<p>Heard from S! All is well!</p>
<p>He got his internet hooked up yesterday and e-mailed me last night. He appears to be settling in just fine. Silly me for worrying.</p>
<p>Good news. Now, if only my S would use his cell phone to call home or his laptop/internetcable combo to email us. But nah, I know it won't happen. :(</p>
<p>Congrats, Pesto!</p>
<p>I called S yesterday myself (it's kind of against my rules, but I wanted to check if his phone works ok in Warren Towers). Hope he'll get the lab access soon, otherwise I won't hear from him before the weekend.</p>
<p>My son called from the airport to say he had arrived in Portland for Mathcamp. That's probably the last we'll hear from him until he calls to make sure we're picking him up. :( But at least we know that means he's having a great time, as I am sure all the kids will have at PROMYS. (I wish there were other Mathcamp parents here to kibbitz with!)</p>
<p>I'd kibbitz with you, but know almost nothing. My son hadn't called so I e-mailed Mathcamp yesterday and requested them to have him call home so I knew he had arrived safely. The staff told me that, on Sunday, a huge group of students arrived at about the same time. Rather than having them all call home from the airport, Mathcamp shuttled them back to campus. Once at Reed, any thoughts my son might have had of calling home and reassuring his anxious mother must have vanished into thin air.</p>
<p>And then my (dear?) husband got on the internet, so all we received this morning was a voice mail on the cell phone. (The cell phone signal at my home is problematic, so we often receive messages rather than calls.) The message said, "I'm fine. I'm in Portland. Here's my phone number. However, you won't be able to reach me at this number, because I'm having too much fun and won't be in my room except when I'm sleeping." Two days of sitting around the house waiting for the phone to ring and that's all I get??? Hmmpf! </p>
<p>It won't occur to my son to check whether we're picking him up from the airport so, slim as your information is, it may be a vast amount compared to mine over the next five weeks.</p>
<p>EllenF:</p>
<p>LOL! Well, much better than getting a message telling you he's unhappy and to come and get him!</p>
<p>Hello mudder, hello fadder,
Here I am at
Camp Granader...</p>
<p>Or Camp Nerdana as the case may be.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It won't occur to my son to check whether we're picking him up from the airport
[/quote]
it will only occur to my son because of the time we had a mix-up on flights and didn't pick him up. We got a pitiful phone call from him when he got in and we weren't there. Then he sat in an empty airport by himself (it was late at night) for an hour waiting for us. Not one of our better moments as parents.</p>
<p>love "Camp Nerdana"..... "I'm in Nirvana at Camp Nerdana"????</p>
<p>I heard Mathcamp has a T-shirt slogan contest. I think you are the winner!</p>
<p>Not sure the blissfully unaware are exclusively in Maths Camps. We once sent fifth-grade S1 on a flight to Toronto with another camper. The camp director failed to pick them up.</p>
<p>What did the 11 year old boys do in the international airport? They went to the coffee shop and ordered snacks. By the grace of God, a motherly type approached the two and questioned their itinerary. She happened to know the (well-known) camp director and placed the emergency call for them.</p>
<p>My mother was NOT pleased with this exercise in independence. Whoops.</p>
<p>Wow, fascinating discussion about math camps! I'm copying all this info into a Word doc for future reference for my son. :-)</p>
<p>He just turned 14 and took the SATs to qualify for CTY at Johns Hopkins for <em>next</em> summer. I checked out the PROMYS website and printed some problems.</p>
<p>I just can't imagine him heading off to Boston for 6 weeks as a near 15 year old next year, though (he's definitely a young 14 year old, developmentally). Independence-wise, we keep a pretty close watch on him (& he's not too unhappy w/that, so far)--6 weeks seems like a huge jump!</p>
<p>Did anyone perhaps have a thought on the CTY program vs. PROMYS?</p>
<p>My son is v. good at math and seems to enjoy it---just wonder about <em>six full weeks</em> of it. Maybe if I'm wondering about his level of interest, it's not for him? Thanks very much for any thoughts!</p>
<p>Jolynne:</p>
<p>My S did two summers at CTY, but he did not like the Individually Paced Math program. He was concerned that it would be him and the computer all day long and he likes being with other people while working on his problems. He loved CTY, but he found 3 weeks not enough. After being home for one week he'd start complaining of being bored! Six weeks feels just right. </p>
<p>He went to PROMYS for the first time as a 15 year old and had a blast, partly thanks to the study groups that became a circle of friends.
For your son, there is plenty of time between now and February when it is time to start applying to academic camps. He may develop a strong love for math or he may develop other interests. There are also different math camps than Mathcamp and PROMYS, and some are not quite so rigorous.</p>
<p>Just got off the phone with S. It seems the internet cable does not work, so we'll have to figure out something. At least cell phone reception does! One seminar is going a bit slow, the other is wonderful. The kids we saw the first day leaving the building at 9pm were not going on an orientation tour but going off to play mafia.</p>
<p>Jolynne:</p>
<p>Does your son have access to a math team at school? That would help to give him a feel for what it would be like at PROMYS (doing problem sets with a group of like-minded kids) and whether he would want to do math so intensively for six weeks.</p>
<p>Marite: Mafia?</p>
<p>Thanks, Marite and pesto for those thoughts!! Appreciate the heads up about Feb as the time for applications for math camps, btw!!</p>
<p>Great idea about math team (his HS has it). If I can just get him over the 'it's not that cool' factor, that could be really something. I bet he'd love it!</p>
<p>Glad to hear your kids enjoyed/are enjoying their academic camp (though I'll keep the Ind. Paced Math program in mind as one to avoid...son doesn't like working alone w/computers, either...needs human motivation!)</p>
<p>Again, appreciate it!</p>
<p>Pesto:</p>
<p>Apparently it's a very popular game at some camps. It's basically a guessing game in which the players are expected to guess the identity of two "killers" selected by the lead player. Campers have been known to pull all-nighters. Since I learned about it, I've been skeptical of S's and chums' claims of suriving on only 4 hours of sleep per night.</p>
<p>If CTY is the program that is at Skidmore, students can go to two sessions if one is not enough.</p>
<p>Yes, it's true. The first year, we did not want S to do two sessions because we did not know how he would fare in the Fast-Paced High School Physics course. And then it was too late to sign up for a second course. The second year, Chemistry was the only course that he wanted to take. That's when we decided to look into math camps.
By the way, Mathcamp lasts 5 weeks, PROMYS 6, and Ross 8.</p>
<p>I thought this place would slow down over the holiday weekend-guess not. Hope everyone enjoyed the 4th.</p>
<p>Pesto , you are right. There is a ton of great information here. Thanks again eveyone for you replies. D is itching to get going on those links (thanks, Marmat) and reading suggestions (thanks, Marite and Texas 137) but as usual, she has several irons in the fire. I must admit, that at the top of my list is the annual, summer room 'dig-out'. During th school year she always seems to be 'too busy' whenever that dirty word (clean) is mentioned.</p>
<p>Marmat-D is not a "girly-girl" either. Best friend is a boy, as is next-best friend, and many others, with a few 'sensible' (her word) girls thrown into the mix. Now, oldest D's picture could be found next to that term in the dictionary. It has been an adjustment! She also actively dislikes all things math and physical science, so naturally, in college she is dating a physics prodigy. He teaches her about physics on a regular basis. I don't think she has realized it yet! Anyway, math D really appreciates any information about girls in these areas.</p>
<p>I think this thread is out to get me. It never wants to let me post!</p>
<p>Anyway, Marmat, D looked for ARML and mathcounts teams, but none in our neck of the woods. She looked into the independent mathcounts thing but said it would be too much of a 'pain' to do for one year. She will help with the HS math team again (she's down there half the time anyway) and then in a year she will actually be able to compete. Won't it be ironic if by then she decides, like Marite's S, that she isn't a competition kid? She said to tell you thanks and that she might give the USAMTS a go.</p>
<p>Pesto-thanks for the info on the girl/guy ratio at promys. Is S having a good time? D will probably apply there next year. Maybe she'll get lucky. She is only 13, but up for a challenge. Hopefully it would not be too much for her! Next year she will be old enough to attend but she is not sure from their site if rising 9th is ok or if she needs to be finished with her freshman year to be eligible. Anybody know the answer to that? Thanks. San Marcos said post-8th is fine. Hampshire would have considered her app this year but said it would be unusual. Mathcamp encouraged her to apply, but by the time she realized she was old enough, she already had a lot of other plans. Plus, she wasn't sure she wanted to spend 5 weeks at Reed. Mom and Dad, on the other hand said 'no' to the possibility of Hampshire. Too far, too long and a little too young this year. Mathcamp would have probably been ok-probably that was the reason she didn't apply! Anyone know anything about the Hampshire program?</p>
<p>Tokenadult-will be interested to see how your S's experience is...challenging enough? How much focus on competition stuff? You are from Minnesota, right? I seem to recall from the vague mists of distant threads past that you talked about St. Olaf. What is your take on the college and the math program? Thanks. I guess everyone is familiar with math and Carleton.</p>
<p>Also, I was interested to learn that some of you feel that there is not enough depth to the math programs at the Claremont colleges. I thought that Pomona and Mudd had many math majors and sent many to grad school. Isn't there a grad school in that group? I have also read that Davidson is strong in math and that they too send a large percentage of grads to doctorate programs. Has anyone else heard this? It's such a small school.</p>
<p>Texas 137, I think D would do fine with the heat, but thanks for the heads-up. She has done well on visits to the south in the summer. We have family from/in Texas. Uncle was very big on Rice for oldest D. Doesn't like the cold, though. Great candidate for NE and Minn? She has already been enjoying A of PS due to tokenadult's advertising in the past.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the career information. It seems crazy to be going down this road with a 13 year old, but they pick up so much with older sibs in the process. Also, D has the idea that, even though she loves math, a math 'career' would mean being locked away in a cubicle somewhere (This is a very real fear-she is a very social geek!) We are hoping that a math camp would present her with some other scenarios. If not, she will probably end up as a pre-something math major. Not that this would be a bad thing, but then she would probably lean toward a LAC or smaller school environment. Catch is, what about the strength and breadth of the math department...you see the dilemma? Well, at least there is time to pick a lot of brains while she floats along through her teen years. </p>
<p>It is interesting to me that many of your kids are off to selective major universities and looking at math 'combinations', like c/s, engineering, etc. Guess they chose great schools with lots of options for a reason. So, after calc in the 8th grade, what other classes came next? Texas 137, grad classes? Wow! How, why and where did that happen? Do you folks realize how impressive your children are or are you used to it by now?!</p>
<p>While it may seem that I have an endless supply of stupid questions, (I am fairly sure that's true-or so says my husband) I believe that, for now, I have come to the end. Thank you all for your input. I hope that your math-campers are having a fantastic time. D is very jealous!</p>