Harvard: "‘Wow, You're In Math 55?’ "

Parents Forum
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<p>Math fanatic or not, this article in The Harvard Crimson gives a fascinating inside look at the dynamic of one of the hardest math courses around and maybe even of Harvard College - JUST LIKE A FRAT?</p>

<p>
[quote]
AT WARP SPEED</p>

<p>A year ago, as high school seniors, math superstars across the country checked off the tiny “yes” box on Harvard’s acceptance reply postcard, partly motivated by this course.</p>

<p>Soft-spoken math enthusiast Elizabeth A Cook ’10, who started the year in Math 55, learned about the class one summer at a prestigious MIT research program from a Math 55 alum. “He brought up the subject, and my eyes bulged out of my head,” she says. “Everyone kept saying it was the hardest math course ever offered, and I said, ‘Cool! I want to take it!’”</p>

<p>Math 55, officially known as “Honors Advanced Calculus and Linear Algebra,” is essentially a nine-month mathematical boot camp. The course teaches four years of math in two semesters. “It’s an intense, warp-speed survey of the entire undergraduate math curriculum in one year,” Harrison says.</p>

<p>The class, in fact, includes subjects most math students will not encounter until graduate school. “This is probably the most difficult undergraduate math class in the country,” reads a page on the Mathematics Department Web site. While other universities like MIT offer similar, highly competitive courses, Math 55 is singular in its history and renown.</p>

<p>“It’s such a tradition in Harvard math culture,” says Raymond T. Pierrehumbert ’76, who took Math 55 as an undergrad and now teaches at the University of Chicago.</p>

<p>For mathematics professor and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania David Harbater ’74, Math 55 still holds sway. “If someone applies to graduate school at Penn, and I see that he or she was in Math 55, that would certainly get my attention. It definitely means something to me.”</p>

<p>Regardless of the course’s name brand value, Math 55 students face a single fact: It’s hard. Really hard.</p>

<p>Each week, their heads huddled together, these students dedicate 30 to 50 hours to problem sets—proving significant theorems with only definitions to guide them. Besides dark undereye circles and abandoned Expos assignments, this produces incredibly close friendships and camaraderie.</p>

<p>Most create their sets in LaTeX, a typesetting language, to produce 15- to 20-page problem sets. Add to that equation three hours of class and one hour of section a week, and these students essentially have full-time jobs.</p>

<p>Writing one’s own textbook, which is basically what the students do, is not for everyone. According to the Mathematics Department site, Math 55 is tailored for the dedicated: “You want math to be your most important class.”</p>

<p>SURVIVOR</p>

<p>On the first day of Math 55, it’s standing room only, a trail mix of serious mathematicians and the curious hoping for a quick glimpse of notoriety. This tremendous turnout is an annual phenomenon. “The first day each year, all the math kids who understand what’s going on are scared,” says Math 55 veteran Scott D. Kominers ’09, “and all the non-math kids who don’t laugh, because they think the class is so hard it’s overkill.”</p>

<p>After tourist season ends, another Math 55 ritual begins. Students may have more room to sit down, but the next few weeks will be anything but comfortable. It’s a game of “Survivor”: Outwit, Outplay, Outmath. Before the fifth Monday of the term, students who can’t seem to stay in the game start dropping like flies.</p>

<p>“I thought it was completely unbelievable,” Harbater says. “Seventy started it, 20 finished it, and only 10 understood it.”</p>

<p>Knowing the reputation, Kominers kept an unofficial tally of last year’s drop-off: “Last year, we had 51 students the first day, 31 students the second day, 24 for the next four days, 23 for two more weeks, and then 21 for the rest of the first semester after the fifth Monday.”</p>

<p>This year’s class is no exception. “I guess you can say it’s an episode of Survivor with people voting themselves off,” Litt says.</p>

<p>“I figure he’s just trying to get people to drop the class,” Litt says.</p>

<p>He figured wrong. As class attendance steadily thins, the workload does not. The first few problem sets each take about 40 hours to complete. The work burden is reason enough for many extraordinarily gifted students to drop...</p>

<p>The conversation then quickly turns to one of their most popular topics of discussion: Professor Gaitsgory. This is his first year teaching Math 55 and his students admire him in a Grigory Perelman-meets-Chuck Norris kind of way.</p>

<p>“He can win a game of Connect Four in three moves,” Harrison jokes.</p>

<p>They each volunteer their own sycophantic Gaitsgory stories. “One day, Menyoung and I went to his office hours,” Harrison begins.</p>

<p>Menyoung interrupts. “Remember how you thought he would be like ‘Fight me. If you win you get three questions?’”</p>

<p>Harrison laughs. “He taught us a few things on a random scrap of paper. Later, he let us take the paper with us when we left. But the back of this piece of paper wasn’t blank. It was something he was drafting. I’ve never seen so many symbols in one equation in my entire life.”</p>

<p>While the Math 55 students may marvel at their professor, they have attracted their own dedicated admirers in the freshman class. “Even though we have all this work,” Harrison says with pride, “when we’re in the War Room and all the Math 25 and 23 kids are down there, there has never been a time when people ask us for help and we say we’re too busy. We always help people.”...</p>

<p>It’s 10:58 a.m., and back in Science Center 109, the 11 survivors are still excitedly discussing Cauchy sequences. With each new concept, they are delighted. They’re in their fraternity house and they know it.
Suddenly, Gaitsgory scribbles an impossible problem on the board. “In the remaining two minutes, I want to cover this,” he announces, daring the boys to enter a mathematical duel. They are unsurprised by this last-minute challenge. Game on.</p>

<p>But outside, the clock strikes the hour. As students pour from nearby classrooms, they pause to peer, wide-eyed, into the windows of room 109. They take advantage of this rare chance to snatch a glimpse of the notorious Math 55. Fascinated, their eyes explore the encoded chalkboard, entrancing them with its odd arrangement of foreign symbols, formulas, and proofs.</p>

<p>None of the Math 55 students seem to notice. They’re not concerned about being on time to their next class. Math 55 is why they’re here.</p>

<p>But now it’s 11:06 a.m., and another professor is knocking vigorously on the window, pointing at his watch. Gaitsgory nods. And continues to write.</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516216%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516216&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Already posted in the Harvard Forum, with interesting comments in the thread.</p>

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<p>thanks for pointing that other thread out, tokenadult. I agree that the comments in that thread are interesting, but I have to tell you that the reason I posted excerpts in the parent forum was because I was struck by the incredible quality of intellectual vibrancy, dedication and comraderie - or the "wow' factor - that infuses the piece. I suspect that these same qualities transcend the math 55 course and even Harvard and would be interested in further comments along that vein.</p>

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<p>My school has a math class a little like that called Honors Analysis. I don't know much about it, but I've heard people compare it to Math 55. I don't know enough about either to know if that's a fair comparison. I think there are two sections taught by the head of the math department. I don't know if it's a 50 hour/week class, but one of my friends is in it and will do a problem set until 7 am or will wake up early on Saturday morning to go to the library and work. It's incredibly difficult to be accepted into the class, but this friend still got a 6 on the first midterm, and it wasn't the lowest grade in the class. Though it's wonderful for students to experience a class like Math 55, I worry about first year students taking a 50 hour/week class. Hopefully that number is exaggerated, because at 50 hours/week there would be little time for meeting people (outside the class!), socializing, studying other classes, getting involved, working part-time, etc. I think Marite's son took this class, so I look forward to her comments.</p>

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<p>I was WOWed!</p>

<p>I wonder if Harvard has the equivalent of Math 55 for other areas of study?</p>

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<p>"I wonder if Harvard has the equivalent of Math 55 for other areas of study?"</p>

<p>They have a rough equivalent in some languages. Accelerated introductory Japanese and Chinese each cover a typical four-year language program in one year. I don't know whether the bonding is as intense, though, because so much of that kind of class is memorization.</p>

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<p>Marite, where are you when we need some first-hand (ok, second hand, since it was your son who took it) input! It's amazing how there are so many kids who were considered "math wiz's" in their high schools, and/or regions who get a harsh dose of reality once they get to Harvard.</p>

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<p>Second hand information coming up.<br>

[quote]
It's amazing how there are so many kids who were considered "math wiz's" in their high schools, and/or regions who get a harsh dose of reality once they get to Harvard.

[/quote]

Indeed. A real humbling experience for S.
The class did not require 50 hours of work, though S is not a perfectionist like so many students. He does say that his current math classes are much less work than Math 55 was. S says that the problem sets are not as long as in Math 25( the next level down) but they are much more difficult.
Last year's students gave themselves the name "morituri" which, once you've gone through it, probably morphs into "Survivors."
Last year's group was larger than this year's, and included 3-4 women (compared to none this year). The year before, the number of students was similar to this year, and the group included two female students, both of whom are real stars (international medal winners).
The students are indeed known as 55ers, and there is a sense of camaraderie that persists in later years, born, I assume, from shared misery and intense study groups that also become social groups. It's the same bonding experience as in summer programs such as RSI, PROMYS, ROSS and MathCamp.
I have not heard of anyone from that class p...ing on John Harvard's foot. I doubt S would engage in such behavior, but then, I doubt he would tell his parents if he did.
Many of the 55ers I've heard about are extremely talented in other fields. Several are accomplished musicians and perform regularly in various Harvard ensembles. There is life besides and after Math 55!</p>

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<p>Corranged: There's some discussion about Math 207 vs. Math 55 in the Harvard forum. The basic conclusion seems to be that it's more equivalent to Harvard's Math 25, the next step down at Harvard (meaning that about 30 people a year take it, about half of whom were reasonable candidates for Math 55 but dropped down from it after a few weeks).</p>

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<p>I just looked through that thread. Marite said that Math 25 is for students who don't know proofs yet, so I would say Math 25 is more like the 160s (Honors Calculus). The 160s at Chicago are very difficult; they need to prove everything they use as they go, but the class does not assume students know proofs coming in to the class. There is also 199 which preps students to take Analysis. Students in Honors Analysis (207) must know proofs and everything coming into it. The class is invite-only based on student responses to the hardest questions/proofs on the calc placement test. Math 55 and Honors Analysis seem pretty comparable from a difficulty standpoint.</p>

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<p>Marite, One of the women in last year's class was actually an IBO medalist. She has seen the light and is a math concentrator now.</p>

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<p>Oh! Here she is--
<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516237%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516237&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>I took a German class my first term at Harvard where I was the only woman, it was a slightly weird dynamic feeling like you had to represent your half the human race.</p>

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<p>I took a Feminist Literary Theory class where I was the only man. I was in grad school, though.</p>

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<p>Corranged: the guide Marite referred to significantly understates the
mathematical maturity needed for Math 25, or rather, it gives way much benefit of doubt to the aspiring student. For example: the very first weekly problem set of 18 problems had one problem for which you had to figure out certain properties of cyclotomic polynomials, and another that essentially required proving the Cantor Bernstein theorem. In a previous year, the professor started the first lecture by proving the compactness of [0,1]. So yes, in theory, someone who hasn't seen proofs >>>could<<< take the course, but in practice, it would be exceedingly unusual to survive this course without having done some nontrivial proofs already.</p>

<p>The classic "Baby Rudin" is the textbook for the analysis component of the course, and practically every problem in chapters that were covered ended up being assigned for homework. Math 25 is, in its own right, among the handful of the most difficult freshman math classes in the country. Math 55 is of course still tougher.</p>

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<p>Interesting. That reminds me a lot of Stanford's 50H series, except we don't spend 40 hours a week on problem sets. We also have slightly higher numbers, but a similar retention rate.</p>

<p>Even the Connect Four part: We once challenged our prof to a game of Connect Four. He declined, but added, "But if you'd like to challenge me to a contest of ODE's..."!</p>