Math Isn't For Girls? Contest At MIT Says Otherwise

NEW YORK, Sept. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- More than 250 middle and high school girls from across North America are converging on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge, Mass. this weekend to compete in the sixth annual Advantage Testing Foundation Math Prize for Girls, the largest math prize for girls in the world. The contest encourages young women with exceptional potential to become the mathematical and scientific leaders of tomorrow.

Launched by the Advantage Testing Foundation in 2009 and held at MIT since 2011, the Math Prize for Girls awards more than $50,000 in cash prizes to the top ten scorers.  Participants, who this year range in age from 7^th to 12^th graders, qualify by earning a top score on the American Mathematics Competition exam in February of the competition year. At the competition event, contestants have 2.5 hours to complete 20 extremely challenging multistage problems, with results reviewed and prizes determined by a panel of judges from MIT and the Advantage Testing Foundation.   

"It is imperative to bridge the gender gap in math and science so that the best and brightest women as well as men reach their fullest academic and professional potential," said Arun Alagappan, founder of Advantage Testing and president of the Advantage Testing Foundation. "Even as we help empower young women to believe in and express their abilities, we are helping build a more robust group of leaders in the STEM professions, and a more competitive economy as well."

In addition to the annual competition and cash prizes, the Advantage Testing Foundation's Math Prize for Girls aims to build an active social community for young women considering a career in math, providing ongoing support, a Facebook page and a blog site for contest participants.

"Girls perform as well as or better than boys in math classes in grade school, but there is an alarming drop-off in the number of young women who study math in college and pursue math-related careers," said Dr. Ravi Boppana, the competition's co-founder and director. "We created the Math Prize for Girls to help debunk gender stereotypes, and to support young women who see higher-level mathematics as a pursuit that is challenging, fun and incredibly rewarding."

For more information on the Math Prize for Girls competition, please visit http://mathprize.atfoundation.org.

About the Advantage Testing Foundation

The Advantage Testing Foundation is a nonprofit organization formed by Arun Alagappan, president and founder of Advantage Testing, Inc. The Advantage Testing Foundation advances the proposition that increased inclusiveness and socioeconomic diversity in higher education will result in an influx of talent, creativity and energy to the nation's leadership pool. Through innovative programs and partnerships, the AT Foundation helps students pursue their academic and professional ambitions and promotes new ways of thinking about access to higher education. It is the public service arm of Advantage Testing, widely regarded as the nation's leading private tutorial and test preparation service. Drawing on the academic and institutional resources of Advantage Testing and generous public support, the Advantage Testing Foundation provides tutoring, test preparation, scholarship resources, financial assistance, merit-based scholarships, and academic and professional counseling to help students achieve optimal results in high school, college, graduate and professional school, and beyond. For more information, please visit www.atfoundation.org and www.advantagetesting.com.

SOURCE Advantage Testing Foundation