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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a note to those who think calc only counts in STEM...if your kid is aiming for PE/Hedge funds, take MV if you can in high school. Finance admissions adore the math whizzes. [/quote]

LOL

Absolutely no one in PE/Hedge funds thinks taking MV in high school makes you a math whiz. They are looking for USAJMO, USAMO and IMO. [/quote]

You mean those silly competitions patents like you pay for for bragging rights?[/quote]

LOL

If you make it to IMO, you are picking among HYPSM's and using the rest of T10s as safety. Silly competition indeed!!

[/quote]

For anyone interested in engineering, which was the OPs post, doing competition math with the goal of targeting top 10 is a complete waste of time because there’s little alignment with the math needed for those majors.

For a good understanding of science the time is better spend having a basic understanding of Multivariable, linear algebra and differential equations even at community college level because that will help tremendously in physics and chemistry.

If a math major, sure IMO will help, but that’s 6 students a year, even if you qualify for USAMO, it’s unlikely you’ll make it into top 10 colleges on the back of it alone, and to get to that level, competition math is your extracurricular starting from 6th grade if not earlier. That’s way too soon to lock in what a kid will do in the future.

That’s why math competition is a poor time investment. To be competitive, USAMO level you need to work hard 4-8 years. You can get the advanced math coursework, calculus to differential equations, in two years, and then you have time to do other things.[/quote]

Whether or not math competitions are a good ROI is kind of nuanced.  The amount of time needed to reach USAMO levels varies by student.  Some get there with a couple years of working maybe 7 hours per week on competition math.  Others grind 2-3 hours per day for many years and never manage to qualify for an olympiad.  If a kid is passionate about pure math and proof writing, then it's a fine ROI.  If they're so good that they can reach olympiad levels without too much time expenditure, it's a good ROI.  If neither of those apply, the kid should invest their time in some other STEM activity that they love.  Having your narrative be that you funneled inordinate amounts of time into competition math for somewhat middling results is not going to be especially compelling for T10 admissions officers.  [/quote]

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