Any visibility into how TJ admissions test is assessed/how 1.5% works

[Anonymous]

Has TJ said anything about how the various essays are graded and how the math essay is weighted compared to the other essays? Also for middle schools that typically did not send very many kids to TJ, does 1.5% of their 8th grade class now get into TJ if at least 1.5% made it to the essay test round? For example, if it is a middle school with 300 8th graders and only 3 of them take the TJ admissions test, do all 3 of those kids get in because they met the minimum GPA/math standards or do they still have to get a reasonably good score on the essays?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has TJ said anything about how the various essays are graded and how the math essay is weighted compared to the other essays? Also for middle schools that typically did not send very many kids to TJ, does 1.5% of their 8th grade class now get into TJ if at least 1.5% made it to the essay test round? For example, if it is a middle school with 300 8th graders and only 3 of them take the TJ admissions test, do all 3 of those kids get in because they met the minimum GPA/math standards or do they still have to get a reasonably good score on the essays?

For context, are you asking because yours is one of the 3 that you hope get in or asking because yours is at a school where 300+ took the test so mad that the 3 may “take spot” or your kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has TJ said anything about how the various essays are graded and how the math essay is weighted compared to the other essays? Also for middle schools that typically did not send very many kids to TJ, does 1.5% of their 8th grade class now get into TJ if at least 1.5% made it to the essay test round? For example, if it is a middle school with 300 8th graders and only 3 of them take the TJ admissions test, do all 3 of those kids get in because they met the minimum GPA/math standards or do they still have to get a reasonably good score on the essays?

For context, are you asking because yours is one of the 3 that you hope get in or asking because yours is at a school where 300+ took the test so mad that the 3 may “take spot” or your kid?

OP here I am asking a factual question so not sure if the context really matters. My kids school is in between but closer to being a school where few kids took the test. So in part I am wondering if my kid is really just competing against ~10 kids for ~5 spots or if he is also being assessed against some kind of objective standard of what is TJ-worthy and it is possible that only 1 or 2 kids from his 8th grade class of 300 will be accepted. I honestly am not even sure what I want the answer to be (I don't want my kid going there if he is going to be one of the weakest students).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has TJ said anything about how the various essays are graded and how the math essay is weighted compared to the other essays? Also for middle schools that typically did not send very many kids to TJ, does 1.5% of their 8th grade class now get into TJ if at least 1.5% made it to the essay test round? For example, if it is a middle school with 300 8th graders and only 3 of them take the TJ admissions test, do all 3 of those kids get in because they met the minimum GPA/math standards or do they still have to get a reasonably good score on the essays?

For context, are you asking because yours is one of the 3 that you hope get in or asking because yours is at a school where 300+ took the test so mad that the 3 may “take spot” or your kid?

OP here I am asking a factual question so not sure if the context really matters. My kids school is in between but closer to being a school where few kids took the test. So in part I am wondering if my kid is really just competing against ~10 kids for ~5 spots or if he is also being assessed against some kind of objective standard of what is TJ-worthy and it is possible that only 1 or 2 kids from his 8th grade class of 300 will be accepted. I honestly am not even sure what I want the answer to be (I don't want my kid going there if he is going to be one of the weakest students).

The answer is both. The first round is at the school, determining which kids are the 1.5 kids. If your child is not one of those then they enter the general pool.

[Anonymous]

If a school has 400 students, 6 kids will be offered spots if they meet the minimum 3.5 GPA and are at least taking honors Algebra 1, honors Science, and one or the other of honors English/Social Studies (or be a young scholars student). They only look at 7th grade GPA and first semester of 8th grade. The six students have to have filled out the application and then taken the “test” yesterday; the 4 essays on student portrait skills and 1 problem solving essay. If more than 6 students at that particular middle school applied they will be assessed against the other students from their middle school for those 6 spots. Whoever had the highest points based on GPA, SPS, and PSE (plus experience factor bonus points for FARMS status, ELL status, or IEP status).

TJ admissions no longer cares if a student is taking Honors Algebra I or AP Pre Calculus in 8th grade (they don’t look what math class a student is taking). What matters the most is if the student writes better essays (or has one or more experience factors that boost their scores).

For the 1.5% it helps if the middle school is not an AAP center school. Students at AAP middle schools have the lowest likelihood of being in the 1.5% and would be better off staying at their base middle school (at least for 8th grade).

After the 1.5% per middle school is allotted, the remainder of the seats go to the students with the highest overall scores (SOL pass rates, math class taken, MAP scores are not considered). It helps more to be a better writer than STEM student for TJ admissions.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks! I’d be shocked if my kid could get in based on the general pool but he may have a shot at being one of the candidates from his school (other kids said they couldn’t finish all the essays in time).

[Anonymous]

We were told there are still qualifying scores students have to hit on the essays to be considered for the 1.5% and if not enough hit that qualifying score on the essay part (even had GPA and were allowed to sit for essays), then those “seats” become unallocated and go to other students.

Some test companies do say this- example here at 10:20 in video link

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pKUDUn9ea-0

BUT, FCPS site does not use same wording- they say “students with the strongest evaluated applications from that school will be offered admission.”

(https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/registration/thomas-jefferson-high-school-science-and-technology-tjhsst-admissions)

Seat Allocation Process

Each public school within Fairfax County and each cooperating school division will be presumptively allocated a number of seats equal to 1.5% of that school’s 8th grade student population (“Allocated Seats”). The remainder of seats will not be allocated to any specific public school (“Unallocated Seats”). In the event a school has fewer eligible applicants than its number of Allocated Seats, the difference will be treated as Unallocated Seats

Allocated Seats - Applicants attending public school will be first evaluated against other applicants from the same school, and students with the strongest evaluated applications from that school will be offered admission.

Unallocated Seats - All remaining public school applicants and applicants who do not attend public school in Fairfax County or in a cooperating division will be considered for the Unallocated Seats, which will be offered to the highest evaluated applicants in that group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:… If more than 6 students at that particular middle school applied they will be assessed against the other students from their middle school for those 6 spots. Whoever had the highest points based on GPA, SPS, and PSE (plus experience factor bonus points for FARMS status, ELL status, or IEP status).

Does the middle school have any say in who ends up picked as part of the 1.5%? Or are all selections done only at Gatehouse?

[Anonymous]

No input from school

[Anonymous]

- 1.5% is a cap on the middle school; not a factor for individual admission assessments;

- most middle schools never come close to the 1.5% cap

- the cap was placed by the FCPS school board as an indirect way to reduce the number of Asian/Indian students at TJ, without singling out those students by race (which would have been unlawful racial discrimination if they had said “ no more than X-percent Asian” for example ).

- in practice, Longfellow Middle school in McLean previously sent 80 to 90 kids every year to TJ prior to the 1.5% revision. Most of those 80 to 90 were Asian. After the 1.5 cap was imposed, Longfellow can only send about 40 (and the majority of those 40 kids every year are Asian/Indian).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:- 1.5% is a cap on the middle school; not a factor for individual admission assessments;

- most middle schools never come close to the 1.5% cap

- the cap was placed by the FCPS school board as an indirect way to reduce the number of Asian/Indian students at TJ, without singling out those students by race (which would have been unlawful racial discrimination if they had said “ no more than X-percent Asian” for example ).

- in practice, Longfellow Middle school in McLean previously sent 80 to 90 kids every year to TJ prior to the 1.5% revision. Most of those 80 to 90 were Asian. After the 1.5 cap was imposed, Longfellow can only send about 40 (and the majority of those 40 kids every year are Asian/Indian).

This is completely incorrect. 1.5% is an allocation per school. Longfellows numbers were reduced because other schools got more seats, not because Longfellow was capped. In shag world is 40 kids 1.5% of longfellows class? That would be a 2600 person class. Longfellows class is actually like 600 so they will get a minimum of 9 seats (1.5%) but they end up filling a lot of the unallocsted spots as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were told there are still qualifying scores students have to hit on the essays to be considered for the 1.5% and if not enough hit that qualifying score on the essay part (even had GPA and were allowed to sit for essays), then those “seats” become unallocated and go to other students.

Some test companies do say this- example here at 10:20 in video link

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pKUDUn9ea-0

BUT, FCPS site does not use same wording- they say “students with the strongest evaluated applications from that school will be offered admission.”

(https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/registration/thomas-jefferson-high-school-science-and-technology-tjhsst-admissions)

Seat Allocation Process

Each public school within Fairfax County and each cooperating school division will be presumptively allocated a number of seats equal to 1.5% of that school’s 8th grade student population (“Allocated Seats”). The remainder of seats will not be allocated to any specific public school (“Unallocated Seats”). In the event a school has fewer eligible applicants than its number of Allocated Seats, the difference will be treated as Unallocated Seats

Allocated Seats - Applicants attending public school will be first evaluated against other applicants from the same school, and students with the strongest evaluated applications from that school will be offered admission.

Unallocated Seats - All remaining public school applicants and applicants who do not attend public school in Fairfax County or in a cooperating division will be considered for the Unallocated Seats, which will be offered to the highest evaluated applicants in that group.

This is what we heard too - that if a school doesn’t have enough kids that score well enough to get in, the 1.5% is out the window. It’s the bolder part - there is a cutoff score on their “algorithm” (which is based on the test and whatever other factors they throw in) to be “eligible”.

So they look at each school and take the highest 1.5% of kids above the cutoff score.
Then they order the rest of the kids above the cutoff from highest to lowest (without consideration for school) and start at the top until they fill the class.
The rest of the kids above the cutoff are in the waitpool and they just work their way down.
If the kid is below the cutoff, they are rejected immediately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:- 1.5% is a cap on the middle school; not a factor for individual admission assessments;

- most middle schools never come close to the 1.5% cap

- the cap was placed by the FCPS school board as an indirect way to reduce the number of Asian/Indian students at TJ, without singling out those students by race (which would have been unlawful racial discrimination if they had said “ no more than X-percent Asian” for example ).

- in practice, Longfellow Middle school in McLean previously sent 80 to 90 kids every year to TJ prior to the 1.5% revision. Most of those 80 to 90 were Asian. After the 1.5 cap was imposed, Longfellow can only send about 40 (and the majority of those 40 kids every year are Asian/Indian).

This is completely incorrect. 1.5% is an allocation per school. Longfellows numbers were reduced because other schools got more seats, not because Longfellow was capped. In shag world is 40 kids 1.5% of longfellows class? That would be a 2600 person class. Longfellows class is actually like 600 so they will get a minimum of 9 seats (1.5%) but they end up filling a lot of the unallocsted spots as well.

PP is incorrect.

Longfellow previously sent 80 to 90 kids every year before the school board’s “reforms.”

Now it sends approx. 40

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:- 1.5% is a cap on the middle school; not a factor for individual admission assessments;

- most middle schools never come close to the 1.5% cap

- the cap was placed by the FCPS school board as an indirect way to reduce the number of Asian/Indian students at TJ, without singling out those students by race (which would have been unlawful racial discrimination if they had said “ no more than X-percent Asian” for example ).

- in practice, Longfellow Middle school in McLean previously sent 80 to 90 kids every year to TJ prior to the 1.5% revision. Most of those 80 to 90 were Asian. After the 1.5 cap was imposed, Longfellow can only send about 40 (and the majority of those 40 kids every year are Asian/Indian).

This is confusing, explain how you do your mathz
Longfellow MS 8th grader is about 650 kids, 1.5% is about 10 kids. Last year acceptance from LMS is 40 kids.
First acceptance was 29 kids (and some students are decline the offer) after they open the waitinglist it end up 40 admitted.
Never heard that they can only send max 40 kids, what is your source?

[Anonymous]

OP here thanks again. Also fascinating how people felt the need to bring race into a basic, factual question. Never change DCUM!!!