<p>Math 55 is a freshman class. It fulfills the prerequisites of quite a few other Harvard math classes, and cannot be taken for credit concurrently with other classes that cover the same ground. </p>
<p>A student who finishes Math 55 is well prepared to take various upper-division undergraduate math courses at Harvard, and will probably be a math major who ends up taking (Harvard) graduate-level math courses before finishing his undergraduate degree program. </p>
<p>If you’re admitted to Harvard and curious about Math 55, I guess you can try it out during next year’s shopping period. The shopping period is extended for students trying to find the right math class among Math 21, Math 23, Math 25, and, especially, Math 55.</p>
<p>As best I can tell, this year about 70 started math 25 and the attendees are now around 35. This includes the refugees from 55 so assuming half the class does only the problem set and doesn’t show about 50 in the original math 25 class moved down to 23 or 21. I don’t know why somebody who does not have a serious abstract interest in mathematics would do either 25 or 55 cold turkey i.e., without any experience with proofs at all. If you are thinking off it, the ideal preparation it seems to me is Canada/USA mathcamp. BC calculus is not even an overture to either class. For the ordinary very good BC student, if you are still standing up in math 25 after 3 weeks you’re doing ok, if you pull a B- in the problem sets you are phenomenal. math 25 is like being nr 5 or ten in the olympics. No bragging rights but still 5th or 10th best in the world. Definitely not for the faint of heart.</p>
<p>how does math 55 compare to uchicago’s 207? paul sally (uchicago math prof) scoffs at the claim that the former is the harder class, but thats to be expected. someone said math 55 is 15-20 hours of hw a week, whereas the “expected” amount of hw per week for 207 is 30+ (so sally says) or “more like 50” as a suitemate of mine who took it says.</p>
<p>The difference is that Chicago math 207 is by invitation only. The “normal” honors sequence is a 160 level course which is insanely difficult but allows time to do the rest of the curriculum. The 160 level course probably compares to math 25 at Harvard–just shy of suicide but doable for very able students testing their limits (no pun intended).</p>
<p>Haha. Calc BC, I’ve learned over the past months, is a piece of crap </p>
<p>I’m in Sally’s class right now, and I can attest to the fact that it is some of the hardest crap I have encountered. The material isn’t that hard to understand, but the tests AND the homework are a real pain to do. The midterms are difficult because he gives you about half the time you actually need to score decently. The homework is hard because there is so much of it AND it’s really deep sometimes like when he asked us to prove that the Algebraic numbers form a closed field over the reals without any real context. Yeh, he expects about 30 hours a week, and you’ll pretty much have to devote yourself. I wasn’t too unfamiliar with this stuff coming into his class - I learned a little bit of algebra by myself took DiffEQ my jun. year in high school, but nothing I’ve learned REALLY compares to this. I did ARML and USAMO and all that - that doesn’t really mean much in his class. So - is it hard? Yes. </p>
<p>Problem set question - uh…let’s see, an easy one would be: find where the function f from Reals to reals f(x) = 1/q for rational p/q, 0 for irrationals is continuous, and find where it’s differentiable.</p>
<p>Uh he doesn’t really go off of a book - he somewhat follows his own book, but only the first few chapters are out as of now. We also use Komolgorov’s Introductory and Rudin’s Fundamentals, but those don’t really correspond</p>
<p>What courses would I be able to take after Math 55? I assume I can take it from MIT through the cross courses? I am very interested in which other colleges have that are similar to Harvard 55, and UofC 207, :D</p>
<p>in the dinosaur days pre AP classes i “placed” into Math 55 during freshman week - second semester was the most ridiculous class ever - worked like a dog and passed only because the teaching asst pitied me (cool guy!) decided not to concentrate in physics after that - worst grade of my career - but still rallied to graduate magna - should have started in math 1a like all my friends</p>
<p>My S debated between UChi and Harvard–he loved Professor Salley when he visited as a “prospie” during pre-frosh week. But in the end he chose Harvard because he just didn’t want to be told he had to take a core of classes in the Hmanities …When he wrote Professor Salley to explain his decision he got an email back that said that the ony college that Salley had any respect for mathematically was Harvard and that as my S said he wanted to take 55 that just proved that he was “insaine.” But he wrote it in the nicest way. As far as my son can tell 55 covers 207 in the first semester and the second semester is more topics of interst to the particular professor.</p>
<p>Also he would absolutely agree that a prospie had better have a FIRM grip on proof based thinking–which is a completely different animal than non proof based math-- and an ability to think in the abstract realm completely. Also the answers that are prized are not merely those with the corect answer proved–but that it be proved in the most elegant way. He was told on one homework that there were two redundant lines in the three page proof aand he should find them and eliminate them. It took him 10 hours but he found them and resubmitted the answer. </p>
<p>That said 55 marks one for life within the Math community. One doesn’t have to say math 55 or harvard’s 55-- just 55 will suffice. The response to the course is binary-- those who LOVE it and those who just cant wait for the pain to end.</p>
<p>Also if youare going to take it-- get a firm understanding in LaTex or MacTex-- if you have to learn that on top of the substantive work it will be a killer.</p>
<p>Hmmmm interesting, can anyone accepted into Harvard or MIT and wanting to become a math major take it? I am up for the challenge, no idea if I’ll make it though…</p>
<p>There is a little Harvard-Yale thing that goes on between Math 55 and Math 207-209. Somewhere on CC there’s a thread in which a poster named phuriku, a Chicago student who took the course there three years ago, analyzed what both courses covered and argued that Math 55a didn’t cover as much as the first quarter of the Chicago sequence.</p>
<p>shushugah: I suspect that MIT students do NOT take Math 55 at Harvard. Chances are you are going to have to drop this particular fantasy.</p>
<p>The general rule is that cross-registration is permitted only for subjects not offered at MIT, and that it must be approved by the relevant MIT department. Somehow, I have trouble believing the MIT math department – which is not second-rate in any respect – would agree that it does not teach the subjects covered in Math 55. Plus, I think the time demands of Math 55, and the effective need to spend a lot of time on the Harvard campus with the other students, would make it really tough to complete a normal freshman curriculum at MIT. I doubt any Math 55 students at Harvard take anything like a normal MIT freshman courseload outside of math.</p>
<p>I have extensive experience with proofs, and Latex, and should I make Blue MOP next year, would they allow me to join? As the website says, for me mathematics is the most important thing. I will have done Calc 1,2 MVC, Linear Algebra and Complex Analysis before I graduate High school. I understand even for IMO member Zach Abel it was challenging, so i still don;t know if I would be qualified, opinions anyone? And my chances of getting into harvard are very minimal… Guess no MIT cross course, :(</p>
Guess no MIT cross course, :(</p>