Putnam Mathematical Competition Results Announced (news item)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>Harvard</a> Mathematics Department : Putnam Competition
William</a> Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>

<p>The results of the 2008 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition have been announced. The Putnam competition is widely considered the most prestigious math competition for college undergraduates in the U.S. and Canada and is administered out of the Department of Mathematics at Harvard which houses the offices of the Mathematical Association of America. Teams from 545 universities competed this year, including (I believe) all of the Ivy League schools. </p>

<p>This year, Harvard took first place for the second year in a row while Princeton took second, the same ordering as last year. Princeton’s team won the competition two years ago, but Harvard has far more first place team finishes than any other school. The top five teams are singled out for honors. This year the ordering of the top five was identical to that of last year with the exception of the 5th place award. This year 5th place went to CalTech whereas last year it had gone to Duke.</p>

<p>For those interested in studying math at Princeton, the following links will be helpful. Princeton has a long and storied history in mathematics and the current Chair of the Department is Andrew Wiles who became famous for proving Fermat’s Last Theorem which had been one of the great unsolved mathematics problems for over three centuries. Wiles was knighted by the British government for his proof.</p>

<p>Mathematics</a> Department - Princeton University - Undergraduate Homepage
Mathematics</a> Department - Princeton University</p>

<p>2008 Putnam Team Finishes</p>

<p>1st --- Harvard
2nd --- Princeton
3rd --- MIT
4th --- Stanford
5th --- CalTech</p>

<p>Top Five Finishes in the Last 20 Years</p>

<p>19 --- Harvard
13 --- Princeton, MIT
12 --- Duke
9 ---- U. of Waterloo
6 ---- CalTech
5 ---- Stanford<br>
4 ---- U. of Toronto
3 ---- Cornell, WUSTL & Yale
2 ---- U. of Chicago, Harvey Mudd, Michigan & Berkeley
1 ---- U. of Miami & Rice</p>

<p>Top Five Finishes in the Last 10 Years</p>

<p>9 --- Harvard
8 --- Duke & MIT
6 --- Princeton
4 --- CalTech</p>

<p>Top Five Finishes in the Last 5 Years</p>

<p>5 --- Princeton & MIT
4 --- Harvard
3 --- Duke
2 --- CalTech, Stanford & Waterloo
1 --- U. of Chicago & Toronto</p>

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<p>You forgot the following very important rank. </p>

<p>The following table lists Teams with First place finishes (as of 2007[update] competition):</p>

<p>First place Team (s)
26 Harvard<br>
9 Caltech<br>
5 MIT<br>
4 Toronto,Washington U in StL<br>
3 Brooklyn College, Duke, Michigan State<br>
2 Brooklyn Polytech, Cornell, Waterloo<br>
1 UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Case Western Reserve, Chicago, Princeton, Queen’s </p>

<p>Princeton has won only ONCE in the history of Putnam Math Competition</p>

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<p>I found it awesome that Pton2000 had posted a humble but congratulatory post about the Putnam; the article acknowledge that Harvard has the most first place finishes. We’re happy we finished second. And of course then you come and squat on this forum and do your business…you may have gone to Harvard, yet you’re still a socially crippled child. God Bless.</p>

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<p>I was going to say something nice about the Putnam, but then I saw the above post ^ and I just wanted to say: why on earth would you assume jomjom is Harvard? The kid’s profile doesn’t indicate it, and his/her posts support the idea that he/she is just a ■■■■■ or a high schooler who really hopes to get into Harvard (but who probably wouldn’t if his/her posts accurately reflect his/her opinions). You say “socially crippled,” I say: pot and kettle.</p>

<p>Anyways, Putnam is a great honor, so kudos. What are the individual finishes for the competition? And I’m a newb to math stuff, so are the teams chosen ahead of time before the competition and not based off of which individuals have the highest scores? Because I think I saw the results for one year where the top individual scores were all from Caltech yet Caltech didn’t place in the top 3 teams. I’m also somewhat surprised Caltech and MIT don’t perform better than they already do (and they already perform quite well) since they’re Tech schools.</p>

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<p>For all you who are relatively new to these boards, you may not be aware that a few ‘very new’ posters always appear at this time of year on the Princeton boards. They are always strongly critical of Princeton, are often crude in their approach and have just a handful of posts to their names. If you check their other contributions to the boards you will find that they consist almost entirely of negative posts about Princeton. Those of us who have been on these boards for some time assume that they are posters who go by other screen names elsewhere on CC and have created a new identity just prior to notification of admissions in order to do everything they can to denigrate Princeton. They are generally rabid advocates of Princeton’s peer schools but will hide that so as not to give away their identities. It’s an immature posting strategy and Princeton seems to be the favorite target. If you look back at posts from about this time last year and the year before you’ll find more of these ‘new’ posters who will disappear shortly after admissions season is over.</p>

<p>As for the Putnam competition, Princeton has done extremely well over the years and particularly well in the last decade. While it’s true that Princeton has only one first place finish, it is almost always in the top handful of schools. In fact, in the last ten years, the top two spots have been held by Harvard and Princeton five times. Overall, Harvard has dominated the competition with first place finishes but Princeton’s record in the competition is very impressive as well. Here is another comparison.</p>

<p>First or Second Place Ranking in Last Ten Years</p>

<p>8 — Harvard
6 — Princeton
4 — MIT
1 — Duke & Waterloo</p>

<p>First or Second Place Ranking in Last Five Years</p>

<p>5 — Princeton
4 — Harvard
1 — MIT</p>

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<p>■■■■■■! but probably just high schoolers, not college students.</p>

<p>PtonGrad, would you happen to know how the team vs. individual stuff works in the Putnam? And I heard females that perform well are awarded more than males simply because there’s so few women in upper-level math.</p>

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<p>I’m not a mathematician, but I do know that the Putnam ranks each individual who took the exam in addition to ranking college teams. The top five individual performers are identified as “Putnam Fellows”. This year, though its team came in second, Princeton had no individual finishers in the top five. The Putnam Fellows for the 2008 competition came from MIT (which had two) and then one each from CalTech, Harvard and Stanford. Often brilliant individuals will be named Putnam Fellows multiple times. Aaron Pixton from Princeton won three out of his four years in college. Two particularly impressive mathematicians from MIT (Reid Barton and Daniel Kane) were named Putnam Fellows in each of their four years in college. Expect to read about them in the future!</p>

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<p>The 3 students making up a school’s team are selected prior to the test, so they aren’t necessarily the top 3 scores for a school. Although no Princeton students were named Putnam Fellows this year, 3 of the next 11 were from Princeton.<br>
The following links give the lists of the top students:
[2008</a> Putnam Competition Results](<a href=“http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/putnam/-html/putnam2008results.html]2008”>http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/putnam/-html/putnam2008results.html)
The scores associated with each rank:
[2008</a> Putnam Competition Statistics](<a href=“http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/putnam/-html/putnam2008stats.html]2008”>http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/putnam/-html/putnam2008stats.html)
and a discussion with additional results:
[Art</a> of Problem Solving Forum](<a href=“http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=266342&sid=64ba3231e303c4ae27998ddf045a0029]Art”>http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=266342&sid=64ba3231e303c4ae27998ddf045a0029)
The discussion points out that over 47% of those taking the test scored zero, which makes the top scores even more impressive.</p>

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<p>Yes, the Putnam is not a trivially easy test.</p>

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<p>i decided to look up some old putnam tests.</p>

<p>i found one and looked for about 3 seconds before getting lost.</p>

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<p>The team score is the combined rankings of the three team members (lower is better). MIT always seems to pick the wrong people for its team.</p>

<p>It’s encouraging to see schools like U Dub and Florida Atlantic represented.</p>

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<p>Relative to Tokenadult’s comment. Many years ago I took the Putnam exam with about 1200 others, and ranked around 512th out of the 1200, by answering completely about 1 and 1/2 problems. The next highest in my school (a small LAC in the West) was the best math person in the program who was only in the 600’s. And, no, I am not in math at this time. People at the top and near top are outstanding.</p>

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<p>jomjom, i do hope you realize that all your inane ■■■■■■■■ doesn’t make princeton any less attractive to anyone but only reduces your credibility…</p>