Enrollment Policies

If your preferred section is full, please enroll in any section that is open that fits with your desired schedule. If that is not possible, you may need to consider adjusting your other classes to get into an open section.

If your conflict with open sections involves classes that you must take that semester for your major, then add yourself to the wait list for any other section (ideally the wait list with the fewest students on it). This will maximize your chances to get in as other students shuffle their schedules, or if (in some cases) enrollment caps might rise.

Make sure you have a back-up plan because putting your name on the wait list does not guarantee you will get any section of the course. Depending on the needs of your schedule, your back-up plan might be to take another section of the same course or a course in a different department. In either case, it should definitely be a class where the enrollment is such that you are certain to get an available seat.

Because you cannot assume that you will/will not get in to the section you are on a wait list for, you should attend BOTH the wait listed section and the back-up class.

Students in the Pratt School of Engineering should make sure to communicate any scheduling problems to their academic dean.

After the wait lists have been erased, if you were 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 (SFI) at sfi@math.duke.edu. (See also "After Wait Lists Are Erased".)

Incoming students, you may or may not be allowed to join wait lists before you arrive at Duke in the fall of your freshman year (this is a question of University policy, not Mathematics Department policy, and may change year-to-year). You should be allowed to join wait lists in the week before classes begin though, after you have met with your college advisor. NOTE: If you want to get onto a particular wait list as soon as possible, you can ask your advisor for their earliest possible meeting time. After your advisor talks to you about your courses and makes you eligible to enroll, you can then add yourself to a wait list.

If you are planning to join a wait list in August, then for now you might consider filling the fourth spot in your schedule with a course that you might realistically want to take -- perhaps an alternative elective, for example.  This additional flexibility (you could drop the alternative elective OR the original elective) will make it easier for you in August when you are trying to get onto the best possible wait list at that time. 

Wait lists are set up to help make the registration process more orderly. Students often misunderstand this, perhaps on some level over-interpreting the wait list as a complete and fully automated tool for registering for the most desirable section. Critically, this is not the case. (For official discussion of how the wait lists work, please refer to the Office of the Registrar.)

Most importantly, students should understand that being on a wait list does not mean that you will be enrolled in that section. If there is insufficient movement from the roster, you will not be enrolled. A student who is not enrolled into a section from the wait list is not entitled to special consideration afterwards.

Students are also often very surprised to learn, sometimes unfortunately through personal experience, that when a seat opens up in a section, the first person on the wait list is NOT always the one who gets that seat. The system will try to enroll the first person on the list, but if that attempt is unsuccessful, for any reason, it will skip the first person and go on to the next person on the list. (It is not rare for a student in position #4 on the wait list to get the newly open seat, after the system failed to enroll the students in positions #1-3!)

There are several things that might prevent the system from enrolling a student in the course, including (but not necessarily limited to):

• The student might already be enrolled in another section of the same course.
• The student might be enrolled in another course with a time conflict with the wait listed section.
• The student might not yet have received permission to take that many credits.

DukeHub gives no indication to a student on a wait list that such an enrollment problem will prevent enrollment. It is entirely the responsibility of the student to avoid these sorts of problems. A student who is skipped over on a wait list for a reason such as these is not entitled to special consideration afterwards.

In many cases, problems like this can be avoided by using DukeHub's "Drop If Enrolled" feature.  Be sure to read about this feature on the Registrar's website.  All students are urged to consider and use this feature when wait listing for a math class. 

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.

While the wait lists are in operation, 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 DukeHub 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 Placement Guidelines information and Placement FAQ's, and that you have noted all of the prerequisites listed in the Bulletin for the course that you are interested in. 

Very few of the prerequisites for courses in the Mathematics Department are enforced by DukeHub. 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.

Enforced prerequisites are satisfied only by course credits on your Duke record. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that credits for enforced prerequisite courses appear on your Duke record, in a timely manner, to allow you to enroll; anticipated/pending transfer credits, anticipated summer credits, pending AP credits, pending prematriculation credits, and unreported AP scores will not be viewed as equivalent and do not make you eligible for a permission number. (See the Registrar's webpage for information on how to have your AP or international placement scores officially reported to Duke.)

Here are discussions of the enforced requirements of some particular courses in the Mathematics Department:

• MATH 105L Laboratory Calculus and Functions I has no prerequisites. Anyone can enroll in this course who does not already have credit for 111L Laboratory Calculus I.
• MATH 106L Laboratory Calculus and Functions II requires credit for MATH 105L Laboratory Calculus and Functions I, as this is a two-course sequence.
• MATH 111L Laboratory Calculus I has no prerequisites. Anyone can enroll in this course who does not already have credit for 105L or 106L.
• MATH112L Laboratory Calculus II requires credit for MATH 106L or MATH 111L at Duke, as it is part of those two sequences. (This requirement is relaxed in Spring terms, as the alternative course MATH 122L is not offered.)
• MATH 122L Introductory Calculus II does not allow students who have credit for 106L or 111L. 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.
• MATH 112L and MATH 122L cover roughly the same material. Students cannot receive credit for both of these courses.
• MATH 202, MATH 212, MATH 218D-2, and MATH 230 require credit for second semester calculus (MATH 22, 112L, 122L, or 122).  AP/IPC credits must be on your Duke record as MATH 22; the Mathematics Department cannot accept alternative evidence of scores expected to result in this credit. See the Self-Assessments page for tools to gauge your calc 2 proficiency by Duke standards; and if you do well on that self-assessment and are confident in your proficiency despite not having such credit, you may read there about and consider registering for the MATH 122L Proficiency Exam.
• MATH 202 Multivariable Calculus for Economics, MATH 212 Introduction to Multivariable Calculus, MATH 219 Multivariable Calculus, and MATH 222 Advanced Multivariable Calculus cover similar material. Students cannot receive credit for more than one of these courses.
• MATH 221 Linear Algebra and Applications and MATH 218 Matrices and Vector Spaces cover similar material. Students cannot receive credit for both of these courses.
• MATH 218D-1 is only for Trinity students and assumes proficiency with calc 1, but otherwise does not enforce any prerequisites.
• MATH 218D-2 is only for Pratt students, and enforces its calc 2 prerequisite (see related note above). 
• MATH 219 Multivariable Calculus requires credit for MATH 218, 221, or 216, and is not open to students who have credit for MATH 202, 212, or 222.
• MATH 353 Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations requires credit for MATH 216, and is not open to students who have credit for MATH 356.

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 but you do not have credit for MATH 21 (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 about skipping math courses required for a major or minor should be addressed to the department in question, not the Mathematics Department. 

Note, unlike Duke credits, AP credits can be forfeited. So, for example, if you have AP credit for MATH 22 you can still enroll in MATH 122L. But if you have credit for MATH 112L taken at Duke, or transfer credit for MATH 122 taken at another university, you cannot enroll in MATH 122L. 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.

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 are allowed to 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 that adding a course at such a time would not be appropriate, and not allow a student into a course. Adding a lab calculus course after the wait lists are erased is particularly problematic in this way due to the lab schedule and class content.

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 during the drop/add period 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 to MATH 111L), and if there are seats available in the section you want to take, you should discuss your case with the Supervisor of First-Year Instruction. Be aware that, depending on details, it may be too late to add the course. (See "Changing Classes" section.)
• 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. Be aware that, depending on details, it may be too late to add the course.  (See "Changing Classes" section.)
• 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 are qualified for the course, as described above. (See the Placement Page for discussion on placement qualifications.)

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 unlikely 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.