PROMYS or SUMaC

<p>Hey guys, so I'm a sophomore with relatively little knowledge on Summer Programs. I am interested in possibly attending a camp this summer. I have always been pretty good at math, and I was wondering what programs are deemed the most prestigious and the most valuable. From my own research I have found that PROMYS and SUMaC are very good programs. I was just wondering from those of you who know a lot about these programs, if one of these programs is better than the other (in terms of experience, "fun-ness", prestige,etc).</p>

<p>First of all you shouldn’t choose what summer program to attend based on what is most prestigious. Both SUMaC and PROMYS are well known math camps. PROMYS, Ross, USA/Canada MathCamp (the most selective of the four), and Hampshire are often considered the four most prestigious math camps although SUMaC is probably comparable. I believe PROMYS is quite a bit cheaper than SUMaC as well. You haven’t given a good description of what you want in a math camp so it’s hard to say which would be best for you.</p>

<p>Which one would be better for touching on knowledge outside regular high-school/AP curriculum? And possibly helping us with AMC/AIME type problems? I am interested in number theory as well, and I feel like further knowledge on this topic would help me in various competitions. Also I would prefer it to be 4 weeks (or shorter) because I am interested in getting other things done in the summer as well. I believe Ross is 6 weeks, so I’m not sure I would want to go to that.</p>

<p>Although now that I have looked into Ross, it seems they cover Number Theory quite extensively… hmmm…</p>

<p>PROMYS and Ross are both 6 weeks and mainly focus on number theory. The number theory at these programs isn’t particularly useful for competitions though although the experience with proofs might help with USAMO. All of these programs will be on stuff not covered in the regular high school curriculum. I don’t know much about SUMaC so I’m not sure how helpful it would be for math competitions. Awesome Math focuses on competition math and only like 3 weeks so you may want to look into that.</p>

<p>Ok thank you so much!</p>