Boston University: Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists (PROMYS) Recently Updated

Boston University's Program in Math for Young Scientists is a six-week summer program at Boston University designed to encourage strongly motivated high school students to explore the world of mathematics in a community of peers, counselors, research mathematicians. Find out more!

PROMYS is a challenging program designed to encourage ambitious high school students to explore the creative world of mathematics. Each summer, approximately 80 high school students from around the country gather on the campus of Boston University for six weeks of rigorous mathematical activity. Through their intensive efforts to solve an assortment of unusually challenging problems in Number Theory, participants will practice the art of mathematical discovery. The problem sets encourage students to design their own numerical experiments and to employ their own powers of analysis to discover mathematical patterns, formulate and test conjectures, and justify their ideas by devising their own mathematical proofs. 

Students are advised by resident counselors: junior counselors who have just graduated high school and undergraduate counselors who are embarking on their own mathematical careers at some of the finest universities (over half attend Harvard, MIT, or Princeton). In addition, the returning students, who share dormitory rooms with the first-year students, are a constant source of helpful hints and suggestions. Senior mathematicians are a constant resource providing mathematical support and encouragement to the students.

The emphasis at PROMYS is on asking good and creative questions, on hard work and persistence, on clarity of thought and precision of expression, on respect for people and ideas, and on the sheer joy of acquiring mathematical insight.  PROMYS participants are asked to work beyond their centers of competence and to push the limits of their knowledge. The PROMYS community network provides all participants with a richly supportive environment within which to learn.