MIT Greatest Challenge Essay: Developing a passion for math

Tell us about the most significant challenge you've faced or something important that didn't go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?

I feel that my essay topic, although meaningful to me, may be lame to others. Should I pick a more substantive issue?

I grew to love the process of problem solving

Darkness shrouded me from the danger of discovery. Graphite withered away on a cluttered plane of abandoned symbols and numbers. Light shined! My dad uncovered the blanket and was a little more than upset to find that I was working on a math problem at 1:05 AM. Since elementary school, I had thought that I was talented at math, so I was heartbroken when I was demolished at my first high school math team meet. Finding that my A's in math class were nothing compared to other students' years of MATHCOUNTS training was a harsh discovery. I was humbled, yet, my freshman year, I foolishly believed that this was just a transition period and success would come naturally. Once again, I was shocked when I barely scored above average on the AMC. Finally, I decided to commit myself to improving. By working on problems during car rides between home and school and grinding after midnight, I was able to go from barely solving an AMC problem to scoring in the top five hundred on the AIME! Yet, I never fully reached the level of the genius mathletes who took first place. But, I learned to cope with it. I grew to love the process of problem solving. No score or reward can match the feeling of getting lost in an elegant math problem that I take to my dreams, waiting for the next day to work on it. I may not be a IMO gold medalist, but I have the heart of one!

Amil, this is a representation of an interesting activity that you participated in, but provided you with a rude awakening when you began to compete at a higher level. It is a story focus that falls under the second type of discussion topic for the essay. As I read it, the story development began to come across as dry and unimpressive. Maybe because I am not interested so much in Math. However if this story is something that relates to a skill required for your chosen college major, then I do not suggest changing it. Just try to give it more life and a point of interest that someone, say a reviewer who is not very skilled at math and could care less about math-athons, would find himself interested in. Try to deliver a better explanation of how you coped with the failure since the whole point of the essay is to have you explain how you managed the situation. I don't get a real sense of that in this essay. Perhaps this is more of theoretical presentation which is why it isn't that strong when it comes into consideration with other essay requirements.

I think what you should be presenting is more of a character development situation instead. Maybe a scenario where you can prove that you were able to properly manage an event or occurrence that you thought you could not or would not be able to manage. This math situation seems a little too forced for the topic requirements. Then again, that's just me. If you can find a way to make the Math competition topic work to show character development on your part, then that would be great.