Returning as a Camper

We enroll approximately 45 alums each summer, and it is our alumni campers who maintain Mathcamp's culture of learning, respect, and zaniness. We'd love to have you back! It's a simple process:

1. Fill out the sign-up form. The sign-up form is a quick questionnaire; this puts you on our radar as wanting to come to camp this summer (so we can assess how many alum spots are needed). You will also have the opportunity to apply for financial aid at this stage. When we are ready for you to register, we email you registration information. (Please add admissions 12 at mathcamp dot org to your address book as a non-spam address to be sure to receieve our messages.)
2. Register for camp. This means both filling out the online registration form (using the username/password that we emailed you after step 1) and mailing in your snail-mail package (including your tuition deposit of 25% of the camp fee).
3. Make your travel plans and enter your itinerary on the registration page. The airport for Mathcamp 2012 is Seattle Tacoma International Airport (SEA) in Seattle, WA; the closest train and bus stations to Mathcamp are in Tacoma, WA. More information on the parents page about travel.

Can all alumni return in 2012?

YES! All alumni are now invited to register for Mathcamp 2012 (including 3rd-time-in-a-row campers).

The Timeline

First, if there is a chance that you may want to attend Mathcamp this summer, even if you are not yet sure, please visit:

and fill out the form ASAP. This does not commit you (or us) to anything, but it puts you in our database and lets us gauge the level of alumni interest.

Once you fill out the sign-up form, we will either email you registration instructions (if your spot is guaranteed) or send you regular updates on your status (if your spot is not guaranteed). Don't forget to add admissions 12 at mathcamp dot org to your address book as a non-spam address to be sure to receieve our messages.

Second, registration. The registration deadline for alumni with guaranteed spots is April 30, 2012. Alumni without guaranteed spots HAVE been invited to register for Mathcamp 2012, and the deadline for alumni without guaranteed spots to register is April 30, 2012.

Third, travel itineraries. The deadline for entering travel itineraries on the registration site is June 12.

Financial Aid for Alumni

Like new campers, alumni are eligible for need-based scholarships. If you need financial assistance to attend Mathcamp, whether or not your spot is guaranteed: be sure to fill out the sign-up form (which contains a scholarship application) AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE and NO LATER THAN April 5, 2012. We will let you know the amount of assistance we can offer you as quickly as possible (typically within a week of receiving your application). This will enable you to make your decision by the registration deadline.

What's the alumni readmission policy?

Mathcamp alumni are invited to return to camp (without reapplying) up to and including the summer after their senior year of high school. In the unlikely event of overcrowding, we may have to turn away some alums; read on for the fine print.

How it works:

As an alum, you do not need to submit a new application: we already know you and we want you back.

However, as some of you are aware, in recent years we have had to confront the reality that Mathcamp is a limited resource. In 2006 and 2007, the percentage of returning alumni grew so large that we became concerned about leaving enough space at the camp for new students. Therefore, as of 2008, Mathcamp has slightly modified its policy on automatic readmission for alumni. We have tried to strike a balance between welcoming back our old students and enabling new students to experience Mathcamp. The upshot is: we still want you back as much as ever -- but occasionally, we may need to ask some of you to take a break from Mathcamp for a summer. (We hope you'll return the following year with lots of interesting new perspectives and ideas to add to the crazy Mathcamp mix. Note that at at that point your spot will be guaranteed.)

The alumni readmission policy: please read carefully!

As an alum, you are guaranteed a spot at Mathcamp unless this would be your third (or more) summer at Mathcamp, and you have not yet taken a summer off. In that case, you might still be able to come back, but your spot is not guaranteed.

If your spot at Mathcamp is not guaranteed, then everything depends on the number of alumni who want to return this year. If that number exceeds 55 (half of 110, our target camp size), then we will ask everyone for whom this would be their third (or more) Mathcamp in a row to take the summer off and do something else. There are many other excellent summer math programs, or you may even want to do (gasp) something else besides math.

If we do end up turning away all third-time-in-a-row alumni, you can request that we make an exception for you. You would need to convince us that a third summer at Mathcamp is truly crucial in your case, for reasons that are unique to your situation (not just because MC is such a great place and you love it so much). In particular, you would have to explain why another summer math program such as Ross, PROMYS, HCSSiM, or SUMaC could not fulfill the same role.

Note that in 2012, we are not anticipating a space crunch and we have opened registration to third-time-in-a-row alumni.

What if Mathcamp can't readmit all its alumni?

First of all, our guess is that this is not very likely. The only time we had more than 55 alumni was 2007, and it may well have been just a fluke. However, we should be prepared for this possibility seriously.

If your spot at Mathcamp is not guaranteed (and even if it is), we urge you to consider applying to some other summer math programs. The American Mathematical Society maintains a list of summer math programs in the US at:

http://www.ams.org/employment/mathcamps.html

Also, Art of Problem Solving has an online forum,

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/index.php?f=136

where you can discuss your options with other students interested in math, who may have gone to some of these programs in the past. Feel free also to write and ask us for advice or for a recommendation letter to help you get in.