What is Yale’s home state math championship? Can you give more details?
The Connecticut State Association of Mathematics Leagues has an annual competition that high school students across Connecticut compete in.
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If I’m not mistaken, the Yale likely letters to STEM students are mostly for students in engineering and some applied sciences.
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I do think Yale has been slowly shifting its focus, partially in conjunction with recent investments in the hard sciences and the expansion of the undergrad population/new residential colleges closer to Science Hill. We know a number of extremely talented high school mathematicians who have chosen Yale in recent years, but to be honest of course most still opt for Harvard or MIT if they have the choice.
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I don’t know the criteria for most students, but people studying basic sciences or math certainly get them. My son received one, and his stem strength was in pure math. He knew perhaps 10 others who received these letters through previous shared activities, and most of these people were science award winners in areas like chemistry, biology, or physics.
He was really looking forward to attending YES-W, but the in-person event was canceled due to COVID and moved to virtual, and it just wasn’t the same. Yale traditionally gets about half the people who attend YES-W to join Yale, but among the 10 he knew ahead of time, none did. If anything, I think this reinforced to Yale just how valuable YES-W is for them.
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That’s good to know that at least some LLs went to students in pure math and basic sciences. One would thought Yale wouldn’t have to be as agressive in attracting talents in these fields as in some other STEM fields.
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It did take 200 posts in this thread before someone mentioned Yale.
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Interesting. Do Yale’s recruiting interests extend to physics, astrophysics and astronomy?
In summer 2016 Yale started their YSPA summer program in astrophysics, partly as a means of increasing visibility with talented STEM kids interested in physics, astrophysics and astronomy. Like everything, it will be on hiatus this summer, but I have to believe it reflects what people at Yale have told me, that they want to be the first STEM choice for more than only chemistry majors.
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Yale hosts funded math research for rising juniors and a smaller number of rising sophomores & seniors. Students live in New Haven and work on teams with a faculty member. Many have the opportunity to present papers or posters at Undergraduate Math conferences during the summer.
The math department is a supportive and collaborative group.
This page includes a link to descriptions of prior projects.
https://sumry.yale.edu/sumry
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I was also surprised a little till I came to the bay area. Here, there many of the top stem students and they typically apply early to one of Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Cal Tech and maybe RD to Yale. For affordability, they apply to the UCs and will get into both UCB and UCLA, surprising as that sounds. The STEM vibe at Yale does not compare to the vibe at Stanford, especially for CA students.
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Just curious— do you feel focused math kids are choosing Harvard over Princeton (assuming they have the choice, and thinking just of Ivy League schools for a moment)?
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My experience is really only anecdotal, and mostly limited to kids who are seriously into competition (many of whom who have attended the summer camps that I mentioned and/or MOP), and honesty I don’t think I really have seen kids choose Princeton over Harvard. Personally, I think Princeton undergrad math is tops in the country, but Harvard and MIT are the names most frequently heard from these kids. (It is really a very small community - maybe a few hundred in the whole country? - and these kids all know each other from camps, competitions, and online forums like AOPS.)
I am just guessing here based on years of seeing these kids - I’d love it if anyone has some real data or more insight - but if you look at, say, the top 100 scorers in the USAMO who are going to college in any given year, I’d guess that MIT hoovers up maybe 25 of them, Harvard maybe 10 or in that ballpark, and no other school more than 5, at most. (And most of course, will have zero.)
Hope that helps!
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One small data point - historically, the captain of the math team at my oldest son’s HS has gone to Princeton. My Oxford math son is an applied math guy so he was looking at Yale for Econ & Math, Princeton for ORFE and Brown for Applied Math. He didn’t apply to Harvard.
The kid from our community who was an IMO gold medal winner went to MIT.
MIT and Harvard more actively recruit Olympiad medalists and their efforts do show in the Putnam Competition. There’s clearly a causal relationship but I’m not sure which is the cause and which is the effect.
It seems misleading to have excluded Hamilton’s 500-level courses (Senior Seminars). Students can elect to take more than one of these.
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@Beekmon My son is a HS sophomore and not as advanced as your son, but will be finishing Calc B/C this year and currently working on applications for summer math programs.
The only one (besides one in Texas) that he has found that has not said they are definitely going to be virtual is at Hampshire College, might be worth a look for your son.
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The Hampshire College summer math program has always had a good reputation. However, Hampshire College is always on the verge of bankruptcy, so that’s a risk with the summer program.
This site may offer you additional ideas:
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Thank you so much!
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