Math Camp?

[amyvt98]

While I'm sitting here in purgatory, waiting for responses from schools, I've been thinking about what my summer is going to look like. I've seen a few references to summer math programs that, I'm guessing, would take place the summer prior to enrollment in a political science PhD program. Can anyone shed light on whether this is a thing that programs require? I'm an older applicant with school-aged kids, so I'm trying to figure out what types of commitments are likely before August 2019 and how I might fit them in with other commitments (assuming I get in somewhere, of course!)

[Dwar]

Hey!

Ive only seen that on one program that I applied to, and it seems like they are generally a week or two in length. For the Oregon program they say that the math camp is about two weeks before classes start. Now what that actually entails within those two weeks, like what time commitment within the day, im not sure. I guess after admittance they'll talk more about it?

Also, and this may only be the case for Oregon, but it seems like there is an option to get out of the math camp if you take a test and receive high enough scores on it. not sure what those scores are, or if this is a universal thing, but you should definitely check if there is some way to test out of the math camp requirement.  

[amyvt98]

Hi there, stranger  . And thanks! I actually wouldn't mind spending a few weeks brushing up on math since it's been an age since I've taken a math class. Just trying to figure out what to expect in terms of time commitment. Two weeks is totally doable.

[eggsalad14]

I think most places I've seen that have math camps have them for around a week, I think right before classes start. 

[TheBunny]

Boston University has a 2-week math camp before the semester starts as far as I remember.

[eggsalad14]

It's also worth noting that a lot of schools don't do math camps, and instead throw you in a math for social scientists seminar with the rest of your cohort where you go over the traditional math camp stuff but probably in better detail 

[CarefreeWritingsontheWall]

It really depends on the program. As mentioned, some have a camp that is 1-2 weeks, some have a semester long class, some have both. 

For reference, Princeton does both - in addition to 2-3 months of paced review over the fundamentals of calculus and real analysis in the summer prior to starting. A friend at Cornell had a 10 day camp. Emory has a short camp and semester long course (math for social scientists). 

A number of programs also do intro to programming camps, though like math the timing and structure differs. If students are spending their first semester on the fundamentals of probability and causal inference, then sometimes the programming camp is at the start of their second term when they finally get to work with software. Alternatively, Harvard does their math and programming camp at the same time. I've heard more often than not of this mixed approach. It's not hard to find equivalent websites for other programs.

Google pulled up syllabi for math camps from the following institutions pretty easily:

UC-Berkeley

UMichigan

MIT 

Stanford (Justin Grimmers Github has everything from last summer)

UT-Austin

Pretty much all of them are not an all day affair - they can only hope you learn so much during such a short time (I personally forgot pretty much everything - I just didn't have the time to practice until we were manipulating equations during the semester). 

Hopefully this is helpful.  

[amyvt98]

13 hours ago, CarefreeWritingsontheWall said:

Google pulled up syllabi for math camps from the following institutions pretty easily:

 

Very helpful - thank you! I googled the same thing for the schools I've applied to (Maryland, Georgetown, GW, and AU), and see a few oblique references to map camps on ABD student resumes, but nothing specifically addressing dates or details from the schools themselves. All four schools have their first day the week of August 26. Do you think it's safe to assume that things will start up after August 10? We're trying to squeeze in one last week at the beach before school starts.

[CarefreeWritingsontheWall]

7 hours ago, amyvt98 said:

Very helpful - thank you! I googled the same thing for the schools I've applied to (Maryland, Georgetown, GW, and AU), and see a few oblique references to map camps on ABD student resumes, but nothing specifically addressing dates or details from the schools themselves. All four schools have their first day the week of August 26. Do you think it's safe to assume that things will start up after August 10? We're trying to squeeze in one last week at the beach before school starts.

As a side note, if math camps are on ABD student resumes, it's likely because they helped lead it.

In terms of timing, assuming camps will fall around August 10th assumes many other things - like acceptances (sorry to be blunt about this...just being honest). I honestly don't know and can't say anything with certainty about the timing of math camps for any of those programs. Luckily August is ~8 months away, so you should feel more than safe planning your trips closer to the beginning of Spring (say in 2-3 months) when you have a sense of what's going on for you - and this is still 5-6 months before you need to plan any moves or trips which gives you plenty of time to find a good deal on a particular destination. 

Best of luck with your applications!

[amyvt98]

1 minute ago, CarefreeWritingsontheWall said:

As a side note, if math camps are on ABD student resumes, it's likely because they helped lead it.

In terms of timing, assuming camps will fall around August 10th assumes many other things - like acceptances (sorry to be blunt about this...just being honest). I honestly don't know and can't say anything with certainty about the timing of math camps for any of those programs. Luckily August is ~8 months away, so you should feel more than safe planning your trips closer to the beginning of Spring (say in 2-3 months) when you have a sense of what's going on for you - and this is still 5-6 months before you need to plan any moves or trips which gives you plenty of time to find a good deal on a particular destination. 

Best of luck with your applications!

Yes, I realize this is putting the cart waaaaay before the horse - should have said that earlier. I'm a planner, what can I say? Thanks for the input!

[megabee]

Math camp is generally 1-2 weeks of voluntary morning and afternoon lessons before the start of the program. It is not a substitute for the math for social scientists course that you will take your first year, as the previous poster implied. Instead, math camp prepares you for taking that course.

My own math camp experience was mostly a crash course in calculus. Integers, derivatives, partial derivatives, CDF/PDF, etc. The course also had some some basic probability, stats, and set theory/set theory notation. The first day of math for social scientists assumed that we had all taken the course, and did not go over these things. If you do not have a strong background in these fields -- i.e., if your most recent math experience was taking the GRE -- you should plan to attend math camp.

[dagnabbit]

In my experience, math camp serves two purposes that have nothing to do with math:

1. It allows incoming grads to transition back into "academic mode" - attending lectures, doing assignments, et cetera - before formal courses begin. This seemed to be especially useful for those in my cohort who had been out of school for a while.

2. It's a great bonding exercise. You spend a lot of time with your cohort, grab drinks/food after the lecture, and start to build friendships. I think this is really the most important part of the whole exercise, and thus I would strongly encourage all incoming grads to attend (even if your math + programming chops are already very strong).