Advice for summer applications to ROSS, PROMYS, and USA/Canada math camp with concerns on possible red flag (burnout & dropping grades)?

(Cross post from reddit)

Okay. So yes, as stated from the title, I’m looking to apply to these three math camps which I’ve literally been thinking of for the entirety of this year. Such that, I’ve pretty much done a lot of math-cramming (and general cramming for some school-based activities, SATs, and other extracurriculars); that lets say, at a point, I really burnt myself out at a point–just having realized how much of a workaholic I was upon the last few weeks before winter break when my grades started… not really looking their finest. I’m not going to get into the specifics on these reasons why, and I guess you guys shouldn’t worry about me too much atm since I’m quite taking a positive recovery not doing any work in the past 5 days heh. I guess I have a pretty good stand point of being able to work with the application problems and what to do for the essays.

It’s just, I’ve calculated my transcript grades for this particular semester to average out all As and a B in my physics C class (I’m a junior btw). And I generally find this a slight concern as to how the admissions committee of these given three camps would view this B average in a problem solving class. (It generally came to the point which my burnout prevented me from physically focusing and being able to complete work in the lot of my classes but it’s not like I’m going to be asking this particular teacher for help on any letter recs). I’m just concerned about them possibly making the conclusion that I’ve been too caught up in my studies (averaging around 2-4 hours per day) on this subject that I didn’t put the proper efforts into school classes. Or I’d found this class challenging disregarding me having worked on a lot of problem solving math problems in my spare time (perhaps having a bit of a correlation to my work ethics in this class, which sadly is the case having burnt out). But meh, perhaps this is a bit of an irrational conclusion to make that this would have a negative impact? …I mean I’d presume the app pool for these three camps to have a lot of strong students with 4.0 gpas and competition maths backgrounds. It’s not like specific quarter grades are going to be shown on transcripts… ( - -)>

I mean yeah, burnout’s definitely not going to be a mention on either apps lol. I just hope this conclusion isn’t any implicationally derived or… like actually brought up by my letter recommenders (counselor & calc bc teacher) who’ve noticed and have been told some things… especially concerning for the fact that they’ll have to be writing those letters right after the break. And that the conclusion of me being so irresponsible towards maturely managing my time properly in preventing me having burnt out like this as a workaholic?..

Thanks so much for any readers who’ve gone through these blurbs. I hope you guys have a nice day. :slight_smile:

tl-dr: I’m prolly overthinking this lol; should I be concerned with a B average in ap physics c mech if I’m applying to the 3 aforementioned camps? Or possible implications of me having burnt out at a point of working too hard in my studies & preparations for these apps?

any advice?

(believe me there’s a lot more to this problem than me just being a workaholic which I haven’t really mentioned in this post)

no, I’m sorry guys but this was prolly a ridiculous overthought. You guys don’t have to respond below my request to delete this post was denied. lol

You’re honestly fine! In general math programs like the ones you are applying to have a huge emphasis on the application problem set over everything else (less like college admissions in this way).

If you can do well on the problem set, show all your thinking, make conjectures/generalizations when possible, you’ll have a good chance. Getting a single B (especially in a non-math class) won’t ruin your chances at all, and they’re not going to extrapolate and assume you are a workaholic or anything. I attended one of the programs you mentioned and the director there told us that they were mainly evaluating mathematical and personal maturity in applicants, which is shown through the application set, and to a lesser extent letter-of-rec, essays, math experience, etc.

Also, I’m glad you’re feeling better now but definitely don’t burn yourself out for these or any other reason lol

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