@shumpu123 I’m assuming you’ve taken the AMC 12A (or will be taking 12B this year), am I right? What were your scores?
Maybe, although it is impossible for any of us to chance without knowing your test scores or other parts of the application. If you wish to study here or at any of the Ivies, then by all means apply. If they see that you have good potential to succeed and accept you, then great. But many thousands of applicants get rejected - MIT’s acceptance rate is around 7-8%. So you will definitely want to expand your college search, as I said earlier.
AMC12A I got 9 right and I think 4 wrong, rest blank. I believe that is something like a 72. I know it’s a really bad score, but I’m prepping for next year (which I feel is much too late but I can always update the application right?)
I’ll expand the search a bit to include some of the other schools up north that are also good, but if worst comes to worst it’s USF for me, as it’s right by where I live (15 minutes around to USF)
@shumpu123 I also feel it will be too late. Admissions decisions are released in mid-March, which is roughly when AIME takes place. Forget about making the US IMO team - it will be impossible for you.
If you wish to solve olympiad problems for the practice/experience, then go right ahead. However, a 72 AMC score likely suggests you are not ready yet - olympiad problems are difficult, and require good problem-solving skills, knowledge of theorems not often covered in HS, and mathematical maturity.
To be honest I haven’t really prepped at all for AMC, and I feel that I might improve a lot if I did practice. I also got the AoPS books to prep for amc and aime. I’d at least do well on AIME if I practiced a lot, but it’s not USAMO. I feel that if I spend over 1000 hours prepping for either math or physics olympiad that I could make it, since 1000 hours is a lot of time. I also have the summer to prep.
Did you take F=ma this year? Either way, you’re making a risky choice by putting all your eggs into these two baskets that won’t be on your applications when you submit them. You’re relying on conjecture to prop up your chances.
I know people that have gotten to the US- level of Olympiads and have been both accepted to and rejected from Ivies and MIT. It’s not a sure thing.
The issue of the “spike” (man, that PrepScholar article sure gets around—before that, it was the “pointy” applicant) is appearing TOO one-dimensional. Colleges like applicants that are especially good at one thing, yes—but those applicants do have to care about other things as well.
I’m not sure you even grasp what you think you can accomplish in a fairly short period of time. It’s as if you you think you can be recruited for a sport you barely play or you think you can play the piano at Carnegie Hall next year even though you’re a novice, if you start practicing now. I know kids who started training for math competitions in the 6th grade who didn’t make IMO and they were phenomenal. 1000 hours? That’s 20 hours a week for an entire year. I think you’re being totally unrealistic. However, if you think you can do it, all the more power to you. Good luck!
I’m late to this conversation, but a few thoughts:
I think it's fine that @shumpu123 has identified a passion for math and physics. If that's what really excites him and what he wants to do, great. Go for it. But he should also be realistic about getting a late start, and he should do it because he loves it, not as a strategy to get in to colleges.
IMO is out of reach. Most kids at that level started in middle school. It takes years to develop problem solving acumen. A AMC12 score of 72 does not qualify for AIME, much less USAMO. It is unrealistic to suppose that proficiency will come quickly enough to make a difference, especially if relying on that proficiency to give a "spike" for college applications.
Focusing on the "Ivies" and MIT is silly. The goal should be long term. You can get a fine education at many places, and graduate school should be the focus, as a PhD is required to make an academic career in those fields.
@shumpu123, I think you’re putting way too much pressure on yourself by setting such unrealistic goals. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so there’s no need to burn out by trying for an unrealistic pace. If this is your passion then set up a long term plan. Apply to a range of schools (including a few reaches), but broaden your sights and look at many different schools - LACs with good math/physics, state schools, and a range of universities.
Edward Witten, one of the most brilliant physicists in the world and the only one ever to also win the Field Medal for mathematics, graduated from Brandeis. He didn’t even major in physics (history and linguistics). He didn’t even start graduate school in physics. There’s plenty of time. Put a plan in place and stick to it, but be realistic about the short term. A year is not enough time for even the brightest to achieve mastery starting from scratch.
“Wouldn’t you rather do something fun for a thousand hours? That sounds miserable.”
This is a good point.
I’d advise against spending all your time grinding away at that kind of thing, relying on pure academic power to get in. I never took AMC, AIME, USAMO, AoPS-- I don’t even know what those are, to be honest. But MIT accepted me anyway, and I presume this was largely because I spent so much of my time doing what I love and having fun with it.
If your passion for math and science is driving you to take these exams, go for it. But if you’re trying to grind hundreds and hundreds of hours towards them for the sole purpose of getting into college, I’d say there’s a better use of your time and energy.
Your goal should not be to go to MIT, but to find the best college that you can get into where you can find a group of like minded students who want to intensely focus on academics.
I think it’s fine that you are focused on academics if that’s what you like to do. I think it’s a mistake that colleges are emphasizing that over softer things, but they are. So I think that MIT is a long shot if you don’t have the stats for it and don’t have the ECs.
That said Cal Tech is far more likely to accept someone based on solely academic prowess, though your numbers might not be good enough for that either unless you smoke your SAT Math, and SAT II Math II, and SAT II Physics or Chem.
If you think you are capable of succeeding at MIT and want the most rigorous colleges, consider
Harvey Mudd
Georgia Tech
RPI
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
These are all brutally hard schools with a nerdy culture. Cornell and Mudd are far more competitive to get in than RPI and Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech is not that hard to get into, but very hard to get through.
Right now, based on your AMC, you have something like 40,000 students doing better than you. Many of these students have put far more than 1000 hours in so far. It’s not realistic to plan on overtaking virtually all of them in a year.
I have a PhD in physics. I have a very successful career. I would not make the IMO team. If I worked at it for 1000 hours, I would not make the IMO team. I would estimate it would take me between 5,000 and 10,000 hours before I would have a chance. And even then I might not.
If you have discovered a new love for contest math and want to see how far you can get, great! Best of luck. If you are counting on this to get you into a university (any university), though, I don’t think this plan is either realistic or likely to be effective. All the competitive universities look at many factors.
I don’t think it’s necessary; they aren’t looking for perfection and mistakes are acceptable. However, if you can literally just walk in, take the test and do better, then why not? (As long as the money is no concern) On the other hand, if you actually need to study, there are more useful things you could devote that time to, such as your extracurriculars.
From personal experience, I got 2290 on the SAT and knew I could have done better (Dude, 770 on Math and USAMO Qualifier :’( ). I debated for a long time on whether it was good enough, consulted a lot of people, and concluded that for a better score, I would need to stay in “SAT shape” and actually keep practicing. Instead, I worked on my essays. In the end, I got in, so no regrets.
IMO is truly impossible for me right now. Anyways here are my test scores: