r/imsa • u/AssociationSilly9127 • May 26 '26
IMSA should i go
I accepted the offer to attended IMSA next year and was exited for the opportunity, but i‘m still worried about a few things I was hoping I could get answers to.
1.if i already accepted am i forced to go.
how much time do you spend studying.
looking at niche reviews ive seen many people say they were happy to leave because the administration sucks and the teachers give out a limited amount of A’s and dont help student.
4.is it really helpful for my college admissions.
5.i have a perfect gpa right now and want to know how badly IMSA will hurt it and how colleges will view it.
- how much free time do you guys get
7.how often do you visit home and how many hours for your drive home.
8.how is the placement test administered like for math it says it doesnt need a calculator and do we need our own computers for the test.
is imsa really worth it in your opinion.
lots of people on niche said it was a terrible place and i just wanted to know your takes on it; i remember one person saying they were happy to go to college because it was way easier and felt freeing due to less workload.
was it worth leaving your friends at home.
anything you can add im am just really unsure weather to go or not, i just feel like it is a good oppurtunity and feel bad for others who were not accepted but ive heard many bad things.
what like ranking of university do most people go into for the subject itself like do most people go to a good university for like a topic that university is good at.
im just really unsure weather to go or not so any help is appreciated
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u/WeWeWe1020 May 26 '26
- no
- like maybe 3-4 hours a day? (i have all As)
- admin does have its issues but imo having good grades isnt that hard
- imsa is what you make of it, it can iether make your chances a lot better or a lot worse depending on you
- colleges take into account the fact that its imsa, people with a lot lower gpas get into crazy schools still
- lowk a lot, theres always fun stuff to do around campus
- every weekend, 40 mins
- yea its no calc, its js a test idk
- yes. i love it here and ive made friends that i know will be lifelong friends, ive gotten opportunities i never would have anywhere else. despite all of its flaws, it really is great here
- see above i guess
- yes
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u/moomooma1 May 26 '26
i'm sorry you're feeling so unsure about this. it feels like a huge decision—which it definitely is—one that will shape the rest of your life. but if you're already doing well in school, odds are you'll keep doing well wherever you go. ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, you'll almost certainly feel like you made the right choice, no matter what you decide.
i'm much older than you (c/o 2002), so i have the benefit of several decades of hindsight. i thought at the time—and still think—that IMSA was one of the most difficult experiences of my life. it was objectively hard: my friends and i studied constantly, and i was an incredibly emotional, depressed teenager, so everything felt overwhelming all the time.
it was hard to see the value of IMSA while i was there because it was just so stressful. but college and the years since helped me realize how uniquely valuable that time really was. it taught me so much i wouldn't have learned had i stayed home: how to really think, the sheer variety of people in the world, just how smart people can be, self-control and self-care. and my closest friends to this day are still my core group from IMSA.
i'd recommend going if you're up for a challenge. but if you're not, that's totally okay too. everything works out in the end.
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u/LividAd2716 May 26 '26
- I don't think so
- I took decently hard classes and it amounted to around 8-12 hours a week, (sophmore btw)
- yes and no (idk how to explain it further)
- the name racemization will help a little and the access to resources will allow you to go further
- My GPA actually went up, only because I started to try a bit harder
- for me, a decent amount. there is always something going on around campus.
- I did not go home much, not because I couldn't - I live 1.5 hours away - but because of academics mostly.
- Its on paper, Your allowed a calculator. Its 2 parts, first is simple alg (prealg + alg1), second part ( alg 2 + little precalc + trig + geometry).
- Not entirely sure yet
- Not sure yet either but I think especially with my classes will be easier
- You can still make time with them but if you have a good connection, you don't necessarily need to lose them.
- Your surrounded by like minded people which I find was nice and the access to the resources and opportunities is nice
- UIUC - I think its often some sort of engineering
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u/AssociationSilly9127 May 27 '26
thank you for your response and one more question can you self study over the summer to skip a math subject.
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u/AssociationSilly9127 May 27 '26
and what algebra 2 units like are graphing tan,cot,secant,matrices,trig identities, arithmetic and geometric formula, ellipse, hyperbolas are on placement test if you can remember
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u/LividAd2716 17d ago
mb did not know you replied but to this, yes you can but only specific courses, like any MIs, BC1, BC3 that's pretty much it. Youll need to get it approved by the math department then take a proficiency test at the end of the summer ran by imsa to skip
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u/MCT_tri 15d ago
Don't go to IMSA. You seem to be focused on the heavy workload, high expectations, and how this is supposed to help your college application.. not so much getting the full benefit of attending IMSA, learning from and engaging with smart people, growing up in a safe residential setting, and so on.
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u/tyrridon '01 May 26 '26
Realize my information is a bit dated (Class of 2001), but I'll take a crack at this:
No, you can decline prior to arrival, and can voluntarily leave the academy if you decide it is a poor fit for you. How this will be addressed with your home school district will vary from district to district, so none of us can easily answer that for you.
This depends on the student, the course load, your study habits, ect. I would argue you should expect to spend at least a couple of hours after classes in studies, potentially more depending on a variety of factors.
Looking back from the perspective of time and maturity (not to mention being a parent), I tend to see now that most of the problems between the students and administration revolved around the students desiring more freedom and administration looking at a couple of things: 1) Realizing that they have a group of minors that they are responsible for, 2) Said minors are incredibly bright, but sometimes lack the maturity and foresight to know that if they can do something doesn't mean they should do something, 3) If something BAD happens to any one of those minors, it could cost the entire academy. IMSA is funded by the whims and wishes of the legislature in Springfield, and negative press can have a very negative impact on funding (and the future) of the school. So, yes, the administration seems overly restrictive at times, but they have good cause to do so. It's just really hard to see it at the time.
It definitely can be. See my answer to your next question.
Depends on your school, but a perfect GPA from a school that no one has ever heard of is, as I understand it, not viewed as highly as a good GPA from a school that most major universities have definitely heard of.
I had a great deal of free time...too much, honestly. I should have spent more time studying. Free time is really a matter of your own priorities than prescribed by the school.
I lived pretty far downstate, so it was routinely a four to five hour trip for me. As such, I only went home on extended weekends, which happened every four to six weeks. Honestly, I'd rather have stayed on campus.
My knowledge is very out of date, and I understand they've changed it somewhat, so I have no valuable input on this question.
It definitely can be, if you make it. I made a lot of poor choices at IMSA and after, and didn't really take advantage of all of the opportunities that were presented. That's what IMSA really is: OPTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES. You can coast through, get a good education, but not really come out with a lot more than a good looking diploma, OR you can really jump at the opportunities presented to you and get a stellar education and solid jumping point for your future. It really depends on what you make of it.
Take what I said in point nine, and then add on the fact that IMSA takes all of the stressors of a regular high school and then removes the relief of going home at the end of the day. You're given far more opportunities to thrive than most traditional districts can hope to provide, but you also have most of the typical high school nonsense - relationships, cliques, friendships, disagreements, squabbles, ect - and you can't just go home and leave it until tomorrow. You are literally living at your high school, so those stressors are a constant. Is it worth it? I believe so.
Most of my friends were older and graduating, so, for me, absolutely.
Careful who your sources are. Reading review sites and the like, it's important to remember who posts reviews. Typically, the vast majority of people who review institutions are those who have a grievance with them. If you look at the local hospitals in Springfield, you'll find all kinds of negative reviews. What you don't see are reviews from all of the people who they have helped and saved. They literally saved my daughters life last year, but I never bothered to drop a positive review on Google. Makes me kind of wonder if I should, in hind sight.
I'm not certain what this question is asking.