About the contest
The High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM) is a 14-day team-based modeling contest run by COMAP. Teams of up to four high schoolers pick one of two real-world problems and submit a single 25-page PDF that defines, models, solves, and communicates a solution.
The basics in one minute
| Organizer | COMAP (Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications) |
|---|---|
| Team size | Up to 4 students from the same school or approved program |
| Advisor | One faculty/staff advisor required; may advise unlimited teams |
| Choice | One of two open-ended problems: Problem A or Problem B |
| Window | 14 calendar days — work whenever you like inside the window |
| 2026 dates | Wed Nov 4, 2026 3:01 pm EST → Tue Nov 17, 2026 9:00 pm EST |
| Deliverable | One PDF, ≤ 25 pages, English, ≥ 12 pt font |
| Fee | USD $100 per team, non-refundable |
| Results | Posted by end of February 2027 |
| Where | Online — anywhere in the world, teams from 20+ countries compete |
Timeline for the 2026 contest
| Phase | Date / time (EST) | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Registration deadline | Wed Nov 4, 2026 — 2:00 pm | Advisor registers each team; $100 per team |
| Window opens | Wed Nov 4, 2026 — 3:01 pm | Advisor logs in, downloads both problems |
| Work period | Nov 4 – Nov 17 (14 days) | Choose A or B, model, write, iterate |
| Solution deadline | Tue Nov 17, 2026 — 8:00 pm | Stop editing the PDF |
| Submission deadline | Tue Nov 17, 2026 — 9:00 pm | PDF must reach COMAP's submission form |
| Receipt confirmation | Nov 18–19 | Advisor verifies receipt via the login page |
| Results announced | On or before Feb 28, 2027 | Award level posted; certificates downloadable |
Award tiers, in plain English
Every team that submits a valid paper is awarded a designation. Here's roughly how the pyramid breaks down, based on COMAP's published commentary:
| Tier | Approx. share | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Outstanding | ~1% | Best of the best in final judging. May be published. Invited to IM²C. |
| Finalist | top ~5% | Reached final judging; exemplary papers above standard requirements. Invited to IM²C. |
| Meritorious | top ~20–25% (incl. above) | Excellent across modeling, analysis, conclusions, and communication. Invited to IM²C. |
| Honorable Mention | next band | Above-average effort, sound modeling and analysis, some weaknesses. |
| Successful Participant | large band | Concerted effort, but incomplete responses or some modeling/analysis weaknesses. |
| Unsuccessful | — | Did not adequately respond, or visited prohibited websites about the problem. |
| Disqualified | — | Rule violation (plagiarism, posting work online, outside help, etc.). |
For first-time teams a realistic stretch goal is Meritorious; many first-timers earn Honorable Mention or Successful Participant — that's still a strong result and a great foundation for next year.
The contest rules (the ones that matter most)
- Team membership is locked when the window opens. You can't swap a teammate in on day three because someone got busy.
- No outside help. You may not ask any human outside your team for ideas, feedback, or data interpretation. That includes your advisor, other teachers, other students, experts, parents — anyone. Violating this disqualifies the team.
- Inanimate sources are fine, but must be cited. Books, journal articles, Wikipedia, datasets, code libraries, websites — all allowed, all must be referenced.
- Do not post or share any part of the problem or your solution publicly during the window. COMAP actively monitors the web; teams have been disqualified for posting in chat rooms, Discord, Stack Exchange, Reddit, Weibo, etc.
- Anonymity. No names of students, advisors, or institutions on any page of the PDF — only the team control number and page numbers.
- Format. Single PDF, ≤ 25 pages total (including summary, table of contents, references, appendices), ≥ 12-point readable font, English.
- One submission only, and clearly identify which problem (A or B) you solved.
- AI use must be disclosed. In addition to inline citations, append a "Report on Use of AI" after the 25-page paper. That report has no page limit and is not counted.
What's inside the 25-page PDF
This is fixed by the rules and by judging convention. Treat it like a checklist:
- Page 1 — Summary Sheet (use COMAP's template; one page, executive-summary style)
- Table of Contents (counts toward the 25 pages, but worth including)
- Body of the solution — the actual work
- One-to-two-page letter/article/blog for a non-technical audience (asked for in most years)
- References (counts toward the 25 pages)
- Appendices (counts toward the 25 pages — code dumps belong here, sparingly)
- Report on Use of AI (not counted; only if AI was used)
The Paper page walks through each section with concrete examples.
How judging actually works
Judging happens in two rounds:
- Preliminary round. Each paper is read and scored by at least two judges from academia and industry. Papers are ranked into Successful Participant, Honorable Mention, Meritorious, or Finalist. All "Finalist" papers go to the next round.
- Final round. A small panel re-reads finalist papers and selects ~1% as Outstanding. Two of those Outstanding teams (one per problem) receive the NCTM award.
All judging is blind — no school or student name is visible. There is no "answer key"; the same problem has many valid solutions. Judges score on completeness, creativity, mathematical sophistication relative to high-school level, and clarity of communication.
Problem flavor — what shows up
HiMCM problems are open-ended, real-world, and almost always require you to operationalize a fuzzy concept (sustainability, popularity, environmental impact, evacuation efficiency, invasiveness). The judges expect you to build a model that takes messy inputs and produces a useful output (a number, a ranking, a recommendation, a plan).
Recent problem topics, just to give you the feel:
- 2025-A: Optimize emergency-evacuation sweep strategies in multi-floor buildings.
- 2025-B: Recommend the most environmentally sustainable host city for a future Super Bowl.
- 2024-A: Decide which sports/disciplines belong in the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
- 2024-B: Forecast the environmental impact (carbon, water, e-waste) of high-powered computing.
- 2023-A: Model the spread of dandelions and an "impact factor" for invasive species.
- 2023-B: Plan a 10-year transition of a metropolitan bus fleet to electric.
- 2022-A: Honeybee colony dynamics and pollinator demand for a 20-acre crop parcel.
- 2022-B: Fit models to atmospheric CO₂ and predict global temperature change.
Full text and modeling outlines for all of these are on the Past problems page.
If you do well, then what?
- IM²C (International Mathematical Modeling Challenge). US teams that earn Meritorious or above are invited to compete in the IM²C US regional round (March–April). The top two US teams represent the country in the international final.
- NCTM Award. Two HiMCM Outstanding teams (one per problem) are recognized by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
- Publication. COMAP may publish all or part of Outstanding submissions in Consortium, their newsletter.
One last reality check
About 1,000 teams enter each year, from 20+ countries. Many teams are coming back for a third or fourth attempt. Your goal in year one is not to win — it's to write a complete, honest, clean paper that addresses all the prompts and demonstrates real modeling, not magic. If you do that you'll be in the top half of all submissions. The rest comes with practice.