I was a top student in America.

Chapter 94 The Battle to Win Over Talent (Second Update, Please Subscribe!)

One second, Professor Jensen was still smiling happily at Li Ao's grades.

But the next second, upon hearing Professor Carlson's words, his heart sank, and he realized something was wrong.

It's obvious that this guy has also set his sights on Li Ao.

He immediately cleared his throat and turned to Carlson: "Professor Carlson, Princeton admits enough good students every year, doesn't it? We should at least leave a few for other schools."

Professor Philip chimed in unhurriedly, "Actually, Leo had already promised Professor Jason that he would do research in his group during his twelfth year. It would be a natural progression for him to stay at the University of Chicago afterward."

Philip knew perfectly well what was going on.

UIUC's math department is certainly not bad, but its overall reputation can't compete with the two top universities, the University of Chicago and Princeton.

Therefore, although he also thinks highly of Li Ao, he has no intention of forcing his way in and competing with these two companies for the talent.

Moreover, staying at the University of Chicago is not far from UIUC, and there will still be many opportunities for collaboration in the future.

But Princeton is different.

Carlson glanced at Philip, unyielding: "Professor Philip, I disagree. Since you went to the University of Chicago in your twelfth year, you should have a new environment for your undergraduate studies. For mathematicians, a change of scenery might bring new inspiration."

Muller stood aside, silently listening to the American professors vying for the students on the spot.

He couldn't get a word in edgewise for a moment, and his expression hadn't quite recovered.

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name: 10 ...

During the bet just now, he did guess that the American team had produced a remarkable student this year, but getting full marks on all six questions was completely beyond his expectations.

The same thought kept replaying in his mind.

Despite the difficulty of this IM0 test, the boy didn't lose a single point, and even wrote two solutions for the most difficult third question.

Müller couldn't help but think of Peter Schulz from his national team.

Schultz has participated in the IMO four times and his competition skills are already superb, but this year he still lost a point on the third question and missed a perfect score.

Then look at Leo, who got a perfect score in his first IMO and is now being fought over by several top university professors.

The top-tier academic resources are already laid out, waiting for him to choose.

Muller's emotions were complex, and in the end he simply shook his head slightly: "Truly a genius."

However, the matter was basically settled at this point, and all that remained was to confirm the scores according to the procedure.

When the results are announced at the closing ceremony, Li Ao's score will surely cause a sensation.

Getting a perfect score on this level of difficulty is already rare, and with those two brilliant solutions to the third question, the first place with a perfect score is practically a foregone conclusion. Even the "Special Award," which is specifically for recognizing extremely ingenious solutions, is essentially a foregone conclusion.

Just as Muller was about to leave to continue processing the materials for score coordination, Philipp's cell phone suddenly rang, interrupting the argument in the meeting room.

"I'm taking this call."

Philip took out his phone and put it to his ear.

Hearing the voice on the other end of the phone, his tone immediately softened: "Leo? What's wrong calling at this hour?"

Upon hearing Leo's name, Jansen, Carlsen, and Muller all turned their attention to Philipp, abandoning any pretense of politeness.

No wonder, after seeing that perfect score exam paper, no one could remain indifferent to that name.

Moreover, players rarely contact their coaches at this time unless there is an emergency.

Suddenly, Philip's eyes widened, unable to hide his joy: "What did you say? — Okay — Okay, I understand."

He said "okay" several more times before hanging up his phone.

Looking up, I found several people staring intently at me.

Why are you all staring at me like that?

Jason was the first to lose his temper: "Quick, tell me, what happened? It can't be a call asking about your scores, can it?"

Carlson also said, "Your reaction just now was even greater than when you saw a perfect score paper."

Philip smiled and stopped keeping him in suspense: "It's nothing major. Leo's short paper on discrete averages of convex functions has been accepted by the Journal of Applied Mathematics Letters and will probably be published online soon."

Philip knew the quality of the manuscript, so its acceptance was expected, but it happened much faster than anticipated.

But these words carried a completely different weight in Müller's ears. He immediately pressed on in heavily accented German English, "He also published a paper? Which journal were you referring to?"

Before Philip could speak, Carlson had already taken a step forward, his face full of surprise: "You accepted it so quickly?"

Carlson had previously given Leo a few suggestions regarding the problem of "discrete average of convex functions".

At that time, he thought it would be quite good if Leo could slowly organize his thoughts into an article after the IMO ended.

But now, just over a week later, I suddenly heard that Leo has not only submitted his paper, but has even received an acceptance notice.

Even Carlson could no longer remain calm.

Philip didn't look at Carlson, but simply waved his hand and casually replied to Muller, "It's published in the *Journal of Applied Mathematics Letters*. Just an ordinary paper."

He tried to downplay it as much as possible.

But it's not very useful.

Carlsen and Muller's expressions of surprise remained unchanged, and the conference room fell silent.

Originally, it was thought that getting a perfect score on an IM0 was already genius, but who would have thought that this was not even his most significant achievement.

It's absurd enough that a first-year student can publish two papers, not to mention that although the Journal of Applied Mathematics Letters is not the top journal in the field of mathematics, it is still a legitimate SCI journal with a wide reach and considerable influence.

It is definitely not some filler publication.

"It's quite extraordinary for a high school student to publish in this journal."

"All of my doctoral students have had their short papers rejected by them," Carlson shook his head, directly citing his own students as examples.

Muller was also completely intrigued and eager to know what Leo had written in his report.

"Which direction?" he asked.

"The discrete averaging problem of convex functions," Philip continued, giving a more specific answer. "Leo proposed a new method for handling discrete average estimation under two-dimensional weights and also provided a way to control the boundary terms. It has potential applications in numerical analysis and discrete optimization."

Carlson thought for a moment and asked, "Then you must have spent a lot of time polishing it for him, right?"

In Carlson's view, even if a high school student's paper is logically sound, its rapid acceptance must be due to extensive revisions by their advisor.

Of course, this is nothing unusual; it's common for professors to show students their manuscripts.

If this student is still a high school student and can write something of this caliber, the instructor will only pay more attention to them.

"You're mistaken, Carlson," Philip chuckled. "Leo did send me a first draft, but it was clear, logically sound, and I could hardly find anything to change. The structure was already very complete."

Jason, who was standing next to him, also came to his senses and said seriously, "I can testify to that. His previous article on the H-H inequality was the same. I basically didn't change anything. I can't even find fault with the formula layout and format."

Carlsen and Muller's expressions changed immediately upon hearing this.

It took Carlson a while to recover, and he exclaimed, "This is the first time I've ever heard of something like this."

He reacted quickly, immediately steer the conversation back to admissions: "Princeton's undergraduate admissions for next year haven't even started yet, and I have to suggest that the committee focus on these kinds of academically promising geniuses. Leo would be a perfect fit."

"Leo has already agreed to come to my place for a project in his twelfth year. He'll stay at the University of Chicago afterward, so you should give up on that idea as soon as possible."

Jason decisively refuted this.

He had finally found a promising talent, and he couldn't let him be poached right under his nose.

Before Carlson could respond, Philip, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke up, his expression serious.

"Professor Jensen."

He cleared his throat. "Well—actually, our UUC's math department is pretty good too."

"Most importantly, the tuition is cheap, and there are even reductions or exemptions. I heard that Leo's family isn't very well-off financially—"

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