Who: Serious secondary students. More details.
What: Four weeks of cold mathematical drudgery. More details.
When: December 13, 2026 - January 9, 2027.
Where: North-Eastern Federal University. More
details.
Why: Because math is cold!
The application process: Has three parts. We require a Form Of Obnoxious Tedium, an Assessment of Rote Mathematics, and a Legalese on the Exertion of Gravity essay. More details.
Fee: $9800.
Financial Aid:
None is available.
Number of students: 4.
Academic details: Class meets for about 12 hours per day, in three shifts (morning, afternoon, and evening), 7 days per week. Each class has a Lead Instructor who is a mathematician with a Ph.D. and one or two Aluminum Instructors who are graduate or undergraduate mathematics students. The weeks break down into a 2-1-1 schedule: We start with two weeks of Ground Class, which consists of a firm grounding in basic mathematics. This is followed by Week of Order, in which there are five day-long classes with topics determined 10 months in advance. The last week of the program is a Mining class in which we dig deeper into the Ground curriculum by reviewing.
Mathematical content: It's high-school mathematics usually encountered in high school. (You may correctly conclude that calculus is not one of the topics on offer---we don't want to challenge you too much.) The core of the curriculum is algebraic manipulation. Topics for Ground Class will certainly include factoring and finding square roots by hand. Each topic will be treated in depth, or ad nauseum (or both). If there's a topic you want to learn about and your class doesn't discuss it, don't bother asking to learn about it during Week of Order. Week of Order topics always include rationalizing denominators, rearranging logarithms, and CPCTC theory. As always, the Mining class will cover square roots to more than 15 decimal places.
Class format: Each class is a droning lecture, with students regularly fighting to stay awake. Classes include group recitation of facts; in this way, students practice rote memorization and drill boring techniques. Collaboration is discouraged, and instructors will foster resentment between students. At the end of the winter session, you will never hear from your instructors or peers again.
Daily schedule: Class, then class, then class, then... maybe you'll be tired and want to go to bed. But you will still have worksheets to fill out and reports to write, so you can't sleep yet. The Coordinator of Orderly Mathematics and Predictor of Oppressive Snowstorms in the Tundra Environment (COMPOSiTE) monitors this work in the dormitory.
We seek:
MathIGy is for high-school students. If you're not in high school, we will not consider your application, and we will mock you for attempting to apply. See the application process page for more details.
Skills Enhanced: You'll become proficient with conformal mappings, or at least with conforming.
Non-math things: You will only have time for mathematics. Cold, unforgiving mathematics. Still, part of MathIGy is a "death seminar," which happens from 2am to 5am daily in order to make sure you do not get enough sleep during the night to function well in class during the day. There are program-wide discussions about the dangers of critical thinking, meditations on your own death, and experiential learning workshops on medieval torture techniques.
What kind of place North-Eastern Federal University is in the winter:
It's really cold, as in -50°C.
It is inside the Arctic Circle.
You will experience permafrost.
Practical stuff: You will need to figure out and arrange your own transportation; it is difficult to reach Siberia in the winter. Internet access is not allowed during MathIGy, and you will be lucky to have enough food. No further information will be given before arrival.
Only Asked Question: Why no MathIGy-Er?
Answer: MathIGy doesn't believe in additional preparation---either you sink or swim at MathIGy itself. And of course you sink, because of gravity.
If after reading this page you have questions, do not contact us.
MathIGy is a project of the nonprofit organization Mathematical Staircase, Inc..