IMC competitons

[Stochastic1]

Hi
I think you know this competitions:
http://imc-math.org.uk/
I have two second prize in this competition and one of my friends has a first prize with the second rank between all participent.
Can this competition's results have any possitive effect on apllication to math programs?

[Stochastic1]

Hi
any idea?

[Gasquet]

I really doubt that it would have a positive effect. But, in any case, it definitely can't hurt as long as you have not overemphasized it on you Statements.

[Legendre]

Hi
I think you know this competitions:
http://imc-math.org.uk/
I have two second prize in this competition and one of my friends has a first prize with the second rank between all participent.
Can this competition's results have any possitive effect on apllication to math programs?

1) Of course it will help.

2) Please don't emphasis this too much. IMHO most faculty will not take success in competition as an indicator of research potential. Some even think its detrimental.

Famous mathematicians opinion of competitions: http://lesswrong.com/lw/2v1/great_mathe ... tions_and/

Basically, its like getting 90%+ on the GRE Maths Subject Test - it adds to your CV and help you get noticed. But research is still king.

[Gasquet]

Famous mathematicians opinion of competitions: http://lesswrong.com/lw/2v1/great_mathe ... tions_and/

Thanks. That was a good read.

[Muirhead]

In my experience different math professors have wildly different views of the meaning of competition performance. There is no universal trend, but I think those who work in combinatorics place more emphasis on competition performance than those who work in more theoretically "deep" fields.

[daniel022]

Although competition math is very different from research math, performance in math competitions is still very much positively correlated with research potentials. Many top researchers were top competitors in math competitions when they were young. Just for an example, among the most recent fields medalists, 3 out of 4 had excellent performances in IMO (Stanislav Smirnov and Ngô Bảo Châu both had perfect scores). And for 2006 fields medals, there were famous examples like Terence Tao and Perelman.

I believe some professors will take things like Putnam, IMO, IMC into consideration seriously (and surely some may not). Having said that, definitely recommendation letters, research experience and grades are all much more important. But if you are a marginal candidate (say, the admission committee can only admit one of you and another applicant who had similar profile as yours, then the competition results may make you preferred).

In any case, it won't hurt you at least.

[Legendre]

http://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-ad ... petitions/