I am a Chinese boy and a junior in U.S high school. This year I get 144 on AMC 12 A and 12 on AIME I. How much will my math accomplishments boost my chance to get into MIT?
Maybe MIT’s rock star Chris Peterson will weigh in. That’s a pretty darn good AIME score. Only 138 students earned a 12 and higher, and only 80 earned higher than a 12 on the AIME I just looked at. So you certainly have very strong math skills. But you are not a math score and, anyway, MIT does not admit scores. It admits students. So the entire student’s record is relevant. My guess is you’d be very attractive to MIT if your entire record was a positive one. MIT would probably not be the least bit interested if they felt you would not be a good fit to the school or if you were not a nice person or if you weren’t interested in anything but, say, getting high scores on math competitions because such a person would not fit into MIT’s culture. But assuming you have a positive application, I’d think you would be an attractive candidate to MIT.
Thank you for your answer！MIT asks for the AMC score in the past two years on the application. I actually study for AMC for about 1 year. I got like 40 on AMC 12 B in my sophomore year. Do you think I should list my last year AMC score to show my great progress and my learning potential?
You’ve posted numerous threads with the same question. Yes clearly you should list all your achievements when significant.
I’d say its a good accomplishment which speaks positively and effectively about your math skills, though it adds slightly enough, and not too much, since they’d (at MIT at least) rather want USAMO’s and higher for a clear impression, especially if u’re an intending math maj.
This doesnt mean u wont get in, but its a good/great accomplishment at best. Nothing eye opening or unique in its way…
Again, it all depends on how well it fits in ur appl. as whole, and how well and strong ur other parts of the appl. are.
hope this helps. PM me for any further questions
I am a USAMO qualifier this year, but I didn’t do well on the USAMO…
@tomli1225 That is obviously fine, but ive PM’ed u the specs regarding that.
@TheGuy1 thank you soo much!
@tomli1225 NP
The kids from our school that have made USAMO/USAJMO have done well with admissions.
Among the most recent recipients, one is going to MIT, another to CalTech, and the last one is deciding between some Ivy and a full-tuition scholarship at a top-20 school.
@hebegebe This comes with the clause of how the rest of their app was. Maybe its a coincidence, maybe not. I have known many who didnt get in Class of '22s and '21s with USAMO qualifiers. (3 for '22 and 1 for '21)
True, and note that only 1 out of 3 was admitted to MIT.
But looking at the history of students from our school with those qualifications, almost everyone did well in terms of elite college admissions (i.e. end up at top 20 schools, and most often top 10).
@hebegebe Oh yeah oops sorry.
Also, this holds true for MIT equivalents as well. What ur doin; is god, but nothin’ is guaranteed. If they see use for u in the class overall, ur in. If ur seen as a replacement, ur WLed, otherwise…
@tomli1225 Congrats on your USAMO qualification. I can’t help but notice you said you went from a 40 to a 144 in one year. That’s amazing. I’m actually a softmore right now with a rather low amc score, but i’m hoping for a score as good as yours. If you could, can you spare me any tips?
(Really sorry that my post is off topic.)
@Starray You could take some AOPS courses and study the AOPS volume 1 and 2. Practicing previous tests is also very important. Just practice and practice more! There is no shortcut and I wish you can do well this year!
@tomli1225 thank you! And good luck on your college applications. They only pick 300 USAMO qualifiers each year, which means you are part of the top 300 math students in the US. Splitting them between all the great colleges, as long as the rest of your college app is decent, you’re bound to get into one of them.