Does qualifying for the AIME 3 times and getting a max score 6 worth mentioning on college application
Yes, you should mention it. Qualifying for AIME means you’re scoring among the top 2.5% on the AMC 10 or top 5% on the AMC 12 worldwide. Qualifying 3 times indicates that you’re consistent and your placement in the top percentiles is well-deserved. Many colleges place a good amount of value on the AIME, so much so that they have a whole section for you to put your AMC 10/12 and AIME scores down (these include MIT and Carnegie Mellon).
I know 6 might seem like a low score on the AIME, but that’s above the 50th percentile on both AIMEs this year. You should be proud of the score. But even so, you might want to stay on the safe side and explain why your maximum score was a 6 since you’ve qualified 3 times. Was there improvement between each of your qualifications, or did you lose interest in math competitions halfway through? Your score might raise some eyebrows at certain top-tier schools given that you’ve qualified 3 times.
P.S. Here’s the website for AMC/AIME Statistics: https://amc-reg.maa.org/reports/generalreports.aspx
Six on the AIME is actually quite a good score. Absolutely mention it! My son never got above a 3. He never studied or did any sort of practice problems because by the time he was in high school he cared much more about computers science than math.
Yes, a 6 on the AIME puts you in the top 2,000 or so, so the top 0.05% or better of HS students in the country. That’s certainly worth calling out.