Official TJ Admissions Decisions Results for the Class of 2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really? You want to pull higher performing (though not necessarily the highest performing in the county) kids out of schools that have a much smaller pool of advanced students to begin with?

I would argue that the higher-performing unprepped students from the less affluent schools have greater potential than the lower-achieving preppers from the wealthy schools that the new admission policy has impacted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really? You want to pull higher performing (though not necessarily the highest performing in the county) kids out of schools that have a much smaller pool of advanced students to begin with?

I would argue that the higher-performing unprepped students from the less affluent schools have greater potential than the lower-achieving preppers from the wealthy schools that the new admission policy has impacted.

Exactly sign the poor kids up for Cuire's flagship prep class and they'd also blow away the 2nd string preppers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really? You want to pull higher performing (though not necessarily the highest performing in the county) kids out of schools that have a much smaller pool of advanced students to begin with?

I would argue that the higher-performing unprepped students from the less affluent schools have greater potential than the lower-achieving preppers from the wealthy schools that the new admission policy has impacted.

It’s not a persuasive argument. The admissions people aren’t smart enough to locate all the raw talent, but they’ll surely exclude more qualified kids as long as they can have more unprepared students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
But any excuse you can come up with for your kid not measuring up will do.

What is being measured?

This. The problem with the new system is not the per school quotas (although they should go by base school and not enrolled school). It's that the application is too sparse. Maybe at the lower performing schools, GPA + one essay is enough to detect the top kids. At many schools, there will be 100 kids with a 4.0, all honors/AAP, and a good essay. Rather than finding the top kids at the school, the process is essentially a lottery.

FCPS could do what Boston and other school districts are now doing: Keep a comprehensive test and application, but still allocate seats by region/base school. That would be a huge improvement over the minimalist application that they're currently using.

[Anonymous]

It’s two essays. Actually more than that. Several small personal essays/paragraphs and then a math/science problem solving essay. So what you really are complaining about is the lack of a standardized test. Seems like a weak complaint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s two essays. Actually more than that. Several small personal essays/paragraphs and then a math/science problem solving essay. So what you really are complaining about is the lack of a standardized test. Seems like a weak complaint.

There's also the lack of teacher recommendations. And there's the lack of math level being taken into consideration. And there's the addition of "experience factors" which appear to have an exceptionally strong impact on whether a kid is admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s two essays. Actually more than that. Several small personal essays/paragraphs and then a math/science problem solving essay. So what you really are complaining about is the lack of a standardized test. Seems like a weak complaint.

Also, forgot to add: What happens when you're trying to select the top 12 or so kids from Carson or Longfellow, and there are like 50+ kids with 4.0 GPAs who also correctly solved the math problem solving essay and have good small personal essays? How can you reasonably pick the top 12 kids when they all look about the same? The teachers there could tell you which kids are the top 12, but their opinion is no longer considered in the process. Math level could at least offer some separation, since there's no reason at all that the top Carson kids wouldn't be in Algebra II. A standardized test would at least give some rationale for picking kid A over kid B. Instead, it's pretty random.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s two essays. Actually more than that. Several small personal essays/paragraphs and then a math/science problem solving essay. So what you really are complaining about is the lack of a standardized test. Seems like a weak complaint.

Also, forgot to add: What happens when you're trying to select the top 12 or so kids from Carson or Longfellow, and there are like 50+ kids with 4.0 GPAs who also correctly solved the math problem solving essay and have good small personal essays? How can you reasonably pick the top 12 kids when they all look about the same? The teachers there could tell you which kids are the top 12, but their opinion is no longer considered in the process. Math level could at least offer some separation, since there's no reason at all that the top Carson kids wouldn't be in Algebra II. A standardized test would at least give some rationale for picking kid A over kid B. Instead, it's pretty random.

It is not random. It is engineered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s two essays. Actually more than that. Several small personal essays/paragraphs and then a math/science problem solving essay. So what you really are complaining about is the lack of a standardized test. Seems like a weak complaint.

Also, forgot to add: What happens when you're trying to select the top 12 or so kids from Carson or Longfellow, and there are like 50+ kids with 4.0 GPAs who also correctly solved the math problem solving essay and have good small personal essays? How can you reasonably pick the top 12 kids when they all look about the same? The teachers there could tell you which kids are the top 12, but their opinion is no longer considered in the process. Math level could at least offer some separation, since there's no reason at all that the top Carson kids wouldn't be in Algebra II. A standardized test would at least give some rationale for picking kid A over kid B. Instead, it's pretty random.

It is not random. It is engineered.

There are a limited number of seats. If 50 students have the same qualifications and there are 10 seats then randomly pick 10. The problem is easily solved but there's no reason those 40 kids should take the seats from equally gifted students in areas that spend less on prep classes but are equally gifted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s two essays. Actually more than that. Several small personal essays/paragraphs and then a math/science problem solving essay. So what you really are complaining about is the lack of a standardized test. Seems like a weak complaint.

Also, forgot to add: What happens when you're trying to select the top 12 or so kids from Carson or Longfellow, and there are like 50+ kids with 4.0 GPAs who also correctly solved the math problem solving essay and have good small personal essays? How can you reasonably pick the top 12 kids when they all look about the same? The teachers there could tell you which kids are the top 12, but their opinion is no longer considered in the process. Math level could at least offer some separation, since there's no reason at all that the top Carson kids wouldn't be in Algebra II. A standardized test would at least give some rationale for picking kid A over kid B. Instead, it's pretty random.

You say screw it and send your kids to Oakton or McLean instead. Both are already better than TJ in some respects and only stand to improve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s two essays. Actually more than that. Several small personal essays/paragraphs and then a math/science problem solving essay. So what you really are complaining about is the lack of a standardized test. Seems like a weak complaint.

Also, forgot to add: What happens when you're trying to select the top 12 or so kids from Carson or Longfellow, and there are like 50+ kids with 4.0 GPAs who also correctly solved the math problem solving essay and have good small personal essays? How can you reasonably pick the top 12 kids when they all look about the same? The teachers there could tell you which kids are the top 12, but their opinion is no longer considered in the process. Math level could at least offer some separation, since there's no reason at all that the top Carson kids wouldn't be in Algebra II. A standardized test would at least give some rationale for picking kid A over kid B. Instead, it's pretty random.

Yeah. I’m fine with picking randomly among those 50 kids. You don’t have to rank them and take the top 12. The ranking will not necessarily tell you what you want to know anyway. Success at TJ involves more than standardized tests or even teacher recs. Picking at random among the top 50 at these feeder schools seems fine. It’s not a terrible travesty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s two essays. Actually more than that. Several small personal essays/paragraphs and then a math/science problem solving essay. So what you really are complaining about is the lack of a standardized test. Seems like a weak complaint.

Also, forgot to add: What happens when you're trying to select the top 12 or so kids from Carson or Longfellow, and there are like 50+ kids with 4.0 GPAs who also correctly solved the math problem solving essay and have good small personal essays? How can you reasonably pick the top 12 kids when they all look about the same? The teachers there could tell you which kids are the top 12, but their opinion is no longer considered in the process. Math level could at least offer some separation, since there's no reason at all that the top Carson kids wouldn't be in Algebra II. A standardized test would at least give some rationale for picking kid A over kid B. Instead, it's pretty random.

Yeah. I’m fine with picking randomly among those 50 kids. You don’t have to rank them and take the top 12. The ranking will not necessarily tell you what you want to know anyway. Success at TJ involves more than standardized tests or even teacher recs. Picking at random among the top 50 at these feeder schools seems fine. It’s not a terrible travesty.

Yeah. You are fine with a lottery school. Some people are not. Mainly because a lottery school ends us not being aspirational and just withers away with time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s two essays. Actually more than that. Several small personal essays/paragraphs and then a math/science problem solving essay. So what you really are complaining about is the lack of a standardized test. Seems like a weak complaint.

Also, forgot to add: What happens when you're trying to select the top 12 or so kids from Carson or Longfellow, and there are like 50+ kids with 4.0 GPAs who also correctly solved the math problem solving essay and have good small personal essays? How can you reasonably pick the top 12 kids when they all look about the same? The teachers there could tell you which kids are the top 12, but their opinion is no longer considered in the process. Math level could at least offer some separation, since there's no reason at all that the top Carson kids wouldn't be in Algebra II. A standardized test would at least give some rationale for picking kid A over kid B. Instead, it's pretty random.

Not sure I understand the 12 kids per school limit. There is a 1.5% quota for each school and this does add up to 100%. After 1.5% from the under represented schools are picked, the remaining FCPS quota is filled up based on merit across schools. So Carson has much more than 12 kids selected to TJ this year. Yes, it is less than last year.

[Anonymous]

sorry meant to say "There is a 1.5% quota for each school and this does NOT add up to 100%."

[Anonymous]

https://quillette.com/2021/08/19/as-us-schools-prioritize-diversity-over-merit-china-is-becoming-the-worlds-stem-leader/