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Replies to: IMSA Applicant Class of 2023
I think that my application is strong for acceptance. I was just wondering about the High School Level Science Course.
We could not afford expensive courses, that can cost upwards $700, just for this application. I had found a Chemistry Course on Courses.Com from Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy. How will/can I send this course to IMSA, for proper documentation?
IMSA has been a long dream for me, and I hope that this course qualification does not be a factor of rejection.
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Indian
SAT: 1390
GPA: 3.98 (One B+, and 3 A-'s, rest A's)
EC's:
STEM Innovation Squad (Founder)
Math Club
AA School Basketball Team
Science Olympiad
School Chamber Orchestra (Concertmaster), or should I do Naperville Youth Symphony Orchestra?
Awards:
Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge Finalist (International)
AMC 8 Distinguished Honor Roll (Perfect Score, and National)
MathCounts Chapter 1st place individual
Essays: I'll talk about my passion for economics, or innovation. I might also sprinkle in a bit of basketball and music.
Teacher Recs: My teachers pretty much like me so far...
I'm just worried about my SAT Score of 1390. What are my chances of getting in?
I got my SAT rescored, and I got a 1460 (800 Math, 660 Reading). Do you think I should retake the SAT?
You should be good for now, but if you feel unsure about your SAT score and want to improve the SAT reading and writing sections, go ahead. Again, being an eighth grader, IMSA wants to see that you're able to transition from eighth grade content to sophomore level content smoothly and without much difficulty, so they're expecting more of eighth graders than freshmen because of the grade skipping. And also, congrats on getting a perfect score on the SAT math section. Hopefully that helps out.
- GENERAL -
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: Male
Region: Chicagolands
Grade: 9th
- ACADEMICS -
GPA: It's around the 3.6 - 4.0 range, unweighted.
.
SAT: 1120 (Practice Test 1 back in May 2019), I'm taking a practice test tomorrow.
Grades: 3 Bs and the rest (n = 5) are As. Again, this should be improving shortly.
- EXTRACURRICULARS -
- Math Team (9th grade)
- Swim Team (9th grade, winter season)
- Yearbook Club (6th, 7th, and 8th grade), probably doing this during freshman year too.
- Student Council (6th and 8th grade)
- National Junior Honor Society (8th grade)
- PROMISE Program (9th grade, throughout the admissions process on Saturdays)
I've volunteered at the library for about two years now, but I haven't signed up for this school year though. Should I?
- AWARDS -
- National Junior Honor Society Membership (8th grade)
- President's Award for Educational Excellence (8th grade)
- Freshman team ranked 2nd place for the first meet of NSML (North Suburban Mathematics League)
- COURSELOAD -
- Introduction to Business
- Accelerated Spanish III (Because I'm a native Spanish speaker, duh)
- Accelerated Chemistry
- Accelerated Geometry and Trigonometry
- Accelerated English I
- AP World History: Modern
Accelerated courses are equivalent to honors courses, due to my local high school not having them.
Thanks for reading.
I am currently a seventh grader looking to go to IMSA. I do not have many awards or ECS under my name so I was wondering if anyone could recommend some!
It depends on what your local middle school offers. But I would recommend that you join some STEM-related activities or extracurriculars that you can do in your free time.
Ethnicity: Indian American
Gender: Male
Region: Rural Western Illinois
Grade: 9th
GPA: 7th: 3.95, 8th: 3.97, 9th: 4.00 (on a scale to 1.00 to 4.00)
SAT: Scoring around 1400s on practice tests
Current Classes (extremely small high school, no AP/Honor classes):
- US History
- Geometry
- Physical Science
- Literature
- Computer Applications (IT Business)
- Spanish I
- Band
Online Classes (not associated with school):
- Introduction to Mathematical Thinking - Stanford
- C Programming - LearnProgramming
- Arduino Workshop 2018 - Core Electronics
ECs:
- Concert Band for ~4 years (4-5 hrs per week)
- Marching Band for 1 year (5-6 hrs per week)
- Starting Jazz Band
- Track for ~2 years (7 hrs per week)
- Tennis for ~7 years (2-5 hrs per week)
- Robotics (self-taught) for ~2 years (Arduino)
- Code for ~4 years (self-taught HTML, Python, C++, Arduino)
- HS Science Club
- Talented and Gifted (TAG) student for ~2 years
--Awards:--
- Graduated middle school as valedictorian
- 99th percentile for National Math Curriculum in the US
- Built a Vex Drag-Car that won 1st place in my grade for the fastest (2.20 sec. for 20 ft)
- Track:
- 1st in Distance Medley Relay in Southeast Iowa Super Conference
- 3rd in 200m dash (out of 15-18 students)
- 3rd in 4x100 relay (out of 8-10 teams)
- Boys Track got 1st in 2019 Southeast Iowa (SI) region + won 2019 SI conference
- Marching Band Awards:
- Awarded “Outstanding Horn Line” // Gotten a II rating (Wilton Annual
Marching Band Contest)
- Still have a contest to go this season (State)
- Achieved High Honor Roll for 5 consecutive years (4th - 8th)
Teacher Recs: should be solid
Thanks!
Make sure that you're taking the most difficult classes that you can possible at your middle school. But, just because your school doesn't have any accelerated classes doesn't mean that you can't do more. Do courses on Khan Academy on your free time. Don't be limited with your schedule just because they don't have those advanced courses for you. Hopefully that helped.