MIT to Host Math Prize for Girls Competition

This coming Saturday, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will host the Math Prize for Girls competition sponsored by the Advantage Testing Foundation. More than 250 girls will compete for $49,000 in cash prizes.

The competition is open to any girl in Canada or the United States in grades 11 or below. Most of the competitors are in high school but some are younger. In order to qualify for the competition, students must score high on an entrance examination.

A preliminary round will be held in the morning with students asked to answer 20 mathematical problems. The top 10 scorers will compete on stage that afternoon solving problems to determine the top finishers.

The first prize winner will receive a cash award of $25,000. The next nine top competitors will receive monetary rewards and the top 30 finishers will receive trophies.

Update: Victoria Xia of Vienna, Virginia, won the $25,000 top prize at this year’s competition at MIT. She is a tenth grader at Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. Danielle Wang of Campbell, California, and Julia Huang of San Jose, California, each earned runner-up prizes of $7,500.

Here is a video made a last year’s competition in New York.