<p>I have a friend (from Delhi, India) who's a year younger than me and will be applying to Harvard for the class of 2019. He needs my help. Here's the deal about him: he's a math whiz; pretty much the best I've ever seen (I happen to know quite a few young mathematicians in high school in my country). He's done exceedingly well on the Olympiad (I won't reveal 'how well' to protect his identity). Now, he has also done some rather extraordinary research in Math -- it isn't extraordinarily complicated but it's rather novel and the results are absolutely original. His work is on a well-researched topic but his method of attack is quite unique and clever. He has already obtained a few results but with further work, those results would evolve into nothing short of groundbreaking. (His papers are typed in LaTeX and ready)</p>
<p>Here's the down side: he doesn't have mentor. As I've stated before, getting a research mentor in India without any personal connections is near impossible. He's not the richest kid nor do his parents have any 'contacts' with academia. He asked me for help. I thought it'd be great if he could get in touch with a Harvard professor but don't know which professor to ask him to contact. The professor obviously can't mentor him, but even a few words of advice and/or advancement of his results by the prof and his/her colleagues would help, I'd reckon. It'd also help his research get attention in the math community.</p>
<p>So my question is: which professor at Harvard should he contact for help? Which professor would most likely respond and help him further his research? Will it look bad if he contacts them?</p>
<p>On a related note, if the professor likes his work, would his chances at Harvard increase? Like can the professor put in a word for him to the adcom when he applies next year? How much do such things even matter? He doesn't have really good grades (B's and stuff), has a decent SAT (2220) and a couple other things like 3xAP 5's and other ECs.</p>
<p>I'm trying to set up something for him that would resemble the support Evan O'Dorney (winner, Intel STS) had at Stanford (he got a chance to work with Brian Conrad and Ravi Vakil). My friend's work is as good (if not better) than Evan's work on approximating square roots using fractional linear transformations. I'm not being boastful; I've just seen both the papers and feel that my friend's work is quite remarkable. Sorry if this comes off as over-confident but I really want to help this kid out. (he's autistic, if that matters at all to professors)</p>
<p>Although I have no idea whatsoever when it comes to which professor in particular he could contact, I would try getting in touch with some math professors from his country, in this case India, or if there aren’t any, pitching a mail to some PhD students from India. I did so when it came to a research project of mine- closely related to the topics this PhD student from my country was researching- and I could not have been more grateful for the help and guidance I received. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Good luck to your friend!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Are you really telling us that this kid has papers written that are Intel-winning quality, he has an IMO track record, and no mathematician in India is willing to help him? That’s hard to believe.</p></li>
<li><p>If the area he’s working in is a commonplace in math, it shouldn’t be hard for you to look at some course catalogs, not just for Harvard but also for Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Chicago, Berkeley, Caltech, Michigan . . . and figure out who is teaching the corresponding courses. That’s a pretty good place to start. Most/all of them also identify all of their current and recently graduated PhD students and their research interests, so a little more reading could help you identify some more sources of guidance there. The internet is pretty great for stuff like that.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>@JHS, He reached the IMOTC but couldn’t make it to the national team. (which by the way, is a great achievement in India, it’s another thing that he just spazzed out on the team selection day)
And, yes, I’ve seen his work and it IS darn good.
What you might not realize is that things don’t work on merit back here. You need to know professors personallly really…</p>
<p>Instead of professors who are in his particular field, won’t it be better to find someone who’ll actually reply first? I mean, any professor can read his work and all, but for that the professor must be approachable no?</p>
<p>@steinway See the professors don’t have any incentive to work with students (it has something to do with the way professors are underpaid and respected lesser than they deserve). Besides, in India they expect that students stick to cramming for exams instead of doing something innovative. However weird and/or sad it may be that’s how it is, here… Thanks for your help though!</p>
<p>mathjj: The only math professors I know are long retired, and I don’t know the math field at all. But I think your friend should compose e-mail, with his paper, to the effect of “I am a poor boy from India and I have written a paper that takes an original approach to [here he completes an “elevator speech” about what he has done – no more than two sentences, 25-30 words, but enough to communicate what the paper is about and why it is cool]. I need guidance to know whether it is worth pursuing, what I have to do to make this publishable, and where I should try to submit it. Could you look at it quickly and give me some direction, or ask someone more appropriate to do that? Thanks.” If he sends that to ten faculty members who regularly work in the appropriate area, and especially if several of them are ethnically South Asian, or even originally from India, I think he will get 3-5 responses, probably from grad students, but that’s a great place to start.</p>
<p>You need to separate the projects of helping him with his math scholarship and trying to recruit Harvard professors to get him into Harvard. If you are right about the quality of his math scholarship, and he gets it accepted for publication in a decent journal, getting into a good U.S. university with appropriate aid will not be a problem. Harvard may or may not be the right place for him anyway. So forget about Harvard for the moment and concentrate on getting the paper in front of some people who can evaluate it and point him in the right direction.</p>
<p>@JHS Great insight there. Getting into Harvard is clearly NOT the priority for him; he just needs some sorta professional guidance, I’ll ask him to do what you said and probably help him craft a good email. Thanks for your help! :)</p>
<p>@mathjj It’s basically the same in my country. It thankfully enough doesn’t mean that there won’t be any professors and grad students who are willing to help. JHS’s advice above is great, and your friend should totally aim to get the paper peer reviewed and eventually published- if it truly is of the quality you describe it as. </p>
I mean, any professor can read his work and all, but for that the professor must be approachable no?</p>
JHS’s advice above is great, and your friend should totally aim to get the paper peer reviewed and eventually published- if it truly is of the quality you describe it as. </p>