Hello guys!
I completed sending my applications to US universities by January 2020.
I wrote the AMC on January 30th and I got a 145.5/150. (Lost one question) Do any of you think it is worth reporting this score to schools I applied to: cornell, duke, brown, dartmouth, stanford, caltech, umass amherst, minnesota twin cities.
If I plan to report it, what is the earliest I should send it to them?
An early reply would be highly beneficial. Thank you.
Yes, of course you should report that score. A 145.5 on the 12A falls somewhere within the top 50-100 scorers in the world, depending on the year.
I am guessing this was not a one-off occurrence, though. Did you not take AMCs in your freshman, sophomore and junior years? How about AIME scores from prior years, do you have any? Have you already qualified for the equivalent of the USAMO in your home country?
If you provide more context about your prior mathematics achievements, people on here could give you some more specific advice. Your score should help a little at all of your schools. I would think it would have the most impact at Caltech. In recent years Caltech has not attracted the very top talent in mathematics as it once did, and while a 145.5 alone is of course not the same as competing in the IMO, still I think it would have some small additional benefit at Caltech.
Congratulations on the fine score! And kudos for you for knowing enough to omit the one question that you were not certain of.
@OneMoreToGo2021 Thanks for your reply.
In my junior year of high school, I scored as 130ish on the AMC 12. I was first in my country for that specific year of testing. I also scored a 8 on the AIME the same year.
Beyond this, there are a bunch of other national math olympiads I did very well on. I reported all this in my applications to universities. However, since the recent score is a pretty decent increase from my previous exam, I was wondering if it would be a good idea to report the same.
A lot of local college counselors are sceptical if I should report this score to all universities or exclude a few. So, any insight into which universities really care about the AMC will help me make an informed decision.
That helps, @ani2661. I can see both sides here, whether to report or not, but I think on balance I would report the score to all schools. Just a quick update. My gut feeling is that it will not make much of a difference in the full context of your achievements, but you never know just what might put you over the top and into the admit column.
If you want to know which schools care the most, I still think Caltech. Again, just a gut feeling, but I think Brown and Dartmouth would care the least. Duke has “poached” top math kids away from Harvard and MIT in the past with academic scholarships, so maybe math ability is more highly favored there then one might imagine.
For the others, it can’t hurt. I say a quick update with your score to each of them.
That is a great score - but official results are not out yet.
I know students self calculate based on the released answers but its not official - I am not sure if you can report a result that is not yet officially released.
Yes, I’m not aware of results being released (AoPS Forums would be buzzing) and they likely won’t be for at least a week or two. HR/DHR names are published (f initial, last name, location), so the data is easy to check. You should wait until the official results are issued before notifying anyone.
If you’ve already been DHR and scored 8 on AIME, I suspect an additional score like this won’t make a huge difference, but it doesn’t hurt to send an email with the updated data.
Just to add to the above: MIT admission officer who is active on these threads once mentioned that they get a copy of the AMC/AIME results and for high scores they do check sometimes - so I would strongly advice to wait until official score is released and verify that your projection is correct; then send a quick update. Congratulations on a (possible) great score.
PS: my son is also projecting to get a good score and possible DHR - he is eagerly waiting for the official results to confirm and possibly update admission officers at tech schools (only a few colleges care for these scores). He qualified to AIME multiple times but never had DHR recognition in AMC12. So fingers crossed.
@hs2020dad Sure, I will wait until my scores are confirmed before informing MIT and other schools on my list. MIT has the “February Updates Form” which is due on Feb 15th. So, I was eager to send them the projected score in the form by mentioning that this was the unofficial score.
Anyways, would you mind giving a few examples of the colleges that care about AMC scores. I know CMU, Caltech and MIT take these scores seriously. However, I realised that CMU does not allow you to update them on any achievements post the application submission.
I strongly feel the DHR will be around 118-120 for 12A and 114-116 for 12B. Good luck to your son.
I normally agree with your assessments on AMC tests, but this time I disagree. A 145.5, if accurate, is a spectacular score, and much more impressive than DHR and an 8 on AIME.
@ani2661, as others have said, wait until you get confirmation of your score. And then send an update to everyplace except UMass and Minnesota.
@ani2661, AFAIK the colleges that give consideration/importance to AMC scores: CMU, MIT, CalTech, HarveyMudd. Others may still appreciate it as well - especially if you are going for a math major.
Yeah…AoPS agrees with your DHR predictions. Son’s projected is 132. He scored an 8 in AIME last year. Good luck to you as well - again that is an awesome score - keep it up, you will do great wherever you end up.
Awesome score, congratulations!!! I would think any college that you want to attend would value that score. Good luck on the AIME and hopefully the USAMO.
Anyone got AMC scores yet?
Son got his AMC12A score over the weekend through an email from teacher.
(btw he got his best score yet - no surprise from his projected score - just a confirmation; hopefully its good enough for DHR and competitive for USAMO)
How valuable is DHR and a high AIME score relative to USAMO? I just barely missed the USAMO cutoff but made DHR (with a score of 135+) and got a 9 on AIME, so I’m curious if MIT, Columbia, Yale are extreme reach or still worth applying to?
As with GPA, SAT, etc., it’s a continuum, not a step function. Higher scores are better. 1.5 points below AMO qualification isn’t substantially different from a score that’s 1.5 points higher. Just like breaking into the “magic 1500s” on the SAT with a 1500 isn’t really different than a 1490.
If (just making up numbers) AIME qualifying helps an application 10% and AMO qualifying helps 50%, then a score just short of AMO will help 45%, not just 10%.
If schools are an extreme reach based on GPA, course rigor, etc., I don’t think a high AMC/AIME will substantially change that. It’s an impressive achievement in an extracurricular activity, but at the end of the day it’s still “other data”.
But if you’re in the interquartile range for the key metrics, it’s additional “other data” that will certainly improve your application portfolio.
GPA is highest in school (but we don’t rank)
SAT: 1580
Course Rigor: 14 APs + 2 College Courses before I graduate
ECs: pretty strong (I’ve attended quite a few prestigious STEM programs)
Sports: Not good enough to be recruited
Main Weaknesses: Little volunteering, no major leadership position (head of a club, math team, and hopefully the varsity tennis team, but nothing impressive)
Thanks for the advice. I’ve had a few people tell me differently. Why do you think its a continuum, do you have any experience with math competitions/college apps?
I was an AHSME award recipient (AMC/AIME predecessor), my kids have been involved in MC/AMC/AIME for 5 years, I’ve assisted with our local math circle, along with two IMO medalists and the coach/assistant coach of the US IMO team, and have helped at ARML at Penn State for two years.
I’ve been involved in admissions with two kids over the last 6 years, attending a large number of admissions sessions, tours, etc., served as a recruiting champion at a T20 school for 10 years and on the alumni committee for the same school.
As well as participating on CC, Reddit, and others for years.
So I do like to think I’m reasonably well informed.
You are 100%, I’m sorry for doubting