TBH, SAT M and MATH2 aren’t differentiators at a certain level, and Physics is based on Physics knowledge, not advanced math. SAT/Math2 max out at high-school pre-calculus topics. My D’s math team is current covering Sophomore college-level number theory.
Pretty much everyone on her varsity math team have maxed those tests (she 800’d Math2 in 9th grade, SAT in 8th), but only 6 of them qualified for AIME last year. And most of them are in the 2-5 AIME range. It certainly helps differentiate where the other tests can’t.
Whether it matters depends on the school and major. A math major applying to MIT, CalTech, CMU - they are certainly aware of the MAA Tests and consider them in acceptances. I suspect math admissions at many other schools would recognize and value it. Other majors? A nice EC.
It’s like winning a national competition and having a story published in a literary book. Meaningful for an English major. Nice to have for an engineer.
It’s not a magic wand, but it’s a significant academic achievement that goes in a student’s plus column. More meaningful in some places than others. It’s certainly not going to “make up for” GPA and test scores, but it can serve to differentiate among students who are at the extreme.
@RichInPitt That’s all great - but probably more awareness in Pittsburgh due to CMU located there. Like @CT1417 I first heard of “Math Circles” on CC. I’m just saying kids from our HS get into MIT without AIME. But yeah, it could help differentiate.
My oldest did USACO on his own time, for fun - he heard of it thru his coding interests, NOT through school, and didn’t know anyone locally doing it. He got to Silver. It was nice to fill in the box on common app, but not sure it had any weight in admissions. (yes, I know, SIlver is not Gold or Platinum, but it does show aptitude for programming / CS and kids successful in USACO are, I suspect, likely successful in CS majors in college. Frankly, I think it should have had some weight, but I think admissions has a lot of other “holistic” criteria that was more important than this award.
I’ve often wondered about AMC/AIME/USAMO (once I heard about those here) and if those would have made my S20’s application more appealing. He’s been on his HS math team all 4 years and (so far) has qualified for state every year, placing at the state level 2 out of their 3 trips to state so far. He’s always been talented in math and was double accelerated, taking math at the high school while in middle school. He’s also on the ACES (Academic Challenge in Engineering and Science) team his junior and senior year. It’s only for juniors and seniors. Last year they qualified for state. This year’s regional competitions for math team and ACES are just underway.
He is our oldest and I had never heard about AMC/AIME/USAMO and I’m disappointed his HS never mentioned anything about further math competitions (or others) outside of the math team. I only heard about them by seeing the acronyms on CC when I joined last year. By then, I assumed it was too late to really pursue anything. I’ve realized his school doesn’t provide much direction for exceptional students, so that’s been pretty disappointing. Partly my fault for I suppose not investigating things, but I wouldn’t have known where to start.
Don’t get me wrong, this kid will be fine wherever he ends up. He’s a high stats kid and has applied to a number of T20 schools for CS, but I can’t help but wonder how some of these “extra” accolades would have helped his application. Because having 36, 1600, NMSF, etc doesn’t distinguish him much from all the other similar kids applying to those top-tier schools! And luckily from CC, I knew that having those stats didn’t make ANYTHING a slam dunk. I can’t help but think some of those other accomplishments might have helped set him apart. So, to answer the OP’s question, I don’t think those accomplishments could hurt!
Participating in math (or similar) competitions is a great EC, but only do it if you’re deeply interested in it. It takes talent and a lot of time to reach meaningful levels. Don’t do it for the sole purpose of college admission. Even IMO/IPhO gold medalists aren’t guaranteed admissions at the most sought-after schools (unlike in the old days).
My son was accepted EA to MIT in Dec and is a potential math major who has never really wanted to participate in state/regional math competitions. He went to ARML once in 7th grade and decided competitive math wasn’t as enjoyable to him as he thought it would be. He did, however, qualify for AIME multiple times and I think his score last year was an 8 or 9. SAT Math, Math 2 and Physics were all 800 so maybe it does help differentiate the mass of kids with those stats. He is a kid who just loves math for the sake of it. Who knows what, if any, impact AIME had…
We’ve had a few really exceptional math kids who have had very high scores on these. They have been accepted to MIT, Stanford, etc. I suspect that top standings were further validation of their abilities. I believe, however, that they had other things in their application that pointed to this as well.
So yes, my guess is that a top score is a way to differentiate yourself from the crowd. And that a kid who gets a top score may already have demonstrated that s/he is not one of the crowd in some other ways.
My son has had decent success with math competitions but the best thing about it to him was the group of kids that were also involved in the competitions having similar interests.
That’s pretty much par for the course. Schools (with a few notable exceptions around the country TJ in Virginia, Stuy, Bronx Sci and HCHS in NYC, etc.,) are focused on getting the below grade level kids up to grade level, and for improving the performance of the average kids. Getting the 99th percentile kid up to 99.9? Not their mandate, or their problem.