<p>People seem to say on this board that URM and USAMO are both “hooks,” though different kinds. Well, which one is a bigger hook? Making the USAMO or being a URM? How about USAJMO? Is there any difference between different types of URM? (I’ve generally heard that Native American > Black > Hispanic as far as how much each helps in college admissions).</p>
<p>Taken from a thread off AoPS (Art of Problem Solving):</p>
<p>"A couple of years ago my friend’s dad, who has been an admission’s officer at Brown, MIT, and currently at Harvard, told me the following things about the AMC’s:</p>
<p>(All Statistics below are for MIT only)</p>
<ul>
<li>Making AIME is not the most impressive thing in the eyes of MIT. Percentage wise, roughly 20% of the participants who make AIME only(not USAMO, MOP, IMO) get accepted. The reason for this low number is because 10,000 people take AIME each year. MIT admits only about a 1000 kids each year.</li>
<li>Making USAJMO or USAMO is much more impressive. Last year, 50 % of the students who made USAJMO or USAMO only (not MOP, IMO) were accepted. It’s also important to remember that if you are one of the 50 % of kids who get rejected, it’s still likely that you will be accepted to another top school with a USAJMO or USAMO qualification. </li>
<li>Making MOP is a pretty sure bet. Last year, 80 % of the students who made MOP were accepted.</li>
<li>Making IMO is a virtual guarantee. Although colleges will never say anything is a “guarantee”, making IMO is as impressive as it gets!!! Over 95 % of all IMO participants were accepted."</li>
</ul>
<p>Make of those numbers as you will. As someone who qualified last year for USAMO, I don’t think USAMO qualification gives a big boost by itself (especially just 1x), especially after seeing some posts on here with USAMO qualifiers rejected/deferred/waitlisted at top schools. However, coupled with advanced math coursework/impressive math EC’s (ie. research, teaching others), it can be worth quite a bit (one of the most prestigious high school competitions, is it not). That being said, the boost from USAMO varies from place to place, probably in descending order of Caltech > MIT > other top notch schools (ie. HYPS) > schools where adcoms not made aware of AMC’s/yadi yadi yada. Keep in mind though, certain top schools (notably Harvard) have had (the audacity) to reject USA IMO gold medalists (quite a few notches above USAMO qualification) in past years, so nothing is certain.</p>
<p>Like USAMO, URM is not a big boost by itself. However, good grades/test scores/EC’s + URM may put you at a more than negligible advantage at top schools compared to ORM (usually whites/asians). Is this fair? Maybe, maybe not. But I think we can all come to the consensus this can be quantified as an advantage, seeing that the proportion of URM’s over a certain grade/score threshold admitted at top schools is indeed higher than the proportion of ORM’s over the same grade/score threshold admitted at top schools. Of course, grades/test scores aren’t everything, and one may argue about the importance of things outside the classroom/the person’s character and that too many of one kind of people (most prominently, asians) are similar in that respect. I agree with the 1st part, but the 2nd part is an iffy argument which is based upon stereotyping that gets ugly pretty quickly IF based upon race/any group of people and applied to INDIVIDUALS. I have yet to see good evidence supporting the notion that there is a correlation between perceived race/ethnicity/left or right handed status/yadi yada and the perceived interestingness of character/EC’s. Also, some may argue that correlation does not imply causation (ie. the self selection argument); if this were the case though, I would not see the purpose to keep on administering affirmative action, seeing that the purpose of affirmative action is to "take factors including “race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group”.</p>
<p>Based off studies, URM gives more than negligible boosts more so at top universities than lower ones. Overall, I’d put URM status, coupled with good EC’s, as more valuable than a mere 1x USAMO qualification coupled with mediocre EC’s, if anything at all, at top institutions (not considering grades/test scores because everybody (excluding HIGH paying legacies/athletic recruits/REAL disadvantaged kids) who wants to have realistic chance of getting in has good grades/test scores), excluding Caltech and maybe MIT. I can’t say anything for sure if there’s more USAMO qualifications/stuff to be coupled with the qualification(s), only the adcoms can.</p>
<p>I know I will be flamed for this but…</p>
<p>Feamle USAMO>URM with good numbers and ECs>White male USAMO>>>>>>Asian male USAMO.</p>
<p>So suppose everything else is equal, would it still depend on the kind of applicant? E.G. URM with mediocre grades/scores/ECs > USAMO with mediocre grades/scores/ECs, but USAMO with good grades/scores/ECs > URM with good grades/scores/ECs?</p>
<p>can you send me a link for that first post? @mathnerd</p>
<p>Being a URM is a hook, qualifying for USAMO is not. Where’s the biggest boost? Native American followed by Black (male is huge boost)…Hispanic is a much smaller boost.</p>
<p>[AoPS</a> Forum - Top colleges, USAMO • Art of Problem Solving](<a href=“http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=375491&start=60]AoPS”>http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=375491&start=60)</p>
<p>Note: only the quoted part in my post is from an AoPS post.</p>
<p>My guess (probably not true):</p>
<p>USAMO trumps URM at Caltech/MIT probably no matter what. At other top schools (ie Ivies), all other stats equal and no other advanced math EC’s/coursework, URM probably trumps a one-time USAMO qualification.</p>
<p>If a school recognizes AMCs, I would say USAMO qualification is much stronger than being a URM. Of course, nothing is guaranteed no matter how amazing you are, but making USAMO requires a <em>lot</em> of hard work, effort, studying, and practice. I would be very surprised if out of two people of similar stats but with one a URM and the other a USAMO qualifier, the URM got in but not the USAMO qualifier.</p>
<p>What’s a usamo?</p>
<p>Waverly: USAMO is not a hook? It’s one of the most prestigious academic competitions.</p>
<p>How could URM be a greater hook? Think about it: URM is something you are BORN with. There’s no denying that it is very helpful for admissions, but qualifying for USAMO takes a lot more work and patience (unless you are simply very gifted at math) and USAMO is something a student actually has to work towards.</p>
<p>Truly a useless thing to consider, unless you are in some situation where you are able to choose between being a URM and making USAMO.</p>
<p>Colleges have their reasons for wanting what they want. They can have thousands of Asian and white qulified USAMO qualifier applicants to choose from and a couple of hundred black and native American males. They want 13% Asians in the class, 10% blacks and 3% Native Americans. The admit rate will be MUCH higher for the URMs. Simple supply and demand.</p>
<p>I like these questions because I think it’s important for kids to understand that what colleges are looking for is not what they might think. Their institutional wants trump what the average person might find rational. Diversity matters a ton to colleges. So whether you’re from South Dakota, a small African country or are a member of a hill tribe, if a college needs you for their diversity statistics, they will take you over every 4.0/2400/USAMO candidate every time.</p>
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<p>There are only 500 USAMO qualifiers each year (and now with the USAJMO introduced, about 220-280 qualify for USAMO and the rest of the 500 are USAJMO). So, about 500 kids applying to college each year will be USAMO qualifiers; or about 300 now that the USAJMO has been introduced. USAMO qualifiers who are also otherwise academically qualified are thus much rarer than equally academically qualified URM applicants. However, I was trying to determine if this also meant that they would have a greater advantage, or not.</p>
<p>Yes, but there are many similar competitions globally. My point is that colleges have many, many math whiz kids to choose from. They want part of a class to be comprised of them and they want part to be black, native American and Hispanic.</p>
<p>MIT stated before that they accept about 50% of all USAMO qualifiers that applied. That number is probably similar for Caltech and other engineering/tech schools. I doubt MIT accepts 50% of all URM.</p>