<p>Hey I’m applying to Stanford’s summer math program. I need to get a recommendation from a math teacher and I’m not sure who to give it to.</p>
<p>There’s my regular Alg2/Trig teacher who knows I’m one her top students, but I don’t really pay attention in her class so I don’t know if she likes me personally.</p>
<p>Then I have a teacher for my AP Computer Science class. While not really a traditional math course; I’m also her top student. The reason I would give it to her is because she absolutely loves me and would give me a much better personal recommendation.</p>
<p>Divad57, if I were you I think I’d get a recommendation from each of them and send them both in. Have you taken a look at the qualifying exam for SUMaC on the program’s website? Performance on that exam counts a lot more than the recommendation in the scheme of things. Also, when I was there a whole lot of the participants had done advanced math work before coming there, and there were a good number of people who had qualified for/participated in math olympiads and such. It tends to a pretty intense group, and very diverse, with a lot of international participants. It was also entertaining and fun.</p>
<p>I began work on the exam today and got two done. It looks like I’ll be able to do all eight of them though. You just pointed out the reasons I’m not very confident in my application, I’m just on a regular honors math sequence because my school doesn’t let you test ahead. As for math contests I’m just barely an AIME qualifier. Were there any kids like me at the program? It sounds like it would be a great experience.</p>
<p>Divad, yes, there are definitely kids like you who get accepted to the program. I hope I didn’t sound discouraging–that is never my intent. Just giving the flavor. If you can do all of the problems on the exam and derive the correct solutions, you have reason to be confident. In fact, SUMaC really likes to accept students who have a lot of potential but may not have opportunities to explore math courses beyond the usual high school sequence. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m applying to SUMAC this year and am finding the maths application test very hard. I would like to know that does every one find it that challenging and on top of that, do most people who get in get most of the questions correct? Thanks so much and I would really appreciate an answer.</p>
<p>Yes, everyone is supposed to be challenged by the problems. If not, then they’re too easy.</p>
<p>People who get in solve varying numbers of problems. Give it your best shot, do whatever you can with them (even the ones you don’t entirely solve), and don’t worry about how many you finish.</p>