<p>How many USAMO Qualifiers are applying to MIT? Just curious.</p>
<p>Oh goodness me, I don't even know what that is.</p>
<p>Cookiemom - for the purpose of gauging the competition, you should probably start with the number of 11th graders who qualify for USAMO, since they are the ones applying to college the following fall. There are 250-300 USAMO qualifiers every year, but only 50-60 of those are 11th graders. I would guess that most of those apply to MIT. But even if they all apply and get accepted, at least half of them will choose to attend other schools, so they aren't going to take up a lot of spaces in the entering class.</p>
<p>Pebbles - USA Mathematics Olympiad. Part of a series of exams leading to selection of the US team to the int'l math olympiad.</p>
<p>Harvard and MIT seem to get the most. I was just curious because I would also guess that most of them will be applying to these two schools.</p>
<p>Cookiemom - I agree about Harvard and MIT. if you just look at Moppers, Harvard and MIT seem to get about equal numbers and end up with the vast majority of them. Caltech and Duke actively recruit them with merit scholarships and each get an occasional one. I would guess that Princeton, Chicago and Stanford occasionally get one, although I am not aware of any recent examples. If you look at all USAMO qualifiers, they're probably a little more spread out than the subset that goes to MOP, but still pretty concentrated on those schools.</p>
<p>im a usamo person, and a big mopper (300 people!!!). i never knew caltech gave merit scholarships (probably nto for big mop though). is there a link?</p>
<p>OK. so there's one. Where are the other 50? </p>
<p>I'm not familiar with Cal Tech, but I've found that there are many merit scholarships at top schools that are not well advertised. The information is hard to find on websites, and it is in small print in obsure pages of catalogues. Schools use them to attract students that they feel they have to lure from competitors.</p>
<p>I have it on good authority that U Michigan is trying to recruit one.</p>
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<p>"OK. so there's one. Where are the other 50?"</p>
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<p>Well, I doubt if very many of those 50 USAMO qualifiers also hang out on College Confidential. Is there something specific you are interested in? </p>
<p>ssshafted - Cookiemom is right about merit scholarships not necessarily being well publicized. They don't want people applying just to see if they get a scholarship offer. They want to look at who was interested enough to apply, then then see which of those applicants they would most like to attract. Going to big MOP wouldn't be enough for Caltech. The people I know of who have gotten the offers have been more like USAMO winners and IMO medalists.</p>
<p>Randomdad - I know U. Michigan sent out some offers of a free trip to visit them to some prospective math stars. Do you know if that went to all the seniors who previously qualified for usamo, or just the top layer? I always like to hear about math kids getting recruited, and not just athletes.</p>
<p>hey ssshafted!!! I'm totally into getting in for usamo. I'm not a prodigy but I get 120+ in AMC10 now.. (currently a soph.) how do u excel in math? I need help!</p>
<p>tlqkf - go to <a href="http://www.artofproplemsolving.com%5B/url%5D">www.artofproplemsolving.com</a>
Buy the books, work every problem, hang out on the forums, consider one of their internet courses. Good luck.</p>
<p>oh, i was super involved in mathcounts, i did ok at nationals. then i just studied on my own at various competition websites and books (MAA and New mathmematical library books) and was involved in amc's. im really not that good, so idk, my advice probably isnt best. though ive kinda given up now in math (im no good at proofs and i fail horribly at the usamo, impossible for top 12 usamo, doing other stuff my senior year like physics and science bowl) etc. i guess the only thing i can recommend is like go to math competition websites and read their previous problems (hmmt, rice/stanford, texas a&m, etc. etc.) and just brush up on geometry theorems (ptolemy, ceva, menalus, transformation stuff etc. soemtimes make problems trivial), i dont realaly remmeber aops, so i cant really give an opinion on that</p>
<p>it's a big leap from competitions that ask you to solve problems (Mathcounts, AMC, AIME) to competitions that ask you to write proofs (USAMO). It's definitely something that people can learn, but you have to go after it pretty specifically. The books and online classes at artofproblemsolving.com are designed to help people make that leap. But it would also be reasonable to decide that you would prefer to spend the time and effort elsewhere.</p>
<p>"Randomdad - I know U. Michigan sent out some offers of a free trip to visit them to some prospective math stars. Do you know if that went to all the seniors who previously qualified for usamo, or just the top layer? I always like to hear about math kids getting recruited, and not just athletes."</p>
<p>Some info about the U of M Math Department. They really do recruit top math people, but I'm pretty sure from my conversations with the math department head and my math major brother there that it is mostly top state people (They generally try to give visits and scholarships to the top 50 or so who score on the MMPC, a Michigan math competition), and not all of the USAMO qualifiers, probably because the top math students want to go to HYPMC and Duke, not U of M. But, if a USAMO qualifier did apply there, they would definitely be strongly recruited. I belive there are 2 or 3 USAMO qualifiers who land there every year, though. They're probably given a full ride Keeler Scholarship:</p>
<p>"Award Amount: Provides up to full tuition for up to 4 years. </p>
<p>Number Awarded: The number of Keeler Scholarships awarded varies depending on the number of qualified students. </p>
<p>Award Criteria: Prospective students presenting outstanding mathematical talent as evidenced by coursework and competitions; must major in Mathematics </p>
<p>Deadline: The first weekday every May. "</p>
<p>I believe around 4ish get full ride, and around 20 others get varying amounts. This varies from year to year, of course.</p>
<p>I also think that U of M's reputation is widely underrated. According to my brother, the Honors Sequence is as tough as any college. Only 20 to 30 people may enter every year.They do intense research over the summer ($3,000 stipend), and through UROP(Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program) during the school year. Here are the descriptions of the honors courses. Generally, most take the courses from the beginning,because even though the students have completed the material, it is not nearly as rigorous, proof-oriented, abstract, and theoretical as the U of M courses. My brother says they are brutal. Anyways:</p>
<p>Math 295 Honors Mathematics I (Generally 1st semester for Freshmen) Student Body: First-year students
Credit: 4 Credits.
Past Texts: Calculus (M. Spivak)
Past Instructors: A. Blass, R. Spatzier, B. Conrad
Background and Goals: The emphasis is on concepts, problem solving, as well as the underlying theory and proofs of important results. It provides an excellent background for advanced courses in mathematics. The expected background is high school trigonometry and algebra (previous calculus not required, but helpful). This sequence is not restricted to students enrolled in the LSA Honors program. Math 295 and 296 may be substituted for any Math 451 requirement. Math 296 and 395 may be substituted for any Math 513 requirement.
Content: Real functions, limits, continuous functions, limits of sequences, complex numbers, derivatives, indefinite integrals and applications, some linear algebra.
Alternatives: Math 156 (Applied Honors Calc II), Math 175 (Combinatorics and Calculus) and Math 185 (Honors Anal. Geom. and Calc. I) are alternative honors courses.
Subsequent Courses: Math 296 (Honors Mathematics II) </p>
<p>Math 296 Honors Mathematics II (Generally 2nd semester for Freshmen)
Student Body: First-year students
Credit: 4 Credits.
Past Texts: Calculus (Spivak)
Past Instructors: A. Blass, D. Barrett, R. Spatzier
Background and Goals: Math 295-296-395-396 is the most theoretical and demanding honors calculus sequence. The emphasis is on concepts, problem solving, as well as the underlying theory and proofs of important results. It provides an excellent background for advanced courses in mathematics. The expected background is high school trigonometry and algebra (previous calculus not required, but helpful). This sequence is not restricted to students enrolled in the LSA Honors program.
Content: Infinite series, power series, metric spaces, some multivariable calculus, implicit functions, definite integrals, and applications.<br>
Alternatives: none
Subsequent Courses: Math 395 (Honors Analysis I) </p>
<p>Math 395 Honors Analysis I (Generally 1st semester for Sophomores)
Student Body: Sophomores
Credit: 4 Credits.
Past Texts: Calculus in Vector Spaces (Corwin)
Past Instructors: . D. Barrett, B. Conrad, G. Prasad
Background and Goals: This course is a continuation of the sequence Math 295-296 and has the same theoretical emphasis. Students are expected to understand and construct proofs.
Content: This course studies functions of several real variables. Topics are chosen from elementary linear algebra, elementary topology, differential and integral calculus of scalar- and vector-valued functions and vector-valued mappings, implicit and inverse function theorems.
Alternatives: none
Subsequent Courses: Math 396 (Honors Analysis II)</p>
<p>Math 396 Honors Analysis II (Generally 2nd semester for Sophomores)
Student Body: Sophomores
Credit: 4 Credits.
Past Texts: Analysis on Manifolds (Munkres).
Past Instructors: D. Barrett, B. Conrad
Background and Goals: This course is a continuation of Math 395 and has the same theoretical emphasis. Students are expected to understand and construct proofs.
Content: Differential and integral calculus of functions on Euclidean spaces.
Alternatives: none
Subsequent Courses: Students who have successfully completed the sequence Math 295-396 are generally prepared to take a range of advanced undergraduate and graduate courses such as Math 512 (Algebraic Structures), Math 525 (Probability Theory), Math 590 (Intro. to Topology), and many others. </p>
<p>Wow, its a long post. I get carried away sometimes. Hope that helps, though!</p>
<p>Thanks for the info on Michigan bisbis. I agree that it is one of the top math departments in the country. My S got a letter form them inviting him to apply to the math honors progam, so I checked it out, but you've given us even more info. I went to grad school there and loved it. But I swore I'd never send a kid to undergrad becasue it's just too huge. However, the honors math program sounds great.</p>
<p>great post, bisbis12</p>
<p>yes, great post bisbis. Good info to know! You should post this under U. Mich also.</p>
<p>I became an active member of AoPS around a month ago when someone introduced me about the site... and I'm loving it! </p>
<p>I completely agree with you ssshafted. Although I'm only a sophmore, I have piles of workload to do other than maths so it is very difficult to find at least a hour of pure math study per day. (1 hour per day; I'm exaggerating ALOT but its hard!) </p>
<p>My aim is to qualify for USAMO this year (a HUGE dream isnt it? I barely get over 100 in AMC10 now).... 2 months... I'll try!</p>
<p>who are you on AoPS on the part of the group also. And im also im hoping on making the usamo, even though im a senior. i've been getting like 9 on aime tests and 130s on amc 12 practice stuff.</p>
<p>I go on intermediate forums.. n*<em>*g2002 is my ID (I dunno why I used *</em> to write my ID; I always think that I'll get stocked.. loL!) </p>
<p>I think I'll focus my first month on getting in top1% of AMC10. And then try making the floor value of AIME (which is usually 7 I guess). 9 in AIME is amazing. I've only covered precalc so far and am self studying calc BC. Although the AMC site says all the problems can be solved using pre-calc methods, but most problems seem to be using some specific theorms which are precalc level, but certainly not covered in schools. Solving old papers and reviewing some high lvl theorms.. is that the best preparation?</p>