<p>Ok so I will be a Senior in High School this upcoming year. As far as college I am hoping to study Math and Science at one of the the top universities in the country (MIT, Harvard, Princeton, CMU, UChicago and some others). However, after reading some admissions threads for some of these schools I have realized that I have almost no background in Scientific/Mathematical Competitions (such as the Mandelbrot Competition). Seeing as this is my final year in high school and college applications will be due before I know it, what are some Math/Science competitions I can compete in this fall so that I will get the results before I apply to colleges? </p>
<p>p.s. I am applying EA to UChicago and MIT so I would need competition results by November 1st. If not though I think I would still be able to send them in later as long as I did not get rejected early.</p>
<p>AMC is in February. Mandelbrot is throughout the year, but you won’t get any definitive score by November 1. Most of the others are either too small or have similar waiting time. You’re better off trying to get an internship of some sort, although it’s a bit late to be asking during the Fall semester.</p>
<p>there are a lot of people that get in to these schools without having done these exams. so, i wouldn’t worry too much at this late stage.</p>
<p>your best bet is amc, and report score to schools for RD of if waitlisted EA. amc/Mandelbrot are done through school.</p>
<p>PUMaC and HMMT are both shortly after November 1, if you can field a team. AMC is as well. Generally, though, most math competitions are later in the year. So are most noteworthy science/tech type things. There are probably a bunch of local competitions (at least, there are in my area) that you could do.</p>
<p>However, no offense, if you haven’t ever done any math competitions before you’ll be at a huge disadvantage. You could study to make AIME, but doing anything beyond that would suck up a lot of your time which probably would be better spent elsewhere. Don’t sweat it; plenty of no-competition people make it, and plenty of USAMO qualifiers are rejected.</p>