I qualified for the AIME in 9th grade, but my chances aren’t looking so hot right now in 10th grade. Do colleges really care about the number of times you qualified for AIME? I’m aiming to qualify for USAMO next year, which looks like a long shot; however, if I do, will this overshadow the fact that I didn’t even qualify for AIME as a sophomore?
I just want to find this out now so that I don’t feel screwed in the middle of my junior year or when it’s too late.
No. Most successful applicants qualified zero times.
Depends on where you’re applying and the details of the situation.
At a vast (vast!) majority of schools, qualifying at all will differentiate you from almost all applicants and put you in a top group where additional success wouldn’t make much of a difference.
If you’re applying to MIT, then qualifying once at the 103.5 cutoff of last year’s 10A would probably be viewed differently from somewhen who was DHR for three years. But you’d still be in a high achievement group.
That level of differentiation probably applies to a single digit number of schools. I’m only aware of two that even request AMC and AIME scores.
In your odd hypothetical, no, no school is going to look at an AMO qualifier and say “yeah, sure, but s/he didn’t qualify for AIME as a sophomore”
Thank you!