and keeping up with the work for the
course. Instructors will expect you to do this, so that if you do
get in to the class, you will already be
up to speed and will not need to do any
make up work.
Of course you should also have a back-up plan in case you do not get in
to the math class in question -- you should be attending that class
also, for the same reasons.
If you do not get in to the class, then your only loss is that you
attended a few extra lectures. Of course if you take that class
in a future term, what you learned in those few lectures could still
end up being valuable knowledge.
Risky (not recommended):
You might consider not attending the lectures, and then if you do not
get in to the class you will not have spent time on something that did
not have direct bearing on your schedule of classes for this
semester.
But, if you do get in to the class, you will be significantly behind on
learning the material for the course. The instructors cannot be
expected to give you individual lessons on that missed material, and so
you will have to learn it on your own, which of course is a significant
disadvantage.
You might also be behind on the assignments for the course. While
the instructor might allow you to turn in those assignments a little
bit late, you will need to complete those assignments while also
teaching yourself the material already covered, trying to follow the
new material, and also doing the current class assignments (all of this
in addition to all of your other classes as well). At best, this
significant extra load to an already full schedule will be an extremely
difficult challenge until you catch up, and will hurt your
understanding of the material in the course; at worst, you might find
that you can never really fully catch up, in which case it would be
expected that you would perform poorly on the exams and in the course.
Prerequisites and permission numbers
You should
not need a permission number to enroll in any open section of any of these courses that would be
appropriate for you to take.
Note, the way ACES is set up,
it might appear that a permission number is needed as you are signing
up for a course, due to the appearance of a box labeled "Permission
Number"; this is there to be used only if a permission number is
actually required, and thus is misleading for courses in which a
permission number is not required. The Mathematics Department
does not use permission numbers to control enrollment in these courses.
In fact, you would also not need a permission number even to enroll in
many courses that would be too advanced for you to take -- so make sure
that you have carefully read the information at the Placement Page and Placement FAQ Page, and that you have noted all of the prerequisites listed in the Bulletin
for the course that you are interested in. If you are not sure
that the course you are considering is the right course for you, read
the content of the Placement Page and the Placement FAQ Page.
Very few of the prerequisites for courses in the Mathematics Department
are enforced by ACES. Most of our enforced requirements are there
simply to make sure that you are selecting the right course for you at
a particular level, or to keep you from taking a course that would
repeat material from a course for which you already have credit at Duke
-- not to keep you from enrolling in a course at too high of a level.
Here are discussions of the enforced requirements of some particular courses in the Mathematics Department:
- Math 105L(25L) has no prerequisites. Anyone can enroll in this course who does not already have credit for 111L(31L).
- Math 106L(26L) requires credit for Math 105L(25L), as this is a two-course sequence.
- Math 111L(31L) has no prerequisites. Anyone can enroll in this course who does not already have credit for 105L(25L) or 106L(26L).
- Math 112L(32L) requires credit for Math 106L(26L) or Math 111L(31L) at Duke, as it is part of those two sequences.
- Math 122L(41L) does not allow students who have credit for 106L(26L) or
111L(31L). Students with credit for either of those courses are in the
L sequence of calculus courses and must stay in that sequence, in which
the next course is Math 112L(32L).
- Math 112L(32L) and Math 122L(41L) cover roughly the same material. Students cannot receive credit for both of these courses.
- Math 202(102), 212(103), and 222(105) cover similar material. Students cannot receive credit for more than one of these courses.
- Math 221(104) and Math 216(107) cover similar material. Students cannot receive credit for both of these courses.
If you are planning to take a course for which you do not have a
prerequisite that is not enforced (perhaps you want to take Math 122L(41L)
but you do not have credit for Math 21(31) (AP credit)), be sure to note
that your ability to enroll in the class does not necessarily mean that
it is a good idea. For example, it could be that one of the
requirements for your intended major is that you have credit for the
class you are skipping. Critically, students should realize that
concerns such as this should be addressed to the department in
question, not the Mathematics Department. See questions 3, 10,
14, and 15 on the Placement FAQ Page for further discussion of this issue.
Note, unlike Duke credits, AP credits can be forfeited. So, for
example, if you have AP credit for Math 22(32) you can still enroll in Math
122L(41L). But if you have credit for Math 112L(32L), taken at Duke, you
cannot enroll in Math 122L(41L). If you have AP credits, you are
encouraged to keep them and enroll in the next course in the sequence
appropriate to your situation, but you are free to consider forfeiting
them and enrolling in a lower level course.
If you are not certain what would be the right course for you to take,
you should be able to determine the right answer by reading the Placement Page and the Placement FAQ Page.
After Wait Lists Are Erased
Most students should have their schedules finalized before the wait lists are erased. For the remainder of the drop/add period, adding any class requires a permission number.
Note that adding a class at this time is often difficult, as
that class will have covered already a substantial amount of material,
and written assignments will have been collected. If you add that
class, you will have to make up all of that missed work, probably on
your own -- while also doing the continuing work for the course, and
keeping up with all of your other classes. Students should
consider carefully the question of whether accomplishing this is
realistic, and be aware that being unsuccessful in such an attempt
would probably result in a poor performance in that class.
Instructors are also keenly aware of this issue; accordingly, instructors are within their rights not to accept further students into their classes.
The Mathematics Department might also conclude in some cases that
adding a course at such a time would not be appropriate, and not allow
a student into a course.
Another difficulty is that, of course, the class you are interested in might be full. Be aware that the Mathematics Department usually does not allow students into sections that are full.
If you are interested in adding a class after the wait lists have been erased:
- If you
are already enrolled in a different section of that course, if you have
been doing the work for the course, and if there are seats available in
the section you want to switch to, contact the instructor of the desired section to request a permission number.
- If
you have been attending a higher level course and want to drop down to
a lower level course (for example, from Math 122L(41L) to Math 111L(31L)), and if
there are seats available in the section you want to take, contact the instructor to request a permission number.
- If you want to move up to a higher level course,
you should discuss your case with the Supervisor of First-year
Instruction. You will need to establish that you are qualified
for the higher level course; see the Placement Page
for details. You will also need to establish that you will be
able to catch up on missed material and work in a timely manner.
- If all
open sections of the desired course conflict with
required classes in your schedule, you should discuss your case with the Supervisor of First-year Instruction.
When you contact either the instructor or the Supervisor of First-year Instruction (as directed above), please
be sure to include all of the information necessary to establish that
you qualify for a permission number as described above.
Recall that time is a very important factor in deciding if it is
advisable for you to add a class, so you are urged to follow the
instructions above as soon as you can. For example, a request to
add a class late in the second week of classes is not likely to be
granted.
Once you have received a permission number, please add the course PROMPTLY.
Be aware that until you actually enroll, there is the possibility that
the section might fill up and you might be denied entrance into that
new section. It is not appropriate to request a permission number
that you do not intend to use promptly.
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