Hello, has anybody done the MMSS program at UMich in the past? If so, is it fun and worth the cost? Do you get to learn a lot? Is it boring? Do you get enough free time? The class about the statistics of happiness seems the coolest to me. Thanks!
Bump on this thread lol
My S19 did the MMSS program after his freshman and junior years. He really liked it. He made good friends both times. The math program he did after freshman year was challenging, but not in a stressful way. He loved the organic chemistry class - great instructor and super helpful prep for when he took organic for credit the following Fall. He never complained that it was too much work - seemed to have time to relax every day. I hope you like it if you go!
I attended MMSS for two sessions last summer, āArt and Mathematicsā as well as āGraph Theoryā. As an overall program, I enjoyed it a lot and ended up meeting a lot of great people who were passionate about academics. Ann Arbor is also lovely and the DIA was amazing! With the actual courses though, it depends on which ones you choose. I didnāt end up learning or enjoying my āArt and Mathsā program because it was pretty disorganized, and not challenging at all. My Graph Theory course was amazing though, and I really loved it. If youāre looking for the ācollegeā experience, it might give you a little taste of it, as Iām now doing Dual Enrollment and itās similar. Overall, itās pretty affordable (with aid) and overall a pretty good experience if you enjoy a summer of a more academic nature. I wouldnāt say itās challenging, and you do get a lot of free time. Do you have any other questions?
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Hi, Iām interested in the MMSS program too. When would you recommend submitting your application by?
Iām pretty sure they have rolling admissions, so I would recommend doing it as soon as possible! Youāll probably get a response within a month, I submitted mine in January and got an acceptance letter in late January/early February if I remember correctly.
Hello! I know itās been a couple of months since someone talked on this tread but was it hard for you to get accepted? I know the acceptance rate is around 50 percent but Iāve been trying to look for peopleās stats and have found nothing. My grades are all As so that I am not worried about, but I have never had prior experience with science camps before. I did attend a math camp 2 years ago though at UCSD, though that would be in my middle school years. I would really appreciate it if you can tell me how challenging you think it was to get in to this program. Thanks
Hey there! So I attended MMSS and from what I understand it has about an 30-40% acceptance rate. As long as you spend a decent amount of time on your application and have some good grades (Iād say over a 3.75 GPA and some good extracurriculars), you have a great shot of making it in. If itās affordable for your family, I absolutely recommend it! Let me know if you have any other questions, Iād love to answer them!
Hi! I know that this is super late but I wanted to ask a couple of questions about MMSS
- Is it impressive on college applications?
- I have a tournament in which I can win a prize of $10k, but the dates coincide with MMSS, do you recommend attending it? Or playing the tournament? Thank you!
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It shows commitment, but i would say itās comparable to being a member of a school club!
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i would say attend the possibility of getting a 10k prize one. MMSS is really fun but itās not very rigorous for the most part, whereas the competition youāre speaking of is likely to showcase your talents more.
let me know if you have any more questions!
Could you please elaborate on what you mean in the second point? I thought that MMSS is a rigorous course with PHD profs?
Just wanted to see if anyone has experience from last summer? My older daughter was supposed to go in Summer of 2020 but they moved it online and the experience asynchronous so it was different than what we had originally envisioned. My younger son will probably apply and we are hoping that heāll have an enriching experience. He has straight As so far so hopefully heāll get in.
I attended it this year! Brilliant! Highly recommend attending.
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If youāre applying, definitely choose Graph Theory. The other courses arenāt as good as Graph Theory but Graph theory is 100% worth it. professor shaw is probably the best teacher Iāve ever had (or ever will have)
Hey! Iām a sophomore from Pakistan and just got accepted into the MMSS program for Graph Theory. I dont know if im getting financial aid yet (btw do u think its purely need-based, as in do they give it to those who need it more or those they think are more qualified), Iāll get to know in April. I want to know how many students I should expect at the program (and how many in graph theory) and whether it is truly worth going to the US for. How much would it impact my college application in the future? And what other benefits can i get through attending MMSS? How rigorous is the graph theory course? and what knowledge should i have before i go on to attend it? what exactly does it teach you and what does a class on graph theory look like?
Hey! Sorry for replying late, the graph theory course is quite rigorous and helped me achieve quite a lot of stuff. For example, after attending MMSS - I was selected to another summer program that was quite intensive. MMSS definitely helps and Dr. Shaw is a brilliant teacher! You donāt need any prerequisite knowledge - maybe some basic algebra might help you. A class on graph theory is quite unique in the sense that you get to work on unsolved problems and learn novel fields such as combinatorial game theory - nimās game etc.
We couldnāt fit the program into my sonās schedule last year but he applied and just accepted for this summer (Session 1), heās a high school junior now. Heās taking Cryptography. Iāll make sure I post after heās finished for others since there arenāt a lot of reviews.
My son finished his first week of his two week program and we have been very impressed.
I couldnāt believe it when my son told me his UM class was taught COMPLETELY by a UM professor.
Heās in a class with 16 other students and the professor teaches roughly between 9-12 am and 1:30-4:00 pm each day. What an unbelievable experience for a 17 year old!
Heās taking a class on computer based ciphers (Python) and he says itās a bit of sink or swim still (good prep for college). The class is not graded which was an important criteria for a summer program for us- as his school workload is intense and I think itās good to have academic experiences without the pressure of grades. They pair in groups of two or three often during class so they also learn from each other. FWIW- Heās not particularly strong in CS but heās taken both AP CS Principles and AP CS A and he says itās manageable. He says heās learning a lot and the professor makes the material fun and enjoyable.
He attends a magnet school during the year so heās used to being surrounded by a strong peer group and commented the other kids in this program are academically focused too. They advertise it this way (50 percent acceptance rate- but this is based on a strong group who apply) but thought Iād mention this from his experience too.
In terms of supervision after hours, they have counselors (who I believe are undergraduate students) that are very engaged. They do not have homework each day. The counselors plan tons of fun activities that they can choose from each night. I was told they have about 180 students per session. For those with girls, I asked my son if it was all boys and he said no there are lots of girls who attend too.
For those flying in (like my son), the counselors are on it. I think when he filled out his application, he used our home phone number on the application so they called us to get ahold of my son within minutes of the plane landing, and then followed up and texted him seconds after we gave them his cell number.
Since they spend 1 full weekend there, they had some great activities planned. For his session, they went to Cedar Park Amusement Park on Saturday and Ford Museum/ Greenfield Village on Sunday.
On Saturday, they were required to stay in groups at Cedar Point. My son ājoinedā the I donāt like super scary rollercoasters (heās okay with regular wooden ones etc). I think these were student lead groups but I would need to double check.
On Sunday a counselor lead them through the Ford Museum/Greenfield Village. He was in a group of 12.
His only compliant (and itās minor) is he feels like the supervision is a bit strict- they canāt go anywhere unless they are in groups of 4 on campus other than the dining hall and class. They have checks 3 times a day including one at 11 pm to ensure they are in their rooms.
As my son is in a new far away city āaloneā, Iām really happy they are doing this.
Based on his first weekās experience, I would highly recommend the program. Itās reasonably priced since it is a subsidized program by both government and industry, and this subsidized cost is available to everyone who attends (so you donāt have to have FA need). If you do have financial need though, they do have a separate application/ funding for that as a few students do attend for free.
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