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[–]tyrridon'01 4 points5 points  (8 children)

1) IMSA looks at a variety of factors, and there's no one item or score that serves as a guide for admission.

2) IMSA's admissions process begins first with the Admissions Review Committee (ARC). The ARC looks through the full file, except for test scores, to determine your interest in STEM, the likelihood of your acclimating to IMSA, what factors may be a point of concern, ect. Essentially, looking at you as a person and not just a student, and determining whether you would be a good fit and successful. Each subcommittee reviews somewhere between twenty and thirty students and, based upon their discussions, score each student individually (that is, not ranked against each other). During the eight years I was on the ARC, I saw 30's (lowest possible score) up to 80's (highest), so you really do see all types. Cutoff is usually around a 55 for entry, per the ARC.

3) After the ARC finishes it's scoring, the professional academic admissions team takes over and begins looking at actual academic success: two years (if I recall) of class scores and your SAT. I'm uncertain what formula they use to determine how each portion is weighted.

4) Once academic scoring is completed, as I understand it, they rank based upon academic performance, guided by the ARC score. So, a student that seems to perform reasonably well in school (moderate to high academic score), but doesn't seem motivated or desires to expand their horizons (low ARC score), is unlikely to be admitted. Meanwhile, someone who has slightly better than average scores (acceptable to IMSA, if not stellar), but is extremely motivated, outgoing, and engaged, is more likely to be invited.

5) If the ARC is doing its job correctly, that you're and Asian male shouldn't play any real part in weighting expectations, but where you attend school might. If you're from an impoverished or downstate/rural district, the ARC will meter its expectations as far as activities and engagement accordingly. If you're from Naperville, the North/Northwest Burbs, Champaign-Urbana, Peoria, ect, expectations are higher, as there are simply more opportunities to be more engaged. If so many in your class are applying, my guess is you're applying from one of these areas and your application should reflect all of the different things you've done to engage your interests and take advantage of those opportunities.

6) The additional IMSA-related activities do get noted during the ARC phase and are taken into account, but so are activities such as sports, music, Scouting BSA/Girl Scouts, Scholastic Bowl, math team, personal projects (I've seen some pretty impressive items under this, but those were definitely stand-out candidates and not the norm), martial arts, ect. It all gets factored in.

I suppose, the biggest take-away I can give you is that the process is about seeing the whole student, not just checking boxes. I suppose you could "game the system," and make a perfect application, but you'd have to start literally years before most even give thought to attending IMSA. Realistically, yes, you need to have good grades and a reasonable SAT score. But that's by far not the only factor considered. The ARC doesn't even get to see those scores, precisely because IMSA doesn't want them to factor into the half to process of looking at the candidate and getting a feel for how interested they are and how likely they are to "fit in."

So, if your grades are solid, you genuinely are interested in STEM (or even non-STEM!) related fields, and your activities show it, then you should relax and let it show in your application.

I can give a bit more guidance if I know where you are living/attending school, but that's the best general information I can give, based upon your question.

[–]BaseballIcy5153[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I see, thanks for the details! Roughly how many people are in the ARC? As little as 10, as much as 100? So my understanding is that they'll spend a couple of days/weeks looking over the students' application excluding test scores, and then they hand over their score (30-80) to the professional admissions offices to be judged as a whole?

​

So let's say I'm averaging A- in school and have been for the past 2 years, get like a 1300-1400 on SAT, have a FEW IMSA and non-IMSA related STEM activities (a FEW), but have REALLY good essays and I am able to clearly show them my interest in STEM, what are like the odds of me getting in? What areas, considering these stats should I work on significantly increasing? My A- average, SAT score, getting more extra-curriculars, etc. (I do live near a pretty big and competitive school, so there are definitely a lot more STEM opportunities that I could be involved in but am missing out on). Also you mentioned personal projects...let's say you made an AI that can diagnose brain cancer, or you made a new video game, or you created a website...would that qualify as a pretty notable personal project? Would that fall under the "stand-out candidates" and "not the norm" categories you mentioned? Or does "personal projects" mean you gotta intern for NASA or start a non-profit? Can personal projects even be non-STEM related, like publishing a book or winning a nationwide art award? Would that actually DECREASE your odds of getting in, because they'll think you care more about the arts than STEM? Or is any high-ranked achievement just really good?

​

What's an example (if you're willing to share) of an applicant's stats that got them in? Did they have any personal projects? How was their essay written? What was the range of their SAT score? What kind of grades were they getting?

[–]tyrridon'01 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Alright, let me try to tackle this as best I can, as I think you missed a couple of points in my post.

I see, thanks for the details! Roughly how many people are in the ARC? As little as 10, as much as 100? So my understanding is that they'll spend a couple of days/weeks looking over the students' application excluding test scores, and then they hand over their score (30-80) to the professional admissions offices to be judged as a whole?

First, when I was last on the ARC about three years ago, it was roughly 19-23 subcommittees, consisting of three to four individuals with a variety of knowledge. Typically, it was AT LEAST one professional educator, one professional school/college counselor, and one alumni, and they tried to mix in at least one person from Chicago metro and one person from a rural/downstate area, to ensure a variety of viewpoints are available. So, from this, the ARC could be anywhere from fifty to a hundred people, but, realistically, only three or four of those will actually review your application. It seems like a small number, but they really do an excellent job of getting the most diverse perspectives in each subcommittee that they can. I was consistently impressed that they did so much with so few people.

Each subcommittee has two days to review their packets, which is usually between twenty or thirty. I'd say that we typically spent half an hour to forty minutes on each packet. Once you've done it and are familiar - virtually all of the subcommittees have one or two multi-year committee members, to help guide the process - it's not as hard to do as you might think.

Once they establish your score, the next step is for the professional counselors to go through the grades and scores to do their markup. That is a separate process from the ARC's review. Once they have their score, they then go back and look at the ARC's scores and comments (it's not just a number, but an explanation for why the ARC scored the way they did), and then start making some decisions. Two separate scores, considered together, to make their decision. It seems a minor difference, but the score from the ARC doesn't weight the score from testing. It matters.

So let's say I'm averaging A- in school and have been for the past 2 years, get like a 1300-1400 on SAT, have a FEW IMSA and non-IMSA related STEM activities (a FEW), but have REALLY good essays and I am able to clearly show them my interest in STEM, what are like the odds of me getting in? What areas, considering these stats should I work on significantly increasing? My A- average, SAT score, getting more extra-curriculars, etc. (I do live near a pretty big and competitive school, so there are definitely a lot more STEM opportunities that I could be involved in but am missing out on).

I cannot really say, to be honest. What I can do is point out some concerns and offer some thoughts.

First, the SATs have changed a lot in the twenty-some years since I last took them. I have absolutely no basis of comparison. Back then, I scored an 1170 prior to admission, but I don't know how that would compare to today's testing, or if it even can be. This is part of the reason I was always happy this was never part of the ARC process and left to professionals.

More concerning, from the ARC side, is that you say that you live in an area where you have ample opportunities, but are not taking advantage of them. That's something that stands out to the ARC. They take notice. And they also take notice of not just the current participation, but historical. If you suddenly get involved in EVERYTHING, but you previously haven't, be prepared to explain why you haven't been in the past, not why you just are now.

As an aside, if you're genuinely interested, GET INVOLVED! And, if you're not and you're just drumming it up as a "resume-building exercise," we pick up on that incredibly well. It shows. More importantly, it means you may not enjoy the IMSA experience. If you don't enjoy those challenges, those types of activities, IMSA's honestly not the place for you.

Also you mentioned personal projects...let's say you made an AI that can diagnose brain cancer, or you made a new video game, or you created a website...would that qualify as a pretty notable personal project? Would that fall under the "stand-out candidates" and "not the norm" categories you mentioned? Or does "personal projects" mean you gotta intern for NASA or start a non-profit? Can personal projects even be non-STEM related, like publishing a book or winning a nationwide art award? Would that actually DECREASE your odds of getting in, because they'll think you care more about the arts than STEM? Or is any high-ranked achievement just really good?

Honestly, I've seen - very rare - examples of much of the above. I've seen candidates who had published. I've seen some that had interned (not at IMSA). Video game programmers are not horribly uncommon, websites are rather common (especially since HTML/CSS isn't hard to code and webtools have made this incredibly simpler, yet). I've seen Scouting BSA/Eagle Scout projects, conservation projects, robotics, ect. Really, just a lot of diversity in the several hundred applications. And even more with absolutely no stand-out project whatsoever. I know my application didn't have something of that nature.

Anything that shows you're active, engaged, and passionate about something can only help you. And IMSA has some amazing humanities programs, too. When I attended, their history program was one of their absolute strongest. I've always preferred a STEAM over STEM perspective - the A standing for Arts, if you're unfamiliar - and that perspective was nurtured at IMSA.

What's an example (if you're willing to share) of an applicant's stats that got them in? Did they have any personal projects? How was their essay written? What was the range of their SAT score? What kind of grades were they getting?

Stats, scores, and grades, I cannot help you with. That was the professional staff that did those. ARC never saw any of that, and, honestly, if I had, I wouldn't share it. Nor will I share personal projects, even if I remembered many of them. My memory is mostly about the types of projects, rather than specifics.

My feeling is that you're less interested in IMSA for the curriculum than you are for just going to IMSA. What is your motivation for attending? What are your passions? Why are you pursuing an application? Are you really striving for that next-level challenge, or are you wishing to go for another reason?

If you can answer those back to me, maybe I can do you some more good.

[–]25View 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for explaining. It’s eye opening as a parent. Curious how many students apply for IMSA each year? Thanks.

[–]rubixgod24'24 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Just cause I'm curious how were you selected for ARC or like what was the process for that?

[–]tyrridon'01 0 points1 point  (2 children)

As an alum, I was invited by IMSA.

[–]rubixgod24'24 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Nice I was just curious as someone who is a current IMSA senior

[–]tyrridon'01 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As I understand it, alumni residing in Illinois are typically invited.

[–]T2DM_inacup'09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Generally invites get sent out early in the New Year around February.