For myself, I had a lot of practice in Middle school w/ MATHCOUNTS, and I was good at it since I placed for regionals. Actually, ICTM was much more straight-up and less problem solving than MATHCOUNTS. Actually, all 4 of my other teammates got exactly 10/20. First practice this season, everybody was like, “I’ve never seen this kind of Algebra before”, but with enough practice, it isn’t too hard
You guys had practices? We were just handed the tests once a month after school or on the weekend.
What is mathcounts? My middle school didn’t have it.
So, my coach just gives out all the practice tests from 2005 - 2020 and the worked-out solutions (which really aren’t specific) through google classroom. During meetings, we practiced the team rounds, specifically the 8-person and calculator teams. We were expected to practice the individual tests by ourselves
MATHCOUNTS is a nationwide math competition, with Chapter (regional), State, and national competitions for middle-schoolers. It’s pretty competitive though, since there aren’t too many competitions for middle schoolers. Much larger-scale than ICTM
Hmmm, it seems like some schools don’t really care about STEM. Our school held a meeting once a week.
Hello! I am a 6th grader who is interested in applying for IMSA as an 8th grader. I am not completely sure where I should start as far as building my skills to be a considerable applicant. The only extracurricular that I continued forward for the past couple of years is the violin. I play in one youth symphony and one chamber ensemble. I am a south Asian female interested in a STEM based career in the future. As far as my grades, they are all A’s and maybe 1 or 2 B’s per quarter. I am in accelerated math as well. I currently go to a middle school in Barrington IL, and I don’t know many people who have attended IMSA from there. If anybody can help or give me some advice, that can really boost my start.
Thanks,
Swara.
Hi, I was in a similar place as you in 6th grade, except I played in a youth symphony here in Central Illinois, funded by Illinois state. Here’s a list of things you could do:
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Math Team: you might’ve seen above, but there is something called MATHCOUNTS. Your school might not have a math team, but that is even better. My sister created a math team in my middle school when she was in 8th grade, and that was one of the big things on her resume when she got into IMSA. Try to place the top 3 in Regionals (Chapter) as well. Idk how competitive it is in your area, but it really shouldn’t be too hard.
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I play the violin as well, but try to practice it a lot and become a concertmaster for your school and symphony. This isn’t as important, but I was concertmaster for my school all 3 years and concertmaster for the symphony last year, so it’s just another thing to add to your resume
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FLL/FTC: This could look good on your resume if you’re interested in STEM (and it’s really fun as well). These are the robotics leagues, and I’m sure your local town has a few of these teams. Look for teams to join over the summer since the season starts close to when school starts. I would recommend FLL since it’s kind of the basic stage, and much easier to get awards if you do good (FTC and FRC don’t have age limits, so you have to go against high schoolers). Just qualifying for state looks good, or some leadership positions within the team.
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SAT: You’re in 6th grade, and although SAT is waived this year, it probably won’t be later. SAT scores aren’t too important, but I’m pretty sure the enrolled average student has about a 1280 - 1300 SAT, so try to aim above 1350, or 1400 to look good.
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School: probably the most important is what kind of student you are in school. The teacher recommendations are crucial, as well as your GPA. How teachers evaluate you would be a big factor. As for GPA, the enrolled average is something like 3.9, so crazy high. I’m not sure, but your GPA and awards are only counted starting from 7th grade (if you’re applying as a 9th grader), so you chose the right time to ask this question
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Sports?? - Totally unnecessary, but if you want to be healthy and stuff while adding things to your resume, I would recommend it. Do something low-commitment, not like soccer or basketball, but something like Cross Country or Track, and try to make Varsity.
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Awards aren’t really necessary, and it isn’t too hard to get accepted without any of the things above - people without awards get accepted, and THE MOST important is probably your essays. BTW - Just placing in Regionals will look good and better than the average applicant.
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You can scroll up and see what kinds of stuff I did, it’s like, the 70th posting if you scroll
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Thanks so much for the info! I have another question, do you think they might cut some slack for the distance learning year? I stayed home from the beginning of the school year to now, those B’s were a result of that. Will that look bad on my application? Can that be a done deal for me?
Gosh little one no!!! B’s arent the end of the world! During online school all our grades went down, that’s a fact. Also while your at home you could have easily cheated and got an A. It shows character and honesty to get a lower grade this year. In my math class for example, I got a B+ which was my worst grade in math. Given that, its probable I didn’t understand the material, right? Wrong. I learned so much more from the B+ I got this year then I have in the past 2 years where all my grades were A’s.
Your grades from 6th grade don’t count. Additionally, they would cut you slack if everybody’s grades took a hit, but most people still maintained A’s. Getting an A would show that you can still overcome situations like this with excellence, not getting a B and then saying you had a hard time, especially for something like the pandemic, which everybody took a hit from. - that’s what I think, but know that most kids have an A despite the pandemic. If it was something like your relative passed away, or family issues, but the pandemic is different. Everybody was put in that disadvantageous situation, and some people were still able to make it out.
btw - when officers look at your A on the transcript, they don’t think that you cheated, so there is nothing bad about getting an A
B’s aren’t the end of the world though lol
Thanks! I didn’t necessarily do bad. Our school gpa’s are out of 4.0. Here are my (so far) gpa’s per quarter.
Q1: 3.875
Q2: 3.750
Q3:3.667
I don’t have Q4 because the school year isn’t over yet. I have a majority of A’s the classes I took. These include my rotational classes like Art, Drama, STEM. I aced stem lab, but not so much drama lol. That was my worst grade of the entire year. I got a C+ at the end because it was a group grade and my friends did nothing lmao. I am guessing that that won’t matter too much because 1. It’s Drama, and 2. I don’t know how much they value 6th grade grades.
My school used Standards-based grading all throughout middle school, so I don’t really know my GPA on a 4.0 scale, but my grades this year was 4.0. As for group projects, I’m sure everybody in this forum knows that pain. Just carry the group.
Also, they don’t even ask for your 6th-grade transcript for IMSA. Use 7th grade to improve yourself. GPA can always be achieved with effort. I don’t know what it’s like to be in Chicagoland, but try to be top 3 in your class in school.
I’ll be honest here, I’m an IMSA student right now and out of the entire application process, even for college applications, GPA can be one of the lowest factors they consider when looking whether or not to admit you. Every school is different, whether it’s through difficulty, class availability, and overall IMSA won’t look at someone with a few B’s and say, “Hm, I think they’re underqualified.” When I applied, I had ~4 B’s from freshman and middle school, yet I got in compared to someone with a 4.0, which really says how much IMSA values passion. Passion > extracurriculars, and especially with this pandemic, a lot of students haven’t been able to immerse themselves into extracurriculars. At IMSA, the students that excel the most are the ones with passion, so I would say the biggest focus on your application should be the essay
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I don’t know if I’m the only person to have commented on this thread that’s actually at IMSA, but with decisions coming out soon, I thought it’d be useful to share some tips:
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When decisions come out, start connecting to upperclassmen! Especially on instagram, you’ll see a lot of people with IMSA in their instagram bio’s so request to follow them and they’ll immediately start connecting with you!
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Placement exams. Don’t stress about these either. Enter the placement exams with your CURRENT knowledge on math and language. I had a friend who studied trig/pre-calc hoping to get into a higher math class, and they did, but they did extremely bad in that class because a few questions on the placement exam dictated that they were ready for a class they ultimately weren’t ready for.
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If you’re waitlisted, DO NOT WORRY EITHER! A lot of people actually end up declining their effort, and EVERYONE i knew who was waitlisted ended up getting a call late may-early summer that they were welcome to join IMSA.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask 
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Just curious, but doesn’t that just defeat the entire purpose of extracurriculars? You might know better than me, but passion isn’t shown just on a 500-word essay. If that’s true, why would somebody do extracurriculars as a long-term commitment for hundreds of hours a year if they could just talk about it and write about it to be more effective? I thought extracurriculars and passion went hand in hand, not separate because you shouldn’t be doing that extracurricular at all if you aren’t passionate about it. If your passion is only on your essays, that isn’t really a real passion.
I agree with you. Extracurriculars further showcase that you’re willing to do something in this specific field for 100s of hours, which is definitely a showcase of passion and even talent. I wouldn’t say they’re hand in hand though, you have a lot of people who end up doing extracurriculars because they think it’s impressive (which it is, don’t get me wrong) but eventually when you apply to colleges (not necessarily IMSA i guess) they don’t want someone who has 13 extracurriculars but can’t manage to show passion in a 500-word essay. Now I definitely think there are extracurriculars worth doing that are pretty blatant showcasing of passion and excellence, like Mathcounts and Math team, but what you want to avoid is doing extracurriculars solely thinking that they’re going to show your passion in something, because it’s easy to involve yourself in those things (most of the time). On paper is when admissions officers get to see you and go deeper into your passions
Oh my god I keep forgetting I made this thread! Every time I check back I am astounded by how many views it has I didn’t expect this :). Anyways I am still working on my high school level science class as an eighth grader and I am not halfway done but I applied anyway back in February. They didn’t reach out to me or anything but I mentioned that I was taking this class in my application. Does anyone know if this is going to prevent me from getting in?
yes same i am an eighth grader as well and my stats are quite terrible so im doing the same as you and just trying to get to know the application process. i got a 1260 on my sat (720 reading and 640 math - yikes). i have a 4.0 gpa but i’m not in the highest class but the one below that so uhh the odds are kinda against me since a lot of people from the higher class have better stats and are also applying .-. i did a lot of extracurriculars in the past years but i barely was able to do any in 2020 bc of covid, and im not sure if im alone on that one. on top of all that i am asian and i live in the schaumburg area so i dont really win any diversity points either but i am really just counting on my essays and passions at this point since i’m really strong in those. anyways if we don’t get in, we always have next year :’) sorry for the late reply lol i should be more active on here considering i made the thread
Quick question for everybody - How has Covid-19 affected your extracurriculars?? For me, other than not being able to do Robotics, I have been able to keep coaching my middle school math team through zoom, Math Team met weekly for me through zoom as well, and Speech, Golf, FBLA, etc. haven’t been affected for me. The two big things were Music and Robotics for me, and I was really disappointed because I was in a symphony for 5 years and I finally made Concertmaster through auditions my last year, and I couldn’t perform.