<p>Which colleges care about qualifying for the USAMO or USAJMO and how much do they care? I know mit caltech and carnegie mellon care a lot (i've heard it has huge importance at MIT, somethign like 50% admission rate for qualifiers), but does your average college also care? Do I need to explain it ? For my internships which I applied to, I only got into the ones that I explained what these mean or they obviously cared about it (RSI alternate). </p>
<p>Also, is USAJMO significantly less impressive than USAMO? </p>
<p>@RunningForLife Is that directed at me or in general? I don’t know that much how differently it is perceived but I know USAMO is significantly harder to qualify for.</p>
<p>All schools care because it’s a very impressive achievement. That being said, you should be careful about correlation vs. causation. An adcom won’t go “wow USAMO qualifier, better admit this kid!” It’s more likely that USAMO qualifiers have expressed passion for math in various ways, and have very competitive scores and extracurriculars so they have a great application. </p>
<p>I don’t know about the relative merits of USAJMO vs. USAMO, but having either will definitely be a big plus for an application anywhere. </p>
<p>Even for BS/MD programs?
That’s a relief because my applications are largely riding on usajmo (and other math things) and like my involvement with math team and mentoring mathcounts.
Also do you know if qualifying for arml tiebreakers with a score of 9/10 will hold much weight for colleges or will it help somewhat in mitigating not making USAMO this year?</p>
<p>@theanaconda: making tiebreakers is impressive!! i was there this year too and got an 8/10 (so close!)
how close were you to USAMO this year? I missed it by <3 pts… :(</p>
<p>@theanaconda I don’t think you need to “explain” what USA(J)MO is on a college application since they will either know what it is or should be able to look it up. I made USAMO in 2010 (10th grade) and scored 13 but was rejected by Caltech, so obviously, it is a big plus but doesn’t guarantee admission.</p>
<p>Making ARML tiebreakers is quite good indeed! It’ll probably mitigate not making USAMO – I failed to qualify for USAMO in 2011 or 2012 but did several other math contests and also mentored MATHCOUNTS/AMC, so even though I didn’t make USAMO junior or senior year, ultimately it didn’t really matter too much in the long run IMO (pun maybe intended).</p>
<p>@RunningForLife I choked hard, missed by 18 points, felt
Too much pressure, I’d have had 232 index without silly mistakes. Ugh I still feel awful about that.
@MITer94 Rhat’s great to hear about arml. I wasn’t sure how important it is as it seems a bit fluky (my friend who got a 5 on aime beating a moper and tying an IMO alternate with an 8) and a USAMO winner apparently getting a 5/10? Then
Again maybe these people didn’t take it seriously.
Also would nysml (NY’s version of arml) count for much? I got perfect scores the past 2 years (10/10) and got 4th place this year.
I really feel that my USAMO index this year didn’t really represent my skills this year as I performed way under par, will my better results in other competitions sort of make admission officers understand I was sort of unlucky? I also presume you got into MIT lol going by your username,</p>
<p>Yeah, I got a 5 on ARML but didn’t really care much for it either.</p>
<p>Not sure about NYSML but it shouldn’t hurt to put it down. Just make sure that if you’re restricted to only a few slots, put your best ones there. I feel the same way about USAMO index as I failed the AIME I in 2011.</p>
<p>Aime I in 2011 was hard, lol I got a 3 on that. This year we also had to take the aime II due to aime I snowing out and most feel it was at Least a little bit harder if not significantly harder. Still no excuses, if I didn’t mess arithmetic on #2 and incorrectly count powers of 2 for #15 I’d have made USAMO …</p>
<p>I would say making USAMO can give pretty good boost. Because absent more reliable indicators, it can be used to indicate the potential for college performance in the math area.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I’m not too sure about USAJMO. The reason is that there is USAMO after that. If one does well in USAJMO, but not USAMO, it’s an indication that one can not keep pace with the competition. An analogy is someone who’s ranked #1 in middle school, but only #10 in high school. That #1 in middle school no longer carries weight anymore.</p>
<p>@ pastwise
lol that just made me feel way worse. I feel even worse about choking away USAMO, but shouldn’t usajmo still count some as it is accomplished in high school? Will the trend of results at other math competitions help to try and make colleges understand that my USAMO index this year was a sort of a fluke?
Also are yju sure colleges about these things, I thought internships I applied to would know about them but other than RSI and the one where I extensively explained it in the interview they seemed not to know.</p>
<p>I looked up your credentials. It’s very impressive. What you lack is a national level award for clincher. But I think you have a great chance for MIT, Caltech and Stanford. Forget Harvard, they look for a different type of people.</p>
<p>@pastwise I’m not sure I’ll apply to caltech, I don’t really like it’s atmosphere. For Harvard I have no real hopes of getting in unless I apply early where I feel I have a chance because of their ridiculously high early acceptance rate (over 20%). I might just end up applying to MIT early though</p>
<p>Bump?</p>