An Exciting Opportunity: Mathcamp 2017
MercerCounty MathCircle
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Hello, math enthusiast students! You’re invited to apply to Canada/USA Mathcamp.
Who, What, When? Mathcamp is a 5-week residential summer program, now in our 25th year. This summer, we’ll be at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington from July 2 to August 6. Our students are ages 13 - 18 and come from all over the world, and each one is passionate about mathematics.
What happens at Mathcamp? It’s an immersion in the world of math. Mathcamp instructors are professors and graduate students from top universities, and your fellow students will be some of the smartest and most interesting people you have ever met, all coming together for an intense summer of discovery, camaraderie, and excitement. The central goal of Mathcamp is to allow you to take charge of your education. You can learn about areas of math that most people don’t encounter until college or graduate school: pushing the boundaries of abstraction with Category Theory, modeling real-world behavior with Game Theory, or imagining new universes with Hyperbolic Geometry. Or you might focus on sharpening your problem-solving skills, or spend your time on a research project. With the help of an academic advisor, you will design a program of study that reflects your own interests and goals.
The autonomy goes beyond the curriculum: your time is your own at Mathcamp, and you strike the balance between work and play. Outside of class, activities range from chess and board games to soccer and frisbee to salsa dancing and improv and rehearsals for the camp choir. On the weekends, we’ll go hiking, explore Seattle, and lots more. All of these activities are optional, and you can choose simply to spend time with friends or curl up with a book. The staff live in the dorms and socialize informally with the students, sharing hiking trips and Scrabble games, and together, the students and staff form a close-knit community.
How do I apply? The process starts now, with the Qualifying Quiz (www.mathcamp.org/quiz): an untimed entrance exam, designed to be challenging and fun. The Quiz is the central component of the application, and it’s our tool for evaluating when students are ready for Mathcamp. The application also includes two letters of recommendation, a personal essay, and some information about you and your math background. The deadline to apply is March 10th.
Can I afford it? The short answer is YES. We offer generous scholarships based on financial need, and we work with each family to make sure that you get the level of support you need.
About 20% of our students receive full scholarships: Mathcamp is FREE for US & Canadian families with household income below $65,000 US, and we even have travel grants to cover plane tickets to camp.
Above $65,000, we offer a sliding scale, and those who need assistance will be asked to contribute no more than 3% of their income. There is no set formula: we consider each request on an individual, case-by-case basis.
The full camp fee is $4500 US. (This includes tuition, room, board, & extracurriculars.)
We are deeply committed to making it possible for every qualified student to attend, regardless of financial circumstances. The hard part of getting to Mathcamp is the math; once we find great students, we make sure that money doesn’t stand in their way.
You can find lots more information on our website at www.mathcamp.org. We will also be hosting a live Q&A session at the Art of Problem Solving website on Wednesday, February 15th at 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT, answering questions about the program and the application process. Visit www.mathcamp.org/apply for more information.
We hope to see you this summer in Washington!