Epsilon Math Camp

[Dokhiyeh]

Dear all

I am wondering if anyone has any experience with Epsilon Math camp. My daughter (7 years old) is very much into math and was just leveled up by one grade in an already advanced math enrichment program. I am thinking of sending an application for the Epsilon Math camp next summer and am curious about experiences with regards to the application process, chances of admission (e.g. does a high IQ test and strong recommendation letters almost guarantee admission, or is it still competitive?), and the overall experience with the camp. Really appreciate it if anyone could share their experience.

[Jackie]

My kid did all three years of the program for 9-11 year olds, but didn't do any of the program for younger kids. From what I saw, the two levels are pretty different in their approaches so our experience is unlikely to be helpful in making a decision for you. If you happen to be part of Davidson, you might ask in any of their forums; most Epsilon kids are DYS.

When we attended, if a child met the criteria, they were generally admitted into the program. My understanding is that there has been an increase in the number of applicants in the last couple of years, which makes it a little more competitive to gain entry.

I think C&!'s age range generally starts around age 9, but that's another one for you to keep an eye on. campersand.org

[Dokhiyeh]

Thanks a million dear Jackie. The fact that you returned to the camp several years by itself is a positive indication for me. 
Apologies for my ignorance, but what is Davidson? I live in Canada and am not familiar with many US based institutions/groups. 
Thanks again:)

 

[Malam]

On 9/16/2024 at 8:18 AM, Dokhiyeh said:

Thanks a million dear Jackie. The fact that you returned to the camp several years by itself is a positive indication for me. 
Apologies for my ignorance, but what is Davidson? I live in Canada and am not familiar with many US based institutions/groups. 
Thanks again:)

 

It's a US program for gifted children and their parents: https://www.davidsongifted.org/gifted-programs/young-scholars/

[Cake and Pi]

One of my boys did the younger kid program, Pythagoras, when he was 7yo (2019). It was pretty chill and very enrichment-y feeling, not particularly rigorous. They built and played with Soma cubes, played SET, worked out some interesting math riddles, played with some classic problems like the Konigsberg bridge problem, worked on some binary arithmetic, etc. He was radically accelerated in math and really didn't need that kind of enrichment, so the biggest benefit of Epsilon was being around like-minded peers and seeing that other kids who loved math existed.

However, he's in-your-face autistic with significantly lagging self-reg skills, so he struggled with the behavioral expectations and unfortunately didn't find "his people" there; he just wasn't socially/emotionally mature enough to interact productively with the other kids without a ton of help. In retrospect we probably shouldn't have attempted to go that year. The camp expects the 7-8yo kids to stay well-regulated in a loud, busy classroom full of other kids and lots of fun math all day long, 5 days a week for two straight weeks. It's *intense.* Probably would have been much more realistic to expect if he were "vanilla" PG or even just a high-masking variety of autistic.

Also, most of the socialization opportunities were in the evening, and he still *needed* a solid 10.5-11 hours of sleep at that age, so he (and I!) always missed all that in order to make it to bed on time. 

Two years later in 2021 he did Euclid level online. That was a much better fit for him academically, but it lacked most of the social interactions due to being online (thanks, covid). He did enjoy it though, and asked to return the following summer. It didn't work out due to a younger sibling's health crisis, but that's life.