Some frequently asked questions about the Texas HMMT Teams

What is HMMT?

HMMT (formerly known as the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament) is a high school math contest held twice a year in Cambridge, MA. It is one of the largest in-person math contests in the world, with roughly 500 people competing at every meet (for a total of roughly 1000 every year). The November meet is significantly easier than the February meet, although both are very challenging contests. You can get a feel for the difficulty of both contests by looking at tests from previous years on the tournament's website.

Who is eligible to join the team?

Any student in high school or below who attends school in the state of Texas (this includes homeschoolers), and is not eligible for an HMMT November team organized by their local school/club, is eligible to join our team. Due to HMMT regional policy, no student should ever be eligible for more than one team. Thus, our region is ideally defined as the entire state of Texas, but since we cannot stop schools from forming their own smaller teams, our regional definition must exclude anyone who attends a school that does this. The schools in Texas that formed their own teams in the 2023-24 season include St. Mark's School of Texas, The Hockaday School, and Bellaire High School. Schools that have sent their own teams in previous years include the Texas Academy of Math and Science and Lubbock High School. Also, the rule about students attending school in the state of Texas (rather than residing in the state of Texas) is to avoid murky situations where someone who is from Texas, but attends a magnet school such as Phillips Exeter in a different state, is eligible for multiple teams.

How do I join the team?

If you're interested in joining any of our teams for the 2024-25 season, fill out this form! Everyone who wants to join our teams will take a Team Selection Test (TST) which is administered virtually over Zoom. This test, along with a combination of previous experience at similar contests and competitor preferences (between November and February), will be used to form our teams.

Will everyone who takes our team selection test be able to compete at the tournament?

Sadly, the answer to this is often "no". The reason for this is that HMMT has too many teams apply each year to allow them all to compete. Their solution is to use a random lottery to decide which teams are invited. In the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, every one of our teams was either accepted initially or accepted late off the waitlist. Every year, we aim to apply enough teams so that everyone who tries out with us will be able to compete if the teams are all accepted. We also take full advantage of the waitlist process, so that teams that are rejected at first may still be accepted later close to the contest date. Waitlist notifications usually come out two or three weeks prior to the contest date for November and February.

When do I find out if I get to compete at the tournament?

Organizations are usually notified of how many of their teams were accepted in early October. Our Texas team rosters are usually announced very soon after that. Waitlist decisions for the November tournament typically come out in late October, so you may not initially be placed on a team but be offered a spot a few weeks later if we get more teams in off the waitlist.

Can I compete at both November and February?

No. Due to HMMT's previously mentioned issues with not having enough space for everyone to compete, they do not allow anyone to compete at both tournaments, or even apply for both tournaments (since registration for both closes at the same time) in the same academic year.

How do I get to and from the tournament?

Students usually fly into Boston Logan airport on Friday morning, and fly out on Sunday (some in the morning, some in the afternoon if you want to go to education events), spending two nights in a hotel. Because not every team will be guaranteed acceptance to the tournament, nobody should book a flight or a hotel room until you have been placed on a team that is accepted to compete at the tournament.

How expensive is the tournament?

The cost of HMMT itself is trivial compared to the aforementioned plane flights and hotel rooms. It usually comes to about $14 per person in November and $10 per person in February, plus some extras such as T-shirts (which are roughly $10 each), and pizzas for lunch on Saturday (which are $5 each). With regard to meals, dinner the night before the contest (pizza and ice cream) and breakfast on the morning of the contest are both usually provided by HMMT for free, but students pay for all other meals out of pocket.

Should my parent/guardian come to the tournament with me?

We recommend that you come with a parent, rather than traveling alone. However, this is not required. Students who travel without parents will be responsible for looking after themselves. Whether or not you travel with or without a parent, bring a phone! Your coaches and your parents both need to be able to reach you if we don't know where you are.

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