<p>That was what was hilarious, sbjdorlo, They just seemed to have randomly run some numbers that met their minimum requirements. Like major numbers but still funny.</p>
<p>ucb, Don’t have the energy to read all of the links but this was 05 and I know a documentary film was made about the Caltech basketball team that he may have ended up on. He actually really liked volleyball more and continues to play.</p>
<p>I’m surprised athletics at Caltech are still running numbers to find athletes,sbjdorlo! I guess some things never change!</p>
<p>2003-2004: 0-24
2004-2005: 1-24 (win vs. L.I.F.E College)
2005-2006: 0-25
2006-2007: 1-24 (win vs. Bard)
2007-2008: 1-24 (win vs. Gallaudet)
2008-2009: 1-24 (win vs. Polytechnic Institute of New York University)
2009-2010: 0-25
2010-2011: 5-20 (wins vs. American Sports, Eastern Nazarene, UC Santa Cruz, Wisconsin Lutheran, Occidental)
2011-2012: 5-20 (wins vs. Pacifica, Dallas, West Coast Baptist, Macalester, Babson)
2012-2013: 0-5 so far</p>
<p>The college prof comment was more in reference to the individual science Olympiad contests. AMC tests are much more popular although still far outside the realm of common knowledge. I heard about them first here on cc despite living where I live and having high math-ability kids.</p>
<p>I bet I could survey 50 neighbors and not find a single one who was aware of these contests and the potential weight they hold in college admissions - unless they had a kid who was already on a school math team. I live in a Chicago suburb with a math team that competes downstate every year with the top schools. Math Club may as well be Fight Club AFAIC, no one outside the club knows anything about it. I can only assume the lack of awareness about these opportunities is even more profound in less helicopter/tiger parent infected areas.</p>
<p>Agree with QM, USAMO is extremely impressive. I’m just not for auto-admit for above reasons. </p>
<p>PS I do know the diff between ‘know’ and ‘no’, really…</p>
<p>The coach (and it wasn’t basketball) said he looked for kids who had 750+ on SAT math. I’m not sure how he gets that info since it was long before my son applied that he was contacted. He was a nice guy, though, and probably the only thing my son liked about Caltech, oddly enough.</p>
<p>Yes, sounds like the +750 definitely, 800 stuff triggers that. S1 did briefly have contact with Princeton volleyball but did not pursue it. The NCAA stuff does put you into the system. Son just decided he did not want to do varsity at the college level. Just wanted to concentrate on academics(engineering) and be a normal student.</p>
<p>There is a math contest that is open to individuals. It is an alternative way to qualify for the AIME without school support. </p>
<p>I am NOT claiming that most high school students know about this. I know they don’t.
However, this is a way that a kid can take the AIME without taking the AMC. You don’t have to talk the school into administering it. </p>
<p>I’m just mentioning this in case anyone knows a math genius who can’t get his/her high school to offer the AMC. </p>
<p>That surprises me, since the individual science olympiad classes are more easily self-studied from textbooks. I wouldn’t think you would need a college prof.</p>
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<p>Right, but I assume if someone was interested in doing math outside of class, they probably would show up to math team practice once. Or at least ask the coach if they weren’t interested in team competitions.
I’m not sure what you are referring to, but if I made a comment implying this it was unintentional.</p>
<p>You’re assuming that math teachers would even know this exists. I’m not so sure that’s a good assumption. If the numbers cited above are true - only 5000 schools participate - that’s what’s called niche.</p>
Really? How does that work? Any football player ranked in the top 10 in their position is an auto admit to Cornell … so if the the top 10 ranked quarterbacks all apply to Cornell they all are automatically admitted? Even if the coach only wants 1 or 2 quarterbacks? Even if their grades are not up to Cornell standards? Even if the coach beliefs the player’s reputation as a terrible teammate will be to disruptive to the team.</p>
<p>Athletes to the Ivyies are far from auto-admits … the recruits chosen by the coaches (and after their academics meet some minimum standard) are pretty much auto admits … but that is far from anyone who is a great football player is an auto-admit just on their ranking as a football recruit and the school and coach take anyone high recruit who applies.</p>
<p>Now we know the moms are to blame Caltech’s atrocious basketball records. If only a few more of them encouraged their athletic sons to apply/join Caltech…</p>
<p>I presume that football players and basketball players are recruited by the Ivies to certain positions. I think that the relevant comparison to determine whether they are “auto-admits” is to the pool of applicants to the same Ivy with the same test scores (within a small range), the same rigor of classes and UW GPA (within a range, because this is more variable) and the same number of hours spent on EC’s, counting the time spent on athletics for the athlete. Also, I think the comparison should be made to recruited athletes only, not to someone who is moderately athletic and runs 6:30 mile.</p>
<p>For the people who think that not hearing about USAMO in some schools means that USAMO should not be an auto-admit: Taking only those who want to go to MIT into account, how many of these students do you anticipate would do better than my 18 in a math-intensive major such as physics or some areas of engineering? You could take the end of the senior year in college as the relevant comparison point.</p>
<p>I am suggesting USAMO points as a sufficient, but not necessary qualification. There cannot be more than 200 USAMO-qualified students in a single admissions cohort, because some of the USAMO-qualified students are seniors (actually, more than 100), and so they are covered by a previous year. If it turned out that all 200 were auto-admits and wanted to go to MIT, I would change my viewpoint, because I do think that’s too much of the class to tie up with this qualification. (For all 200 to be auto-admits in the same cohort, students who qualified in 10th grade or below would have to have a 0% chance to ever qualify again–doesn’t happen.)</p>
<p>I estimate that there are 18 people who meet my auto-admit criterion, and would not have been admitted to MIT already. That’s 1% of the admitted pool. I think there is plenty of room for the students who have never heard of any of the Olympiads.</p>
<p>I grew up in a factory-dominated town. My school still offered the MAA test (I think this was the forerunner of the AMC).</p>
<p>I realize that many schools do not offer AMC, but I also suspect, as QuantMech noted, that schools do offer it, but students choose not to participate nor tell their parents about it. I only found out that our middle school offered it after my daughter signed up; there was no huge announcement.</p>
<p>The notion that a school doesn’t provide the test should not preclude any child from finding some avenue to participate. If my child had an inclination for math, I would be online searching for opportunities for him. Most searches will send you to the Art of Problem Solving (AOPS) and the Math Association of America (MAA). I know both organizations are very helpful and are more than willing to help any child who wants to become involved. </p>
<p>Passion gets so much lip service on this board. I would argue that a USAMO qualifier has as much passion, commitment and drive as any ivy recruited athlete. Unfortunately, they are not held in the similar regard, as evidenced by the lack of media coverage of these math superstars.</p>
<p>@texas: If that is true, it just brings us back to the holistic-admissions discussion. Surely the Ivies and other schools know that “stuff happens” and that students who bring a special skill or talent may drop it once they get into their academics. But admitting such students who have the grades and scores (albeit perhaps at the lower levels) with the hope that they will continue to run the 800/play the bassoon/choreograph modern dance/etc. suggests they appreciate the “well-roundedness” they bring to the entering class.</p>
<p>@bogi: Why even try to compare math to sports? Sports are a huge part of our culture and bring people in communities together starting with the youngest children in organized leagues. Math competitions may be interesting to those participating, but they are hardly spectator events for the average person. And as far as media coverage goes, it’s much easier to describe a game play by play in a way that is interesting to readers than to show how the winning student in a math competition got his answer to a differential equation. It’s not an issue of who has more “passion,” the math whiz or the running back.</p>
<p>Although the USAMTS is an excellent contest, I just want to warn that it’s subobtimal compared to taking the AMC. At least, when I was in high school, qualifying for the AIME is much harder if someone takes the USAMTS compared to if they take the AMC, and this will even hurt them in USAMO qualification. Again, USAMTS is a very nice contest, but it’s not the best in terms of AIME/USAMO qualification.</p>