s/o Is Math Olympiad Summer Program (MOP) qualification a hook?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, there's endless criticism of useless humanities degrees, and everyone seems to forget math is the OG humanities degree that commands zero respect. People have always disparaged mathematicians, they always will. Want a little insight into the current landscape, the New Yorker article on eliminating grad math in WV should do: https://t.co/p3qCC0Eh5i. Good at math there are two options. One, get an engineering degree or similar (from anywhere), become a corporate cog, support a family, keep an eye out to ride the layoff wave to the next job. Or, two, just love math and somehow be self-sustaining with a pad of paper. MOP qualification is an anchor not a hook!

Or you can start your own hedge fund and become a crazy rich billionaire (like this guy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Simons_(mathematician)). All kidding aside (and Jim Simons is a great!), I agree that MOP qualification is probably an anchor. I would have assumed that a kid who is among the top 50 odd kids in math in all of US high schools and perhaps have other accomplishments (GPA, community service etc.) would be a bit more sought after. Isn't the point of college to learn, and kids who have demonstrated some degree of academic excellence might serve that?

[Anonymous]

It would enhance an undergraduate college application, but honestly it would be more valuable to the application of someone who is not both Asian and male.

It really has become stereo-typical (whether fair or unfair) for Asian males to pursue math/science ECs like this.

An Asian male who went to a selective Governor’s School in the summer - for a non-STEM subject - might have a more valuable differentiator, by showing the student was more rounded and was capable of high achievement in more than just math/science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would enhance an undergraduate college application, but honestly it would be more valuable to the application of someone who is not both Asian and male.

It really has become stereo-typical (whether fair or unfair) for Asian males to pursue math/science ECs like this.

An Asian male who went to a selective Governor’s School in the summer - for a non-STEM subject - might have a more valuable differentiator, by showing the student was more rounded and was capable of high achievement in more than just math/science.

Therein lies the rub, doesn't it? Of the 50 or so kids in MOP, about half are seniors. And essentially all Asian (the last 10 years of USA International Math Olympiad teams that are drawn from MOP qualifiers have had 10 non-Asians out of 60 spots). So the highly selective colleges (save perhaps MIT/Caltech) are saying that they value legacy/faculty (most of whom will not donate 7 figures either) more than these kids' math talent.