Advanced College Math Major - three top 500 Putnam finishes

Deron L.

I'm a college junior at University of Michigan pursuing a math degree.

As a high school junior and senior, I tutored a middle schooler in math. We covered a wide range of topics, including class-assigned fraction problems, geometry exercises from a workbook, and abstract math puzzles. This experience gave me the chance to practice and refine my tutoring skills from an early age.

I attended Oberlin College for two years before transferring to the University of Michigan. While at Oberlin, I worked as a peer tutor for about a year and a half, assisting approximately ten students with their coursework. These were all one-on-one sessions with students who were around my age (19–22). My tutoring approach focused on teaching through examples: I would first solve a problem step-by-step while explaining my reasoning, then guide the student as they worked through similar problems on their own.
While in high school, I took AP calculus (BC, scored a 5) as well as the first two courses of the University of Michigan's honors math sequence, earning A's in those classes. During my time at Oberlin, I took Linear Algebra, Abstract Algebra, Multivariable Calculus, Basic Topology, Differential Topology, Complex Analysis, Harmonic Analysis, and Math History, receiving A's in all of them. I also led informal study groups for three of them. I was often the strongest student in these classes, which naturally led to me helping others—essentially serving as a peer tutor in an informal setting. Back at Michigan, I took graduate level Complex Analysis and Commutative Algebra. Additionally, I collaborated with professor Benjamin Linowitz to write a solutions guide for their college-level Group Theory textbook, further deepening my understanding of abstract mathematics and sharpening my ability to communicate complex ideas clearly.