Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy | |
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Address | |
1500 Sullivan Rd. Aurora, Illinois 60506-1000 United States |
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Coordinates | 41°47′13″N 88°21′17″W / 41.78694°N 88.35472°WCoordinates: 41°47′13″N 88°21′17″W / 41.78694°N 88.35472°W |
Information | |
School type | public residential magnet |
Established | 1985 |
Opened | 1986 |
Founder | Leon Lederman |
President | Jose Torres |
Chairperson | Dr. Paula Olszewski-Kubilius |
Principal | Dr. Robert Hernandez |
Staff | 55 |
Grades | 10–12 |
Gender | coed |
Enrollment | 650 |
Campus type | suburban |
Color(s) |
Columbia blue Silver |
Slogan | The world’s leading teaching and learning laboratory for imagination and inquiry |
Team name | Titans |
Accreditation | AdvancED |
Average ACT scores | 31 |
Newspaper | The Acronym |
Yearbook | Gallimaufry |
Nobel laureates | 1 |
Website | https://www.imsa.edu/ |
The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, or IMSA, is a three-year residential public high school in Aurora, Illinois, United States, with an enrollment of approximately 650 students.
Enrollment is generally offered to incoming sophomores, although younger students who have had the equivalent of one year of Algebra and a 9th grade science equivalent are eligible to apply. All applicants undergo a competitive admissions process involving the review of grades, teacher evaluations, student essays, and SAT scores. Historically, approximately one-third of applicants in any given year are admitted. Due to its nature as a public institution, there are no charges related to tuition, room and board; however, there is an annual student fee which may be reduced or waived based on family income. IMSA has been consistently ranked by Newsweek as one of the top ten high schools in the country for math and science, and some of its graduates have moved on to become leaders in a variety of fields.
Nobel laureate Leon Lederman, director emeritus of nearby Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, was among the first to propose the school in 1982, and together with Governor Jim Thompson led the effort for its creation.
The school was established by the Illinois General Assembly in 1985, and opened to students in 1986. The academy is housed in a building constructed in 1978 as the north campus of West Aurora High School, with seven outlying dormitories built after IMSA took over the campus. IMSA's first class graduated in 1989, with the commencement speech delivered by Lederman. IMSA is one of the country's few high schools to possess a .edu second-level domain.
The school's founding president was former Batavia Superintendent Stephanie Pace Marshall, winner of the Lincoln Laureate Award, who was involved with the project from the start and helped write IMSA's original legislation. Marshall retired from the position on June 30, 2007, and was later named President Emerita by the Board of Trustees. She still has an office on campus and continues to position IMSA on the national and international stages. Marshall serves on the board of several non-profit and for-profit institutions, including nearby Tellabs.