At Putnam, students rise to the challenge
For the third consecutive year, MIT placed first in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition and dominated the upper rankings. Among 4,275 participants from 554 colleges and universities in the 2015 contest, 57 of the top 199 scorers — nearly 30 percent — were MIT students. The Putnam, a prestigious annual contest for undergraduate students in the U.S. and Canada, is highly challenging even for the math-inclined pupils that choose to participate. The highest score this year was 99 of 120 possible points, and the median score was 1, according to the recently released results. “We are tremendously proud of MIT’s undergraduates who have dominated the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition over the past dozen years,” says Michael Sipser, dean of the School of Science. “It is a privilege and a pleasure to have such talented students. Congratulations all!” The winning team was made up of MIT juniors Mark Sellke, Bobby Shen, and...