Official TJ Admissions Decisions Results for the Class of 2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think a lot of people believe that the kids who win these competitions on a regular basis for TJ are the ones who are at risk of not getting into the school - and hundreds of parents believe their kids to be those kids because they won some first prize at some local competition somewhere. (You'll also get dopes who come on here pretending that their kid was a national level award winner who didn't get offered - take that nonsense with a grain of salt. Those kids got in.)

I've asked this numerous times, and the people on your side keep dodging the question. Exactly how are they identifying the academic superstars from just middle school GPA and one essay? Many of the middle schools will have more than 1.5% of the honors/AAP kids receiving 4.0s. How can they tell the difference between somewhat above average kids and the truly elite ones? The current application process is too scant for the top notch kids to shine.

I'm in this boat - DC is still several years removed from applying to TJ, but I'm worried that TJ admissions will be the same kind of nightmare as AAP. DC got into AAP L4 on the basis of exceptionally high (unprepped) test scores, but their AART didn't like them so it wasn't a shoo-in. In school, we'd always see straight 4's in the objective subjects, and 3's in subjective ones like gym, art, etc. I'm really worried when I hear "experts" with loads of "experience" try to straight-face me that GPA plus the holistic wisdom of the school system is enough to figure out if my kid is an academic superstar.

Gym and art grades probably have more to do with your kids' ability/effort there and that it doesn't correlate well with other academic skills, not because they are subjective. They are at expected level in those classes, not advanced. And there are no "objective" subjects. (I say this as a scientist). That said, I agree the new TJ admissions process needs refining.

I'd agree with you if the kids weren't online last year and I hadn't seen what the classes looked like. Ability and effort was not the issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:“If my kids don't stack up against high-achieving Asian students, then they don't deserve spots at a school like TJ. I object to processes that water down the standards in an effort to increase URMs and decrease Asian students.” FTFY

Perhaps but buying the test answers isn't the same thing as high achieving let's be clear about it.

Look at pictures of the TJ students of the clubs or science / Math / Tech competitions, 95% Asians (prepped).

I'm sure TJ doesn't buy the tests of the competitions

The point I think the poster is trying to make is that if the kids were undeserving, they wouldn't be selected for/winners in the clubs/tech competitions. An obvious point given the consistent performance over so long.

I would say just don't engage with ignorant, jealous haters.

I think a lot of people believe that the kids who win these competitions on a regular basis for TJ are the ones who are at risk of not getting into the school - and hundreds of parents believe their kids to be those kids because they won some first prize at some local competition somewhere. (You'll also get dopes who come on here pretending that their kid was a national level award winner who didn't get offered - take that nonsense with a grain of salt. Those kids got in.)

In reality, the ones who didn't get in with the new process are the ones who, once they got to TJ, would be back-benchers for things like Math Team and Model UN. Good news is, those kids will probably be at the front of the line at their base schools. They'll still lose to TJ, but they'll be able to say that they competed in the major competitions and were their school's representatives, which will look better for their college applications than serving as a back-bencher at TJ.

This kind of condescension is what racism is all about. Change the rules, push out some undesirable minorities and tell them everything will be ok. It is naked abuse of political power.

Except nobody said anything about pushing out minorities. The new rules aren't ideal, but they are a massive improvement over a system that was too easily gamed by many and resulted in less affluent areas with equally gifted students being under represented.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Curie kids will be fine anywhere. For the equally gifted children being identified and less affluent schools, this will be life-changing. The Board of education did the right thing.

BINGO!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think a lot of people believe that the kids who win these competitions on a regular basis for TJ are the ones who are at risk of not getting into the school - and hundreds of parents believe their kids to be those kids because they won some first prize at some local competition somewhere. (You'll also get dopes who come on here pretending that their kid was a national level award winner who didn't get offered - take that nonsense with a grain of salt. Those kids got in.)

I've asked this numerous times, and the people on your side keep dodging the question. Exactly how are they identifying the academic superstars from just middle school GPA and one essay? Many of the middle schools will have more than 1.5% of the honors/AAP kids receiving 4.0s. How can they tell the difference between somewhat above average kids and the truly elite ones? The current application process is too scant for the top notch kids to shine.

I'm in this boat - DC is still several years removed from applying to TJ, but I'm worried that TJ admissions will be the same kind of nightmare as AAP. DC got into AAP L4 on the basis of exceptionally high (unprepped) test scores, but their AART didn't like them so it wasn't a shoo-in. In school, we'd always see straight 4's in the objective subjects, and 3's in subjective ones like gym, art, etc. I'm really worried when I hear "experts" with loads of "experience" try to straight-face me that GPA plus the holistic wisdom of the school system is enough to figure out if my kid is an academic superstar.

Gym and art grades probably have more to do with your kids' ability/effort there and that it doesn't correlate well with other academic skills, not because they are subjective. They are at expected level in those classes, not advanced. And there are no "objective" subjects. (I say this as a scientist). That said, I agree the new TJ admissions process needs refining.

I'd agree with you if the kids weren't online last year and I hadn't seen what the classes looked like. Ability and effort was not the issue.

Well art and gym are almost impossible to do on-line--you can't assume it's anything like normal. But you said your kids "always" got 3s in them. I know my kid is great at Art, weak in Gym, excellent in academics, okay in music and you know what--the grades consistently reflect their strengths/skills in those areas pretty accurately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think a lot of people believe that the kids who win these competitions on a regular basis for TJ are the ones who are at risk of not getting into the school - and hundreds of parents believe their kids to be those kids because they won some first prize at some local competition somewhere. (You'll also get dopes who come on here pretending that their kid was a national level award winner who didn't get offered - take that nonsense with a grain of salt. Those kids got in.)

I've asked this numerous times, and the people on your side keep dodging the question. Exactly how are they identifying the academic superstars from just middle school GPA and one essay? Many of the middle schools will have more than 1.5% of the honors/AAP kids receiving 4.0s. How can they tell the difference between somewhat above average kids and the truly elite ones? The current application process is too scant for the top notch kids to shine.

I'm in this boat - DC is still several years removed from applying to TJ, but I'm worried that TJ admissions will be the same kind of nightmare as AAP. DC got into AAP L4 on the basis of exceptionally high (unprepped) test scores, but their AART didn't like them so it wasn't a shoo-in. In school, we'd always see straight 4's in the objective subjects, and 3's in subjective ones like gym, art, etc. I'm really worried when I hear "experts" with loads of "experience" try to straight-face me that GPA plus the holistic wisdom of the school system is enough to figure out if my kid is an academic superstar.

Gym and art grades probably have more to do with your kids' ability/effort there and that it doesn't correlate well with other academic skills, not because they are subjective. They are at expected level in those classes, not advanced. And there are no "objective" subjects. (I say this as a scientist). That said, I agree the new TJ admissions process needs refining.

I'd agree with you if the kids weren't online last year and I hadn't seen what the classes looked like. Ability and effort was not the issue.

Well art and gym are almost impossible to do on-line--you can't assume it's anything like normal. But you said your kids "always" got 3s in them. I know my kid is great at Art, weak in Gym, excellent in academics, okay in music and you know what--the grades consistently reflect their strengths/skills in those areas pretty accurately.

Ok, but agree to disagree. Let's just say that we have some strong artistic types from a part of the family tree who are affronted by the grade. They see a consistent grading bias rather than a consistent evaluation of strength. It doesn't help when you ask the teacher and they can't give you an unambiguous rationale for the grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think a lot of people believe that the kids who win these competitions on a regular basis for TJ are the ones who are at risk of not getting into the school - and hundreds of parents believe their kids to be those kids because they won some first prize at some local competition somewhere. (You'll also get dopes who come on here pretending that their kid was a national level award winner who didn't get offered - take that nonsense with a grain of salt. Those kids got in.)

I've asked this numerous times, and the people on your side keep dodging the question. Exactly how are they identifying the academic superstars from just middle school GPA and one essay? Many of the middle schools will have more than 1.5% of the honors/AAP kids receiving 4.0s. How can they tell the difference between somewhat above average kids and the truly elite ones? The current application process is too scant for the top notch kids to shine.

The answer is that you can't identify the academic stars. The process was clearly designed to eliminate as many of them as possible.

I'm still waiting for someone to explain how the TJ admissions people found the "kids who win these competitions on a regular basis for TJ" from such a sparse application. Please explain this, or admit that the current admissions process has no mechanism for identifying and admitting the kids with national awards who are academic superstars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think a lot of people believe that the kids who win these competitions on a regular basis for TJ are the ones who are at risk of not getting into the school - and hundreds of parents believe their kids to be those kids because they won some first prize at some local competition somewhere. (You'll also get dopes who come on here pretending that their kid was a national level award winner who didn't get offered - take that nonsense with a grain of salt. Those kids got in.)

I've asked this numerous times, and the people on your side keep dodging the question. Exactly how are they identifying the academic superstars from just middle school GPA and one essay? Many of the middle schools will have more than 1.5% of the honors/AAP kids receiving 4.0s. How can they tell the difference between somewhat above average kids and the truly elite ones? The current application process is too scant for the top notch kids to shine.

The answer is that you can't identify the academic stars. The process was clearly designed to eliminate as many of them as possible.

I'm still waiting for someone to explain how the TJ admissions people found the "kids who win these competitions on a regular basis for TJ" from such a sparse application. Please explain this, or admit that the current admissions process has no mechanism for identifying and admitting the kids with national awards who are academic superstars.

They probably wrote about it in their essays - which are fairly easily fact-checked these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think a lot of people believe that the kids who win these competitions on a regular basis for TJ are the ones who are at risk of not getting into the school - and hundreds of parents believe their kids to be those kids because they won some first prize at some local competition somewhere. (You'll also get dopes who come on here pretending that their kid was a national level award winner who didn't get offered - take that nonsense with a grain of salt. Those kids got in.)

I've asked this numerous times, and the people on your side keep dodging the question. Exactly how are they identifying the academic superstars from just middle school GPA and one essay? Many of the middle schools will have more than 1.5% of the honors/AAP kids receiving 4.0s. How can they tell the difference between somewhat above average kids and the truly elite ones? The current application process is too scant for the top notch kids to shine.

The answer is that you can't identify the academic stars. The process was clearly designed to eliminate as many of them as possible.

I'm still waiting for someone to explain how the TJ admissions people found the "kids who win these competitions on a regular basis for TJ" from such a sparse application. Please explain this, or admit that the current admissions process has no mechanism for identifying and admitting the kids with national awards who are academic superstars.

They probably wrote about it in their essays - which are fairly easily fact-checked these days.

Correct. This is literally how it has always been done. The “no mechanism” argument is totally laughable and betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of how the majority of admissions processes work anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm still waiting for someone to explain how the TJ admissions people found the "kids who win these competitions on a regular basis for TJ" from such a sparse application. Please explain this, or admit that the current admissions process has no mechanism for identifying and admitting the kids with national awards who are academic superstars.

They probably wrote about it in their essays - which are fairly easily fact-checked these days.

Does that tip the balance anymore? Many people have argued that poor kids or kids at less affluent middle schools don't have the resources or support to earn high placements in STEM activities, so it's not equitable to use STEM awards for admissions. I was operating under the assumption that they weren't selecting kids for STEM achievements for reasons of equity (much akin to not giving any extra weight for Geometry or beyond rather than Algebra I), which would mean that the superstars are not necessarily being selected. I guess we'll see in a few years whether TJ still has a plethora of kids who are winning all of the national awards, or whether their academic competition teams take a huge hit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm still waiting for someone to explain how the TJ admissions people found the "kids who win these competitions on a regular basis for TJ" from such a sparse application. Please explain this, or admit that the current admissions process has no mechanism for identifying and admitting the kids with national awards who are academic superstars.

They probably wrote about it in their essays - which are fairly easily fact-checked these days.

Does that tip the balance anymore? Many people have argued that poor kids or kids at less affluent middle schools don't have the resources or support to earn high placements in STEM activities, so it's not equitable to use STEM awards for admissions. I was operating under the assumption that they weren't selecting kids for STEM achievements for reasons of equity (much akin to not giving any extra weight for Geometry or beyond rather than Algebra I), which would mean that the superstars are not necessarily being selected. I guess we'll see in a few years whether TJ still has a plethora of kids who are winning all of the national awards, or whether their academic competition teams take a huge hit.

$50 bucks says they do the same as they've always done

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
They probably wrote about it in their essays - which are fairly easily fact-checked these days.

I thought the essay was about solving a math problem, not open ended to talk about whatever you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:
That doesn't mean that the prestige is the ONLY thing they care about - only that they care about it MORE than families in those other cohorts.

Do you have any functional understanding of how stereotypes and discrimination work?

I mean without even getting into your basis for comparison

The word "purely" is tripping you up there.

And my basis for comparison is 20+ years of experience in elite education.

I'd argue that the word "purely" is tripping you up, since someone who's more familiar with discrimination would be aware that making that distinction is a luxury that people in its headlights typically aren't afforded.

I think that you're "20+ years of experience" is giving you the hubris to make claims which sound much more data-driven than they are on topics which are classically elusive to measurement. For example, an enhanced "interest" in academic "prestige" may easily be explained by an unfair perception of academic superficiality. The point is, no possible data can back your point, and I'm sticking by the claim that what you said sounds bad.

It may sound bad, but it's true. School principal essentially said the same thing at a meeting for parents whose kids qualified for accelerated math, advising them not to worry about what their neighbors' kids are doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:at a school like TJ. I object to processes that water down the standards in an effort to "increase URMs" that instead make it easier for mediocre white kids to beat more advanced Asian kids for spots at TJ.

Does the per school quota improve chances for white kids as well? Are there schools that are almost entirely white in Fairfax, with few Asians?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
They probably wrote about it in their essays - which are fairly easily fact-checked these days.

I thought the essay was about solving a math problem, not open ended to talk about whatever you want.

There were multiple essays. They found most of the top kids for sure. A few may have been missed but that happens every year no matter what process they use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:at a school like TJ. I object to processes that water down the standards in an effort to "increase URMs" that instead make it easier for mediocre white kids to beat more advanced Asian kids for spots at TJ.

Does the per school quota improve chances for white kids as well? Are there schools that are almost entirely white in Fairfax, with few Asians?

I have no idea what the numbers are, but I'd assume that high percentages of the Asian population are clustered around a few schools. If that's true, then the answer would be yes, once you dampen the impact of those few schools. Especially since Whites are a privileged majority, so they'd have the advantage for the top 1.5% in a school if they aren't beaten out by someone else.