Illinois residents who have completed the equivalent of nine years of education excluding preschool and kindergarten, and are not currently enrolled beyond the ninth grade are invited to apply to the Academy. Current 10th-grade students are not eligible for admission.
Continuation in the IMSA program is dependent upon satisfactory academic performance and compliance with all Academy expectations, including participation in research projects, campus work service, and community service responsibilities.
How is residency defined?
A student's residency is defined by the place where the parent(s) or legal guardians have their principal home address. The term "parent' includes a natural or adoptive parent with legal custody or a legal guardian who has been granted custody of the student, provided that the legal guardianship has not been established solely for demonstrating residency in the State of Illinois for the purpose of attending IMSA.
Students must demonstrate compliance with this residency requirement by the application deadline. See the IMSA Residency Policy document.
What academic qualifications are necessary for admission?
Admission to IMSA is determined by a competitive process in which all applicants are required to submit a specific set of materials. The competitive nature of the selection process does not permit the establishment of a pre-specified set of cut off scores but rather students who present the strongest combination of credentials are invited to attend.
IMSA utilizes an accomplishment-based selection process that incorporates performance on projects and participation or leadership in extracurricular activities with more traditional indicators of talent such as test scores and grades. For this reason, students with the highest test scores may not emerge as the strongest applicants in the pool for the purpose of selection. Along with these criteria, geographic and demographic variables are considered to ensure a diverse student population.
What about Early Admission for younger students?
IMSA is a school designed to meet the special academic needs of exceptional students. Those needs sometimes do not correspond to chronological age. For that reason, we will consider applications for students who are not yet in the 9th grade, however, it is not our intent to be an accelerated program. Eighth grade applicants who are offered admission may elect to defer their matriculation until the following academic year. In these instances, admission will be guaranteed to the applicant for the following academic year contingent upon completion of the ninth grade academic program and submission of the required admissions forms. Students who submit an application during the 8th grade and are not invited to attend that year are encouraged to submit an application the following year.