About Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, or IMSA, is a three-year residential public subsidiary education institution 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 definite year are admitted. Due to its natural world as a public institution, there are no charges linked to tuition, room and board; however, there is an annual student go ahead which may be reduced or waived based on family income. IMSA has been consistently ranked by Newsweek as one of the summit ten high schools in the country for math and science, and some of its graduates have become leaders in a variety of fields. It is the top-rated public high school in Illinois on Niche.com.

Aurora is a city in DuPage, Kane, Kendall, and Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located primarily in DuPage and Kane counties, the second most populous city in the state, and the 124th most populous city in the country. The population was 197,899 at the 2010 census, and was estimated to have decreased to 197,757 by 2019.

Founded within Kane County, Aurora’s city limits and population have expanded into DuPage, Will, and Kendall counties. Once a mid-sized manufacturing city, Aurora has grown back the 1960s. From 2000 to 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau ranked the city as the 46th fastest growing city behind a population of higher than 100,000.

In 1908, Aurora adopted the nickname “City of Lights”, because in 1881 it was one of the first cities in the United States to agree to an all-electric street lighting system. Aurora’s historic downtown is located upon the Fox River, and centered upon Stolp Island. The city is estranged into three regions, the West Side, on the west side of the Fox River, the East Side, between the eastern bank of the Fox River and the Kane/DuPage County line, and the Far East Side/Fox Valley, which is from the County Line to the city’s eastern link up with Naperville.

The Aurora area has some significant architecture, including structures by Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Bruce Goff and George Grant Elmslie. Aurora is also house to a large stock of Sears Catalog Homes (over 50 homes) and Lustron all-steel homes (seven homes). The Hollywood Casino Aurora, a dockside gaming faculty with 53,000 square feet (4,900 m2) and 1,200 gaming positions, is located along the river in downtown Aurora.