Addition! Derivatives! Exponents! Math! It’s probably used to some extent in every single topic, job, and hobby in the world. The career applications with a degree in math are endless. Teaching, finance, economics, data analysis, accounting, truly almost every field can benefit from someone with a math degree. If you’re here, you are probably interested in studying math in college. Or maybe math is your best/favorite class. Either way, let’s talk about it.
Math is a very popular major at most top-tier schools, and popular translates to competitive. If you’re interested in studying math, you need to start taking the steps now to actualize your goals.
“But TKG, sophomore year seems pretty early to start thinking about college like this.” Bzzt. Wrong. We are wise and we know what we’re talking about. Sophomore year is actually the perfect time to get started because you’ll have enough time to explore math, find your niche, and add meaningful activities to your profile.
Identifying the Niche
Let’s first talk about the niche. It’s not enough to say that you just want to study math, that’s so broad! There are literally so many types of math. A math niche might look like “differential equations and modeling of celestial motion.” But you’re not gonna get there overnight.
We work with students one-on-one to help them figure out what exactly about math is exciting to them. We ask a ton of questions, and yes, teens are prone to just telling us “idk, it looks cool,” when we ask them what they like, but we’re really good at getting students to open up and explain what they like. This helps us take them down through the funnel — going from the big broad topic of math to something smaller like applied math to those extra niche topics within that subtopic like modeling.
Classes and Books
In order to start funneling towards our niche, we have to start learning. We come up with a personalized curriculum for each of our students, designed to help them discover what they’re interested in and go deeper with each online class and book.
If a student comes to us with interests in math and sports, we will set them up with entry-level online classes and books on those topics, as well as a class or book that talks about sports analytics. From there, the student might really be interested in baseball statistics, a la Moneyball, so we would find more material for them to explore that topic a little further. This then sets them up to start adding super meaningful extracurriculars into their profile. If they’re interested in pure math, we might have them take additional classes at a local community college. No matter the niche, we are building towards a higher level of expertise.
Extracurriculars
And now we talk about those meaningful extracurriculars! Let’s first define what we mean by meaningful. If you’re interested in going to a top-tier school, you need to make sure you are making the most of your time. If you have a lot of extracurriculars on your plate that do not fit in with what you want to study, or you just added them because you think they “look good,” it’s time to reevaluate. Common things we see students add to their profiles that do not help them very much (depending on their major) include very time-consuming activities like sports, theater, excessive community service, debate, or joining every single club at your school. You want to have things that help you explore your potential major and give you the most bang for your buck.
There are a lot of extracurriculars you can do inside of school as a potential math major. The good thing is that you can do this while you’re building your niche. You could tutor other students, join the math team (the limit does not exist!), join clubs where you can flex your math skills, like the robotics club, or write a sports analytics column for the school paper.
The most important extracurriculars you can have, however, are typically out-of-school activities. These are the kinds of things that allow you to actually explore what you’re interested in, and they also look good in a résumé. This might include doing college-level research with a math professor at a nearby school, getting a job as a math tutor outside of school, interning at a hedge fund or accounting firm, or working on an independent project. Or pulling a Good Will Hunting could be cool, too. These things need to be reflective of the niche you’re building — if you don’t like sports analytics, don’t try to get an internship in the front office of your local minor-league baseball team.
When we think about building a “math” resume, we want an admission officer to be able to know what the student is interested in instantly. That means our kids are not as diversified or “well rounded.” Rather, our math students have taken college sophomore or junior-level math classes. They’ve won math competitions. They are working alongside math professors. Maybe they are helping to push the field of math forward. And, of course, they are in charge of all math-related clubs at school (for fun).
Summer Plans
Extracurricularly speaking, summer is the most important time of your high school career. Especially as a sophomore, this is going to be your largest uninterrupted chunk of time until you get to college. Next summer, you’ll be working on college apps, so this summer, between 10th and 11th grade, is when you really need to buckle down. We know you would rather binge-watch a lot of trashy TV and play pick-up basketball games with your friends, but if you’re really dedicated to going to a top-tier school, working hard during your summer is a nonnegotiable.
Most of our math students have highly personalized summer experiences. Whether they are working with a professor, interning at a quant firm, or taking extra high-level math classes, they are pursuing their love of math.
But if you haven’t figured out what you should do this summer, we recommend applying to some summer programs. We do not recommend loading up on summer programs that have nothing to do with your interest, but we find that one or two can be really great. Most top-tier schools offer pre-college programs where you can take college-level classes (sometimes for credit) on a variety of topics. You usually get to stay in a dorm, make a lot of friends, and see a school you’re really interested in up close and personal.
Sophomore year is absolutely the best time to start. You have enough time to identify a niche and explore it, and more importantly, you have enough time to change what you want to study if you realize that math is not your thing. Starting now gives you the opportunity to explore a variety of topics and figure out what the right thing is for you.
If you want to start strategizing for college, sophomore year is the best time to start. Reach out to us today if you need help with your college prep plans.