Question about AMC12/AIME scores

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hello, I am an international applicant and I am very interested in studying at MIT. </p>

<p>I am a prospective math/computer science major, and I have done a lot of math related activities/competitions, but my relatively low AMC12 and AIME scores worry me (I took the AMC12 for the first time in Junior year and qualified for AIME, but I don't know what happened to me for both those test dates - I just didn't perform as well.) </p>

<p>My scores are better than the average(?) ( but trust me my scores are really not too impressive) but it does not seem to align with the other math competition prizes that I have won. I got awards from local math olympiad and participated in big olympiads like APMO and regional olympiads in China (as well as Int'l ones like the British Math olympiad, ASMA, Canadian open contests, purple comet, etc). I have also been a part of my country's IMO training team from this year. In addition, I have taken part in other math related activities (contributing to a local university's math journal, programming math applet, math club, etc) and I am planning to stress that in my application. </p>

<p>Would the admissions officers find my AMC12/AIME scores to be a discrepancy when they review my application? I have been interested in math and math competitions quite late (got really interested in math since grade 9/10 - before I wanted to be a writer and was a more 'humanities' type of person), but I was very passionate, found more opportunities for myself and improved very quickly in a short period of time. I have had many ups and downs in my competitive math experience, and I think AMC/AIME were one of the competitions that I did not do particularly well on. </p>

<p>If I do explain this well in my application, will the MIT admissions officers be "okay" with my AMC/AIME scores and just not place too much importance on them for my application? </p>

<p>Thanks for reading and I really appreciate your comments.</p>

2

<p>I am sure they will be understanding and take your other math competition performances into account. We’re all human and have bad days.</p>

3

<p>If you have AMC scores that would qualify you to take the AIME, then your AMC/AIME scores will not hurt you in your MIT application.</p>

4

<p>I had some inconsistent AIME scores as well (an 11 followed by a 4 the following year). I put a small addendum why I didn’t list the 4 (mostly because I was ill).</p>

5

<p>lol if you’re part of China’s IMO training team
have fun at MIT</p>

6

<p>I didn’t read the original post in full. You are better off not explaining why you had a lapse in performance. One of the criteria for admission is not being to hung up on your own mistakes.</p>

<p>You sound like an excellent candidate, even in the demanding international pool.</p>