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Lafayette’s three-student team has finished in the top 10 percent of schools participating nationally in the 2006-07 William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition.
The College placed 33rd out of more than 400 teams. Princeton University, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were this year’s top finishers. It is now the sixth year out of the last seven that a Lafayette team has finished in the top 15 percent, including a 5 percent finish in 2002.
The six-hour exam consists of 12 questions, each worth ten points. This year’s test was extremely challenging as more than two-thirds of the 3,640 participating students received a score of 0.
Each school has one “official” team of three students chosen before taking the test. Jinjin Qian ’08 (Shanghai, China), who is pursuing a B.S. mathematics and an A.B. with a major in economics and business, ranked 239 with 30 points. Shiliang Cui ’09 (Shanghai, China), who is pursuing a B.S. mathematics and an A.B. with a major in economics and business, scored 21 points for a rank of 342. Aydin Gerek ’07 (Istanbul, Turkey), a mathematics major, was ranked 937 with eight points.
Although they were not on the designated team, mathematics majors Frankie Patane ’07 (Mullica Hill, N.J.) and Jordan Tirrell ’08 (West Grove, Pa.) both ranked 747 with 10 points each.
The math department sponsors a Problem Solving Group that meets each week to discuss and solve mathematics problems, which helps students prepare for the Team Barge and Individual Barge competitions, the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) Math Contest, and the William Powell Putnam Mathematical Competition.