Does colleges consider the score on USAMO?If they do, can this score be a hook for top schools?
Are you asking about AIME scores? If yes, then getting a 16 would likely result in an automatic rejection from most schools.
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Nope I’m a USAMO qualifier and got 16 out of 42 in the exam
The reality is that most schools won’t know what a score of 16 means, but they will know that the next selection criteria after USAMO is MOP. A score of 16 is well below the MOP cutoff in most years.
Your accomplishment is making USAMO, and for that you should be proud. USAMO qualifiers do very well in terms of college admissions overall.
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Not a hook per se, but simply qualifying for USAMO is impressive. Obviously, a 16 on the USAMO will not garner you honorable mention, but it is a perfectly respectable score. I don’t think I have ever seen a distributional breakdown of USAMO scores, but you can find individual year examples, for instance here for 2016: Microsoft Word - Document1 (maa.org)
My guess is that 16 is above the median. USAMO is obviously a very long tail test.
Definitely put down the score. A 16 places you among the very top math students in the country, and will be noticed for sure at the very top schools. Congratulations!
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Thank you! By most schools are you including top engineering schools such as mit? Lots of usamo qualifiers would apply for those so I wonder if the score can be an advantage.
Thanks! The last few years’ median and mean was both around 6 from what I’ve heard.
For the Common App, put the USAMO qualification in the Awards section and the score in the explanation.
For MIT, add it to their version of the additional information section (I forget what they call it).
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It really depends on how one defines a hook. It’s not the same as being the child of a US President, but it will give a substantial boost at schools that care about that sort of stuff. I would consider it a hook personally
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When a student receives their USAMO/USAJMO results, there is a graph representing the score distribution included in the email. I don’t think the information is made public, but I am not sure.
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MAA is not organized about releasing the data publicly like it does for the AMC and AIME series, but it seems you can sometimes find it by googling around. I linked to the 2016 results above, here they are for 2017: Microsoft Word - USAMO Score Announcement (maa.org)
It’s definitely a long-tail, high ceiling test. In 2017, a score of 25 (out of 42) was good enough for “winner” designation (generally the top 12 scores). Top score that year was 32, achieved by two students.
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In 2020, the top 12 would be 34+
In 2019, the top 12 would be 35+
Perfect scores were achieved both years.
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Putting “USAMO qualifier” would be sufficient. Getting more granular than “AMO qualifier, AMO winner, AMO Honorable Mention, MOP participant, IMO team member” isn’t really meaningful, IMO.
AMC and AIME scores are meaningful given the wide range of scores and number of participants. Once you hit AMO, not so much.
(Fwiw, same with MPfG - “Qualifier” or place if awarded. No need for a score)
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