Hi, I’m a white, female girl living in central-west Illinois (my town is pracitically on the Mississippi river, five hours away from Chicago), I’m in the 8th grade right now and I’m looking to go to IMSA (Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy) for my sophomore, junior, and senior year. I did not apply this year (too late in the year to do that) and I have some questions reguarding getting into IMSA that I’m quite confused about. I would absolutely love for some people to clarify some inquires I have about going into IMSA, and help me find out my odds of going there.
First of all, my mom is also from the same town we live in now, and she applied for IMSA around my age. Do note that I don’t know what type of grades my mom got, nor do I know how IMSA worked +20 years ago, but I just wanted to point that out that she didn’t end up getting in (well, she was put on the ‘waiting list’? I’m not sure what she means about that, but it isn’t like she can answer all these questions about a place she applied to go to 2 decades ago).
Second, as I said before, I’m an 8th grader and right now I’m in my 3rd quarter of school. I’m student council president here, and I’m also in the school’s programming and drama club. Last year, I was in drama club and art club. I’m also active at my local theatre, but I’m not sure if outside-of-school things are accounted for in the application process. I’m a teacher’s assistant with our 8th grade engineering class, which is Automation and Robotics. I am an avid computer and robot programmer.
I’ve been on high honour roll all my years of school, I typically get As, althought I’ve gotten a few Bs on the way. Since I have this semester and my first semester of 9th grade to make up for it, I’m planning on getting nothing less than an A through that time. I have pretty good attendence as well. I’m in several credit-baring highschool classes, as of right now I’m in English I (normally taken freshman year), Geometry (usually taken sophomore year), and Spanish II. Next year I will be taking English II, Algebra II, AP Biology, AP World History, and Spanish III, as well as electives like Computer App. and Website Design. I’m not sure if MAP or ISAT/PARCC testing is evaluated during the selection process, but I score above a senior in highschool. I haven’t taken the SAT yet, but I imagine I will do well on it. If people could clarify what would be an ideal SAT score for getting into IMSA, that would be great
Here are some of my questions:
+I haven’t taken a high school science course yet, as it’s not allowed at my school, I get straight A’s in science, but my school doesn’t allow 8th graders in an honours science course. Next year, the year I am applying, I will be taking AP Biology as stated before. Will that count as the required highschool science course to apply? Or will I need to take a highschool science course online?
+What classes are shown on the grade report? Just science, math and English? Or all of them?
I would really appreciate if people who want to go to IMSA/have gone there/are associated with IMSA in any way answer my questions, thank you!
And P.S., are there any other schools in Illinois that I can go to other than IMSA? Like another public boarding school like IMSA? I would like to apply to more than one, just so I have some chance at getting a better education than the one here (our schools in my area have very bad resources and teachers). Once again, TY!!!