<p>Can someone tell me what these things are, how competitive they are, how you enter them, and when?</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Mathematics_Competitions%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Mathematics_Competitions</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Invitational_Mathematics_Examination%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Invitational_Mathematics_Examination</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAMO%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAMO</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOSP%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOSP</a></p>
<p>AMC is a qualifier for AIME, which is a qualifier for USAMO. I would say that its safe to say that the majority of MIT applicants and admits that take the AMC qualify for the AIME, but very few qualify for the USAMO. Being a USAMO competitor is quite prestigious.</p>
<p>I, as a '11 admit, took the AMC as a Junior, qualified for the AIME and got a 2 on it. (The cutoff was 6 points on the AIME for USAMO last year)</p>
<p>This past year, as a senior, I was semi-sick for the AMC, and only got a 97ish out of the 100 points required to qualify for the AIME.</p>
<p>Very competitive, much more so than the other big academic olympiads.</p>
<p>Making USAMO has gotten easier over the past few years though as the number of participants has been expanded to 500.</p>
<p>I had never even heard of these until looking at the MIT application. you said most have qualified for the AIME. What sort of disadvantage am I at for never taking these. I did score 800 on math II (I know it's not that big of a deal, but it's something).</p>
<p>I don't think you're at a disadvantage. It just means you're not as into math as others. They'll still think highly of you if you have the goods elsewhere.</p>
<p>(1MX, we're both on CC way too much.)</p>
<p>
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you said most have qualified for the AIME.
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No, he said (emphasis mine)
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I would say that its safe to say that the majority of MIT applicants and admits that take the AMC qualify for the AIME...
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I don't believe a majority of applicants have taken any of these tests, although they're not uncommon in the applicant pool. It's great if an applicant has taken them and done well, but it's not held against people if they've never heard of the tests.</p>
<p>true words, he who softened MIT... or he who thinks MIT has softened. :)</p>
<p>Haha, no, it's just my email address. :D I always did like that mollis meant soft when I took Latin in HS.</p>
<p>
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Making USAMO has gotten easier over the past few years though as the number of participants has been expanded to 500.
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I wouldn't totally agree with that. I also think the mathematical abilities of the general math students have also increased (like how college admissions are getting more competitive), due to more awareness promoted by sites such as AoPS. So in the end, I think the difficulty of qualifying didn't change that much.</p>
<p>
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The cutoff was 6 points on the AIME for USAMO last year
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That's only for sophomores and below.</p>
<p>I'm not yet buying the AOPS rhetoric because I don't know if the rate of increase is that rapid. But yes, AOPS has been a huge factor in promoting math.</p>
<p>Of course, it's not AoPS alone. Many kids at my school now take math competition classes from a college professor. I'm sure this is also the case in many other places. The increase at AoPS is simply an indication of an increase in number of people who study hard for those tests.</p>
<p>I used to be naive, and once, I believed that USAMO was the holy grail of MIT admissions. But unless you get to MOSP, it really doesn't affect chances a whole lot</p>
<p>^ i really doubt that. getting into USAMO is extremely difficult...I would think it'd be even better for schools like MIT that emphasize math</p>
<p>^Yeah. That's what I thought. But then I got waitlisted and, even after they decided to accept 40 people off the list, I still wasn't accepted..</p>
<p>It was probably my interview..I dunno really.</p>
<p>It's definitely not as prestigious as many people think it is though, particularly because real mathematics is, just, different from competitions.</p>
<p>Without a doubt, "real" research mathematics is very different from olympiads. In olympiads, you know the problem has a solution and you just need to find it. In research, you have no clue if your approach to a problem is the correct one, and sometimes, you don't even know if the conjecture that you're trying to prove is true or not.</p>
<p>asiaknight, there are people who qualify for MOP and still get rejected from MIT. I have a good friend who got into USAMO but was also rejected from MIT. He ended up going to Princeton instead, which sure isn't bad. Where are you going (or at)?</p>
<p>^Competition math also requires very little ingenuity when compared to actual modern math. Whereas remembering a few tricks can get you pretty far in competitions...i.e. Fermat's Little Thm, mass points, etc - really trivial little facts... research (or even classroom) math requires a much deeper understanding of the subject. So, really, math competitions aren't really the tell-all of ability, though, in many cases, they are pretty close approximators.</p>
<p>I go to UofC</p>
<p>
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true words, he who softened MIT... or he who thinks MIT has softened.
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</p>
<p>Glad I wasn't the only one who thought of the Latin imperfect form molliebat when I saw that email :)</p>
<p>Yeah there was someone who made MOP and got deferred during the '11 admissions cycle. Just goes to show that being an exceptionally talented mathematician still doesn't guarantee you a spot.</p>
<p>ye no one said it gaurantees a spot but i still think it's a great help. Ok, maybe it's not a hook, but if everything else is good in your app including essays, ECs, scores, then it can make you a very compettive applicant and can seal the deal. Ok so you dont get into MIT, you'll probably end up somewhere else really good anyway with USAMO.</p>