Why?

“Participating in the MCM was the most fun, challenging, exciting, frustrating, and exhausting thing I ever did as an undergraduate. I participated three years: The first time, I was a barely out of Calculus, and the MCM hit me like a freight train. I was totally unprepared, utterly blindsided, and my team ended up with a Successful Participant ranking. I spent hours analyzing what went wrong, and plotting my revenge. The second year, we did better, but I still didn’t have a handle on things, and we didn’t know where to attack, ending up with an Honorable Mention. By the third year (’98), I was out for blood. I went over the previous years problems, studying the anatomy of a good paper, relentlessly preparing for the intellectual battle of a lifetime. This time my team clicked, and we annihilated the problem – receiving an Outstanding, the highest possible ranking.” Kelly Cline