u/t314s

Demographics: South Asian (India)

Intended Majors:

1. Mathematics
2. Philosophy
3. Economics

Grades (IGCSE & A-Levels):
9th: 10 A*s
10th: 10 A*s
11th: 5 As
12th: 5 A*s (Predicted)

SAT: 1550 (800 in Math)

Awards:

1. __ Best Speaker Award at the World Schools Debating Championship.
2. Selected for the IRIS Science Fair - Math category (which's the largest national fair, and last stage before ISEF)
3. __ Prize at the ST Yau Science Awards (also received a $2,500 cash prize)
4. Book Prize at the Ross Mathematics Program for Citizenship, Work ethic & Spirit.
5. High Commendation at the John Locke Essay Competition - Philosophy & Economics category.

Activities:

1. Team India Debate
2. IRIS National Fair Math research under Dr. Simon at Euler Circle
3. Ross Mathematics Program (2 years)
4. Intern under a Prof. at Wolfram at Philosophy of Mathematics Project
5. Intern at a YC backed finance + math start-up.
6. President, Student Council
7. Founder & Editor-in-Chief, School Philosophy Magazine
8. Math Teaching Volunteer & Head of Curriculum (Grade 11 & 12) at a NGO
9. Founder of an initiative which helped orphan children of military personnel enrolled in schools
10. Member & Co-head of Choreography, School Debate Society

Hi, I'm pursuing the A Level curriculum and for my AS level I got an a in all 4 subjects. I'm applying to Stanford for which I need to self-report my grades. Should I put this "a" as an A* or just A?

I go to a cambridge high-school, and we're the first graduating class so my teachers have no clue, do they send in the actual cambridge mark sheets or a consolidated one?

I gave the June SAT and got a good score, but I just realized that, for some reason, I was registered as a Grade 9 student even though I’m currently in Grade 12. Does this matter? Could it affect my college applications or cause my admission offer to be rescinded?

hi! i’m an international student applying to us universities for math, philosophy, economics. my application is pretty heavily math-focused: competitive math programs (ross, canada/usa mathcamp, promys, etc.), some unique internships, national-level debating, and other activities that make my interest in math very clear.

however, my common app essay is completely different. i write about theatre, which is one of my ecs, and how i found my voice through it after my brother died in an attack. i’m naturally pretty introverted and have always been the stereotypical “math nerd,” so the essay is about how theatre pushed me out of that comfort zone and changed how i express myself. i’ve shown it to a few teachers and friends, and they all really liked it. my concern is that it doesn’t give off a “math applicant” vibe at all.

is this actually a problem? should my personal statement reinforce the academic theme of my application, or is it better for it to show a completely different side of me?

title

I'm a high school freshman with a strong passion for mathematics. I'm currently studying number theory through a math circle, and I'm particularly interested in pursuing mathematical research in areas such as Egyptian fractions, prime numbers, Catalan numbers, and related topics.

I've been browsing the ISEF repository to get a sense of the kinds of mathematics projects that tend to do well there. This made me wonder: how does the nature of mathematical research conducted by professional mathematicians, such as PhD students, researchers, and professors, differ from the research done by high school students who win at ISEF?

I'm not referring only to the obvious differences in difficulty or technical sophistication. Rather, I'm curious about how the research itself differs. For example, are the high-school papers at ISEF just expository in nature, are they less original, etc? Thanks

I'm a high school freshman with a strong passion for mathematics. I'm currently studying number theory through a math circle, and I'm particularly interested in pursuing mathematical research in areas such as Egyptian fractions, prime numbers, Catalan numbers, and related topics.

I've been browsing the ISEF repository to get a sense of the kinds of mathematics projects that tend to do well there. This made me wonder: how does the nature of mathematical research conducted by professional mathematicians, such as PhD students, researchers, and professors, differ from the research done by high school students who win at ISEF?

I'm not referring only to the obvious differences in difficulty or technical sophistication. Rather, I'm curious about how the research itself differs. For example, are the high-school papers at ISEF just expository in nature, are they less original, etc? Thanks

Link to the ISEF Projects: https://isef.net/viewAll?category=MATH-2026&page=home

Since there are infinitely many prime numbers, there are infinitely many possible prime values of p. p. My intuition is that, because 2^p - 1 only has a chance of becoming prime when p is prime, it feels like there should also be infinitely many primes of the form. I know this isn't a formal proof, but doesn't it kinda make sense?

Hi, I'm a high school student in a math circle, and we're currently learning elementary number theory. Recently, we explored the idea of finding runs of consecutive composite numbers. We were able to construct examples of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and even 9 consecutive composite integers.

This made me wonder: what is the longest possible run of consecutive composite numbers? Is there a maximum length/ upper bound, or is it possible to find arbitrarily long sequences of consecutive composite numbers.

Hi, I'm a high school student in a math circle, and we're currently learning elementary number theory. Recently, we explored the idea of finding runs of consecutive composite numbers. We were able to construct examples of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and even 9 consecutive composite integers.

This made me wonder: what is the longest possible run of consecutive composite numbers? Is there a maximum length/ upper bound, or is it possible to find arbitrarily long sequences of consecutive composite numbers?

Hi! I'm a 9th grader, and I took the SAT in June, scoring a 1440 (800 Math, 640 EBRW). My goal is to raise my EBRW score to at least a 780. From my score breakdown, it looks like I'm doing fairly well on Information & Ideas, but I'm struggling much more with the other three domains (Craft & Structure, Expression of Ideas, and Standard English Conventions).

Does anyone have any specific tips, strategies, or resources that helped you improve in those areas? I'd really appreciate any advice from people who made a similar jump in EBRW. Thanks!

https://preview.redd.it/e21seb0sqzgh1.png?width=3420&format=png&auto=webp&s=15560fbf9a29f89703572c597cd0a45b4b2ce0c2

Hi! I'm an international student planning to self-study a few AP exams, and I'm thinking of buying the Ultimate Review Packet for some subjects. I was wondering whether the URP content changes every year. If it does, around what time of the year is it usually updated? If the content stays mostly the same, I'd rather buy it now instead of waiting. Thanks!

I'm a middle school student who, somewhat on a whim, decided to join a summer course on Introduction to Number Theory. Right now, we're learning topics like Euclid's Algorithm, Bezout's Theorem, modular arithmetic, and Fermat's Little Theorem.

At first, I found everything incredibly difficult. But as the concepts started to click and I spent more time solving problems, I began to see just how elegant and interconnected number theory really is. Now I can't help but wonder how beautiful the rest of mathematics must be if this is only the beginning. I'm genuinely excited to keep learning, because the more mathematics I discover, the more convinced I become that it's the most beautiful subject in the world.

Hi, I'm a home-schooled student appearing for IGCSE exams as a private candidate. After my IGCSEs, I plan to join an IBDP school, and was planning out which subjects to select. I've selected these till now:

1. International Mathematics
2. Additional Mathematics
3. Physics
4. Chemistry
5. Economics
6. Statistics
7. Computer Science
8. History
9. Religious Studies
10. English (idk which ones to choose)
11. Spanish

Can someone please help me with two things:

1. Which English should I choose?
2. Is taking a foreign language compulsory? or recommended?

I've been discussing this with a friend, and this is basically his view:

He argues that it was easier to make major mathematical discoveries in the 18th and 19th centuries because the total body of mathematical knowledge was much smaller. A single mathematician could understand a large fraction of the field, and many foundational ideas were still waiting to be discovered.
Today, even getting to the research frontier often takes years of study in a very specialized area. While modern mathematicians have access to far better tools, collaboration, and resources, many of the remaining open problems have already resisted generations of brilliant researchers. Because of that, he thinks making original contributions is, on average, harder now than it was back then.

What do you think?