Sending AMC scores?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>Hello. I'm a bit concerned about sending AMC scores to MIT - I don't know which of the following I should be listing, if at all.</p>

<p>In 2009, I got a 117.0 on the AMC 12, while getting a 3 on AIME.
In 2010, I got a 94.5 on the AMC 12, while getting a 5 on AIME.</p>

<p>Which of the following should I be writing down? Or will these scores (they are subpar when compared to MIT students, I know) negatively impact my decision?
I guess what I'm really asking is: just how important is the AMC? </p>

<p>Thank you in advance!</p>

<p>P.S. I got a 138 in AMC 10 for 2008, but I don't think I took AIME then.</p>

2

<p>Just list your highest scores for everything (117 AMC-12, 138 AMC-10, 5 AIME). These are by no means poor scores, even in relation to MIT’s applicant pool! I was accepted with a highest AMC-12 score of 111 if that’s any comfort. Really, listing AMC scores such as these can only help you. Best of luck!</p>

<p>Out of curiosity, why didn’t you take the AIME that year?</p>

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<p>Hi - My son just took the AMC 10 this year for the first time (he’s a high school sophmore) and got a 87, which I think is about the top 22% this year. </p>

<p>He is taking precalc, didn’t prep individually, never heard of AMC 8 and hasn’t done any extracurricular Math online or in Math circles - I’m considered very weird where we live that I even know about that sort of thing. I’m not sure how to view the score. On one hand, he usually scores higher than ‘top 20%’ on tests, but of course, kids who take AMC seems like a very strong, and very well prepared, bunch of Math students, so maybe top 25% is a very good score after all.</p>

<p>Anyway, I had sort of been thinking that MIT and Caltec were out of reach admissions wise, although DS definitely has a ‘spark’ so maybe not, (he really was suprised at how much fun he had taking AMC) my real question is - would a kid who scores similarly to my son be ‘lost’ at MIT (more than average- I do get it that the majority of MIT students ‘aren’t in Kansas anymore’ and have to re-adjust) should he somehow manage to get accepted? </p>

<p>Or to put it another way, is he ‘smart enough’ that with a reasonable amount of hard work he could do as well as most other kids?</p>

<p>thanks in advance, and appologies if this is a questions that just can’t be answered.
PS</p>

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<p>@ParentSparkle - you should read the thread above titled something like “Do normal people get into MIT”. I will say that if he gets admitted, it means that he can do the work. They’ll tell you that over and over but I was also very, very leery when my son was accepted last year. He’s definitely one of the “normal” kids - 10th in the class, not first, 32 ACT, never even took the SAT. Did well in classes and enjoyed science but certainly wasn’t an USAMO anything. He took the AMC12 as a senior for the first time and I think scored in the upper 80’s. He’s also one of those people who (like the t-shirt says) “go to school because my friends are there!” </p>

<p>That said, so far at least, he’s been fine. The classes haven’t been harder than he was expecting but the workload has been WAY more. Literally I’d stay he probably studies around 6 hours a day (he never studied in HS). But he also pulled a 4.5 (on a 5.0 scale) last semester, while many, many of his friends failed at least one class. I can’t say what happens down the line but since something like 97% of people graduate - if your son gets in, it means they know he can do the work. If he has the “spark” that may be the difference between getting in and not - honestly. My younger son was recently accepted EA to both Caltech and MIT in December and I think he got a 92 last year on the AMC. He takes it again tomorrow. But the bottom line is that obviously that’s not the main indicator of success - in terms of getting into, or succeeding at, MIT!</p>

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<p>@marciemi - thanks for the data points! I did skim the ‘do normal people get in’ which got me thinking ‘gosh, what happens to those normal people to do get in?’</p>

<p>I’ve seen that 97% number, and I have to admit that I’m suspicious about it - seems so very high. From what I remember as a college student (not at MIT) over 3% transfered for financial reasons alone. (Does it include transfer students, for example?) </p>

<p>And what about all those stories I’ve heard about kids dropping out from playing video games - or should I say, playing video games while they wait to drop out for other reasons?</p>

<p>I guess 3% of a lot is still a lot - if an average Freshman class is 1740, then 3% is more than 50 kids, which is a lot if you are one of those kids, or one of their friends. </p>

<p>Sorry for thinking aloud - perhaps rambling a bit. Anyway, that’s wonderful news about both your sons and I’d love to hear any thought process you have about how you are going to help - if at all - your younger make up his mind.</p>

<p>A friend once sung an MIT song, and I remember this part the most:
“An MIT surveyor once found the gates of Hell
He looked the devil in the eye, and said “You’re looking well”
The devil looked right back at him, and said “Why visit me -
You’ve been through Hell already; you went to MIT!””</p>

<p>I can say that part of my educational path had a similar effect on me, and I really value (now) having the sort of confidence that completing something so personally difficult can give a person. If you had asked me at the time, I would have sang a differnt tune, because it was very painful. I’m also not sure, as a parent, if I have the stones to urge that path on my child. Which is of course why he’ll be doing the picking, not me. My job is to get back to work and get the money ready. </p>

<p>Anyway, thanks for the reassurance!<br>
Smiles,
PS</p>

6

<p>What people have in common here is that they are passionate, not that they are passionate about math. A lot of people are doing very exciting things that do not require higher level math. I’m a “math” major, and I have no intention to take real math classes beyond statistics, probability, and computational biology. I took the AMC for fun. I have no idea what my scores were, and I did not list them on my MIT application.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>This is a good question. It’s hard to predict performance at MIT by extrapolating from high school or classes at other universities, which I guess gives MIT Admissions a really tough job. I can’t tell you if your son will get easy As here or struggle for Cs, because a year and a half in I still haven’t figured that out for myself. It does seem to me, though, that many people struggle in some subjects and excel in others, and that some semesters go better than others, with dramatic variability. It also seems that MIT is more about taking advantage of opportunities outside of class than the classes themselves. It’s hard to compare people when one person is doing research and another person is writing novels, or even when one person is doing research in cognitive science and another person is doing research in computational biology. At MIT, you are very much an individual, and the path you take will be completely independent of that of your peers. No undergrad is exempt from the opportunities MIT provides. What you achieve here is an entirely personal thing, as is whether or not you feel lost.</p>

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<p>@ParentSparkle - feel free to PM me if you have any questions as you start to move into the process. I’m slowly learning a lot about MIT through my older son and looking forward to our Caltech trip in April with the younger!</p>

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<p>

97% is actually the freshman retention rate – the percentage of freshmen who come back as sophomores. The six-year graduation rate for the most recent group was 93%. (Data at [Common</a> Data Set](<a href=“MIT Institutional Research”>MIT Institutional Research).) As far as I know, students who transfer in are not included in these calculations, since they did not enter as part of the “fall 2004” cohort.</p>

<p>

Not that it matters, but the typical class size at MIT is more like 1000-1100 rather than 1800.</p>

<p>For what it’s worth, MIT does provide quite a bit of support for students who struggle, and there’s a lot more of an academic safety net at MIT than at, for example, my brother’s state school. Thinking of students I know who didn’t graduate, one left because she was homesick for Texas after freshman year, and another left because he developed a serious medical condition. I can only think of two students I knew who left for academic reasons, and one was able to continue doing work at her local state school and eventually petitioned to be admitted back to MIT to finish her degree. The other had that option, but chose to stay at his local school.</p>

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<p>I know (as in, am friends with, not just know of) six students who have had to leave MIT while I’ve been here. Two left because of bad grades, and so far one has been readmitted. One left because of depression that started freshman year, and has yet to apply for readmission. Another left because of depression and has been readmitted. I don’t know why the fifth or sixth left, but the fifth has also been readmitted and the sixth has yet to apply for readmission. All six will hopefully eventually be graduating from here, though, so I don’t think they get included in the 3% or the 7%.</p>

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<p>@lidusa

[quote]

It also seems that MIT is more about taking advantage of opportunities outside of class than the classes themselves…At MIT, you are very much an individual, and the path you take will be completely independent of that of your peers. [\quote]
Can you say more about this Lidusa? I went to school where the students and faculty were ‘arms length distance’ unless the student was unusually mature and unusually ‘star-ish’ in seeking out faculty contact. I was part of the great majority who attended classes and did most of our learning through Extracurriculars. It didn’t leave me with a wonderful feeling of being carefully thought about - but the freedom felt good. </p>

<p>Thanks for providing the examples of your 6 (how many people do you consider to be friends, not just people you know of?) Hard to draw statistics from so unscientific a sampling, but ‘quick and dirty’ is better than nothing. Your examples give me a better understanding of the 6 year statistic. I don’t mind my kid taking over four years to graduate, but I’d rather it be a preventitive ‘this is too much work, I’ll take it slow’ sort of 5 years than leave and return/depression sort of thing. Still, most kids seem to do very well and thrive, so I think I’m overthinking.</p>

<p>@molliebatmit - Thanks for explaining the various numbers I was misunderstanding. That helps me understand better, and it’s reasurring to hear about the school’s academic safety net.</p>

<p>Smiles,
PS</p>

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<p>MIT is a meritocracy. It feels like everyone gives you the benefit of the doubt upon meeting you and assumes that you are awesome. Faculty are easy to talk to, though not always easy to get to know personally, since most of them are very busy.</p>

<p>You definitely learn from classes. Classes are hard. But the things you do outside your classes are often how you define yourself among your peers, the things you apply the most passion to, and the really really really awesome stuff you can do with your time at MIT.</p>

<p>

I live in a 90-something-person dorm, so maybe 150-200 people?</p>

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<p>Sounds like you are having a great experience. 6 out of 200 doesn’t sound so scary. I’m reassured - Thanks!!!
PS</p>

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<p>definitely send in those scores any score that qualifies for aime on amc 12 should help</p>