@theonesun333 it might help you stand out a little, but as I understand they are used to suggest things to do better next time, so follow those suggestions, and one B won’t be the end of the world from what I’ve seen.
@theonesun333 Thanks! Is it okay if you share with me some of ur stats in 8th grade like your sat,gpa, and stuff, so I know what to aim for?Also if you know anybody who did get in last year could do you share their sat,gpa, etc.? I just need to know what scores to go for.
@"#JellyJam123"
My stats:
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Asian
Grade: 8th
GPA: 4.0, all A’s
SAT: 670 math, 610 reading I am taking the SAT once again in March 2018 and hope to get a 770 Math and 670 English
Region: Chicago Suburbs
ECS:
Robotics
Debate club
STEM volunteering
Basketball
AMC 8 Math Club
Orchestra (Cello)
Awards:
Robotics state award
Math club awards (regional)
Debate award
Leadership award from STEM volunteering
Essays/Evaluations
Essays: All pretty good
Teacher Evaluations: I think I got great recommendations
Optional evaluation: Got it from robotics leader, I think that is also pretty good.
@"#JellyJam123"
I don’t know anyone who got in last year. For getting the 8th grade interview, I honestly believe it’s based on how you express yourself through extracurriculars and your essays. In my case I got an SAT score of 1280, but I know kids who got a 1400 who didn’t get an interview and even a 1370 who didn’t get it also. I would recommend that you show that you are aren’t a generic applicant in your essays. In my interview, the lady told me that my essays were a stand out feature because I my stories were interesting to read and expressed my true personality.
Thanks! I guess I’ll start working a bit on my essay right now.
Hi Guys! I’m applying for IMSA class of 2022, I was hoping if you could tell me my chances on making it to IMSA. I’m worried that my application isn’t as appealing as the other applicants. I was never the "genius’ or the “brightest” student, but I had decent grades. I’ve always had a thing for science not so much for math though. It has been my dream to get into IMSA since the 4th grade. I would love to hear your constructive criticism!
My stats:
Gender: Female
Current Grade: 9th
Ethnicity: Asian
Grades: Mostly As and Bs with 1 C
SAT: will be taking on December 1st
Activities:
- 6 years of orchestra
- Math club for 3 years
- soccer for 4 years
- badminton for 2 years
- istem currently
- science olympiad currently
- isa currently
- indian classical singing for 5 years
- 30 hours of community service
- currently in BPA (business professions of America)
- I’ve been in many imsa programs like summer @ imsa, imsa workshops, imsa fusion etc.
Awards:
-leadership award
-science award
-volunteering award
-IMSA Fusion award
Essays and Evaluations:
- I think my teacher evaluations are good
- I think my essays are pretty good
- I don’t know what to do for the optional evaluation
Questions that I have:
-What do I need to add to my application?
-How personal should I make the essays? (especially the obstacle one)
-What else do I need to do?
Hi all! I am a current Imsa sophomore (I was also a shmen) and just wanted to give some general advice and my stats to anyone wondering.
I think that the Imsa admissions process is very similar to college ones and is weighted similarly. You really only need either very good sats and strong recs or good grades and strong essays/recs. As for the essays its best to have them be personal and compelling, if you have a good “story” a lot of the other stuff does not matter. If you are strong in other things, your essays just have to be good and not compelling. As for the optional eval, only do it if it is good and adds to your app, otherwise, it will just hurt you. Overall, you want to be unique and dedicated.
My stats:
Female
Chicago Suburbs
Grades: Not actually that strong mixture of As and Bs with one C
Sat: 790 Math, 670 Reading
My essays were strong, but I didn’t have a compelling story.
My teacher evals were very good.
I didn’t do the optional eval.
Thank you! I’ll work on my essay and sat, but is there anything that would guarantee a spot at imsa?
I know that IMSA says they only take Math, Science, and English grades into the GPA, but do you think they also look at your other grades (like social studies, music, and spanish)?
@wickedstar1390 I don’t think there’s truly any way to guarantee a seat at IMSA, but I know that if you try in 8th grade, get rejected, but get an 8th grade interview, your chances of getting in in 9th grade are very high. Overall, trying in 8th grade does show you’re interested in IMSA, and can aid you in admissions.
@7bean3 For the awards, do you think an economics art award at the state level is impressive enough? Or should I put the Northwestern psat award?
@theonesun333 I asked about their acknowledgement for social science classes (but the question was specifically for AP classes) during Preview Day and the representative said that they do consider those classes just not in the GPA recalculation, so I assume they look at them more for the amount of effort you put in.
Hi, I’m currently a freshman a my high school and I was wondering what my chance are of getting in.
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
GPA: 3.75 7th, 3.813 8th, 3.8 9th
SAT: 1450 (790 Math, 660 in the reading/writing section)
ECs:
Soccer: 8 hours a week
Math Team: 4 hours a week, 8 hours if there is a competition
Chess Team: 2 hours a week
Piano: 2 hours a week
Computer Programming: 4-6 hours a week
I have around 10-20 volunteering hours in various places.
Awards:
Perfect score in Illinois mathematics league in 7th grade (so tied for 1st nationally)
Nationally tied 15th on MathKangaroo Competition
4th in state math counts competition
Went to the state competition for Science Fair in 8th grade.
Various Math awards from 7th and 8th grade.
Defensive Captain for our school soccer team that went 15-0 in our league. I have been playing for around 6-7 years of soccer.
High School Classes:
Honors Trigonometry/AP Calculus A
AP Computer Science Principles
Honors Biology
Honors English
Spanish 1
PLTW (Project Lead the Way, and engineering class)
Gym/Health
World History (I took this during the summer to get it out of the way)
Last year during 8th grade I took Honor Algebra 2 which was a college class and thus counts as high school credit.
Correction
At the bottom, Algebra 2 was a high school class, not a college one
I accidentally signed up for SAT math and lit subject test instead of the regular SAT. Will I be able to enter my subject test score in place of the regular SAT?
I’m a ninth grader, I got a 1490 on the SAT and have decent grades in pretty good classes, but I have pretty much no achievements and have done pretty much no sports. What can I do to boost my chances of still getting in?
Are you in any clubs?
Math club, but I’m not really that good at math
@wickedstar1390 Unfortunately, I don’t think that you will be able to submit scores from the SAT Subject Tests to IMSA. If you can’t take the December SAT, than you should do the March 2019 SAT. IMSA accepts the scores from the March sat.
@asdf000 sorry for the late response, imsa has a lot of homework keeping me busy 
I think that the Northwestern PSAT award is likely going to look better, but I can’t be sure and it really depends on the rest of your application and how that frames the award