TJ admissions now verifying free and reduced price meal status for successful 2026 applicants

[Anonymous]

Kids who are actually gifted and good students never needed to "pay to play" on TJ prep. It would be expected for a gifted child to score 98th percentile+ on the ACT aspire tests used previously in the application, since the tests were normed using unprepped kids. It would also be expected that a gifted high achiever would have high grades, get strong teacher recommendations, and would have some notable EC achievements without spending a dime on prep.

Curie mainly allowed some South Asian Loudoun kids to leapfrog other South Asian Loudoun kids when competing for the LCPS TJ spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In Virginia, schools are only required to spot-check FRMs forms.

For the case number, that is a child's Medicaid case number. Virginia is one of five states that is doing a demonstration project to integrate the Medicaid and FRMs systems. They are still accepting regular applications during the demonstration project.

A few years ago, one of my friends who had a K student and did not know what the form was and got it in the massive packet of the beginning of school forms, just signed and returned it. She was shocked to learn that her child was getting free meals. She actually called the county to see if she could correct it and she was told that there was not a way to remove FRMs designation once it was given until the next school year.

FCPS is only PRETENDING to deal with the FARMS screwup. They are only requesting a case number that you applied for FARMS without requiring any documentation to prove low income.

Yup. FCPS is only interested in a made up increased FARMs numbers for the press.

Their motivation isn't know nor is it relevant. In the end providing these opportunities to bright and gifted low-income students who can't afford to spend $20k on prep at Curie is a win for all of us.

Can someone share a link to the $20K at Curie? Just another exaggeration like the one around FCPS having IRS details that the PP kept spouting?

The premier TJ prep course at Curie ran for 16 months at a cost of nearly $5K. The fact that some folks are spouting off a 20K number - whether that's legit or not - doesn't obscure the fact that folks shouldn't feel as though they have to "pay to play".

Just because most of the kids getting into TJ took it doesn't mean everyone has to but it's hard to compete without it.

Exactly. And let's be honest - a ton of Curie's business came from Indian families who felt like they weren't doing right by their kid if they didn't make that investment because it was so universal. It's a very pernicious business model, but it's made Dr. Rao a very, very wealthy man at the expense of the Fairfax and Loudoun Indian communities.[/quote]

Curie and Best Brains are a curse on the Indian community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids who are actually gifted and good students never needed to "pay to play" on TJ prep. It would be expected for a gifted child to score 98th percentile+ on the ACT aspire tests used previously in the application, since the tests were normed using unprepped kids. It would also be expected that a gifted high achiever would have high grades, get strong teacher recommendations, and would have some notable EC achievements without spending a dime on prep.

Curie mainly allowed some South Asian Loudoun kids to leapfrog other South Asian Loudoun kids when competing for the LCPS TJ spots.

This is only sort of true.

The biggest difference that Curie made, according to TJ students who went there, was that Curie raised their scores on the Quant-Q exam because they were given access to old Quant-Q questions by former Curie students.

This is problematic for two reasons:

1) The Quant-Q was chosen by the TJ Admissions Office in part because it was a secured exam, and it would allow the Office to evaluate students’ raw problem solving ability with respect to questions they’d never seen before;

2) Semifinalists were selected using not the raw scores on the exams, but rather on the percentile score normed against the entire population taking the exams within that time window - which means that any artificial inflation of scores from exam prep for a SECURED EXAM would inflate the score that was needed in order to qualify for the semifinalist pool. It goes without saying that otherwise qualified students were removed from the semifinalist pool because of Curie and other such expensive prep companies, and those kids who were kicked out would have come from everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids who are actually gifted and good students never needed to "pay to play" on TJ prep. It would be expected for a gifted child to score 98th percentile+ on the ACT aspire tests used previously in the application, since the tests were normed using unprepped kids. It would also be expected that a gifted high achiever would have high grades, get strong teacher recommendations, and would have some notable EC achievements without spending a dime on prep.

Curie mainly allowed some South Asian Loudoun kids to leapfrog other South Asian Loudoun kids when competing for the LCPS TJ spots.

This is only sort of true.

The biggest difference that Curie made, according to TJ students who went there, was that Curie raised their scores on the Quant-Q exam because they were given access to old Quant-Q questions by former Curie students.

This is problematic for two reasons:

1) The Quant-Q was chosen by the TJ Admissions Office in part because it was a secured exam, and it would allow the Office to evaluate students’ raw problem solving ability with respect to questions they’d never seen before;

2) Semifinalists were selected using not the raw scores on the exams, but rather on the percentile score normed against the entire population taking the exams within that time window - which means that any artificial inflation of scores from exam prep for a SECURED EXAM would inflate the score that was needed in order to qualify for the semifinalist pool. It goes without saying that otherwise qualified students were removed from the semifinalist pool because of Curie and other such expensive prep companies, and those kids who were kicked out would have come from everywhere.

Are we talking about "otherwise qualified" students or actually gifted students? Sure, the Quant Q caused otherwise qualified kids to be bumped out of the semifinalist pool. These are the kids who would have rounded out the bottom half of TJ. Actually gifted kids with no prep on the Quant Q still scored well above the semifinalist threshold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids who are actually gifted and good students never needed to "pay to play" on TJ prep. It would be expected for a gifted child to score 98th percentile+ on the ACT aspire tests used previously in the application, since the tests were normed using unprepped kids. It would also be expected that a gifted high achiever would have high grades, get strong teacher recommendations, and would have some notable EC achievements without spending a dime on prep.

Curie mainly allowed some South Asian Loudoun kids to leapfrog other South Asian Loudoun kids when competing for the LCPS TJ spots.

This is only sort of true.

The biggest difference that Curie made, according to TJ students who went there, was that Curie raised their scores on the Quant-Q exam because they were given access to old Quant-Q questions by former Curie students.

This is problematic for two reasons:

1) The Quant-Q was chosen by the TJ Admissions Office in part because it was a secured exam, and it would allow the Office to evaluate students’ raw problem solving ability with respect to questions they’d never seen before;

2) Semifinalists were selected using not the raw scores on the exams, but rather on the percentile score normed against the entire population taking the exams within that time window - which means that any artificial inflation of scores from exam prep for a SECURED EXAM would inflate the score that was needed in order to qualify for the semifinalist pool. It goes without saying that otherwise qualified students were removed from the semifinalist pool because of Curie and other such expensive prep companies, and those kids who were kicked out would have come from everywhere.

This is true and makes sense, but the PP's post about blaming Indian families seems like BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virginia Valor Football club costs $2,700 per year of travel soccer for the U9-U12 category.

May be some parents think math supplementation is better than travel soccer. Or should we be stigmatizing those that invest in supplemental math/science.

Pay to play or an investment in your kid?

Math supplementation is fine! There's nothing wrong with signing your kid up for that if that's where their genuine interest lies.

But parents should STOP feeling as though that money and time that they invest is going to be directly rewarded with a spot at TJ, which is a publicly funded educational opportunity that is supposed to serve the entirety of the catchment area.

Exactly! I like math supplementation and personally feel that's a lot more useful than travel soccer. In addition, there's no equivalence between unlocking public school opportunities and some sports activities that some people choose to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids who are actually gifted and good students never needed to "pay to play" on TJ prep. It would be expected for a gifted child to score 98th percentile+ on the ACT aspire tests used previously in the application, since the tests were normed using unprepped kids. It would also be expected that a gifted high achiever would have high grades, get strong teacher recommendations, and would have some notable EC achievements without spending a dime on prep.

Curie mainly allowed some South Asian Loudoun kids to leapfrog other South Asian Loudoun kids when competing for the LCPS TJ spots.

This is only sort of true.

The biggest difference that Curie made, according to TJ students who went there, was that Curie raised their scores on the Quant-Q exam because they were given access to old Quant-Q questions by former Curie students.

This is problematic for two reasons:

1) The Quant-Q was chosen by the TJ Admissions Office in part because it was a secured exam, and it would allow the Office to evaluate students’ raw problem solving ability with respect to questions they’d never seen before;

2) Semifinalists were selected using not the raw scores on the exams, but rather on the percentile score normed against the entire population taking the exams within that time window - which means that any artificial inflation of scores from exam prep for a SECURED EXAM would inflate the score that was needed in order to qualify for the semifinalist pool. It goes without saying that otherwise qualified students were removed from the semifinalist pool because of Curie and other such expensive prep companies, and those kids who were kicked out would have come from everywhere.

Are we talking about "otherwise qualified" students or actually gifted students? Sure, the Quant Q caused otherwise qualified kids to be bumped out of the semifinalist pool. These are the kids who would have rounded out the bottom half of TJ. Actually gifted kids with no prep on the Quant Q still scored well above the semifinalist threshold.

There are more ways to be gifted than being able to outpace artificially prepped kids on a timed problem-solving exam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids who are actually gifted and good students never needed to "pay to play" on TJ prep. It would be expected for a gifted child to score 98th percentile+ on the ACT aspire tests used previously in the application, since the tests were normed using unprepped kids. It would also be expected that a gifted high achiever would have high grades, get strong teacher recommendations, and would have some notable EC achievements without spending a dime on prep.

Curie mainly allowed some South Asian Loudoun kids to leapfrog other South Asian Loudoun kids when competing for the LCPS TJ spots.

This is only sort of true.

The biggest difference that Curie made, according to TJ students who went there, was that Curie raised their scores on the Quant-Q exam because they were given access to old Quant-Q questions by former Curie students.

This is problematic for two reasons:

1) The Quant-Q was chosen by the TJ Admissions Office in part because it was a secured exam, and it would allow the Office to evaluate students’ raw problem solving ability with respect to questions they’d never seen before;

2) Semifinalists were selected using not the raw scores on the exams, but rather on the percentile score normed against the entire population taking the exams within that time window - which means that any artificial inflation of scores from exam prep for a SECURED EXAM would inflate the score that was needed in order to qualify for the semifinalist pool. It goes without saying that otherwise qualified students were removed from the semifinalist pool because of Curie and other such expensive prep companies, and those kids who were kicked out would have come from everywhere.

This is true and makes sense, but the PP's post about blaming Indian families seems like BS.

Indian families are not to blame. The previous admissions process is mostly to blame for creating an environment where business models like Curie’s can take advantage of Indian families that don’t even know (and probably still don’t understand) that they were being taken advantage of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In Virginia, schools are only required to spot-check FRMs forms.

For the case number, that is a child's Medicaid case number. Virginia is one of five states that is doing a demonstration project to integrate the Medicaid and FRMs systems. They are still accepting regular applications during the demonstration project.

A few years ago, one of my friends who had a K student and did not know what the form was and got it in the massive packet of the beginning of school forms, just signed and returned it. She was shocked to learn that her child was getting free meals. She actually called the county to see if she could correct it and she was told that there was not a way to remove FRMs designation once it was given until the next school year.

FCPS is only PRETENDING to deal with the FARMS screwup. They are only requesting a case number that you applied for FARMS without requiring any documentation to prove low income.

Yup. FCPS is only interested in a made up increased FARMs numbers for the press.

Their motivation isn't know nor is it relevant. In the end providing these opportunities to bright and gifted low-income students who can't afford to spend $20k on prep at Curie is a win for all of us.

Can someone share a link to the $20K at Curie? Just another exaggeration like the one around FCPS having IRS details that the PP kept spouting?

The premier TJ prep course at Curie ran for 16 months at a cost of nearly $5K. The fact that some folks are spouting off a 20K number - whether that's legit or not - doesn't obscure the fact that folks shouldn't feel as though they have to "pay to play".

Just because most of the kids getting into TJ took it doesn't mean everyone has to but it's hard to compete without it.

Exactly. And let's be honest - a ton of Curie's business came from Indian families who felt like they weren't doing right by their kid if they didn't make that investment because it was so universal. It's a very pernicious business model, but it's made Dr. Rao a very, very wealthy man at the expense of the Fairfax and Loudoun Indian communities.

+1 It was the concern that it might make a difference at the margin, every so slight, and you couldn't live with yourself if you child fell on the wrong side of the margin because you didn't do that prep class.

[Anonymous]

Curie results for 2026?

They got 133 in 2024 and 93 in 2025.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids who are actually gifted and good students never needed to "pay to play" on TJ prep. It would be expected for a gifted child to score 98th percentile+ on the ACT aspire tests used previously in the application, since the tests were normed using unprepped kids. It would also be expected that a gifted high achiever would have high grades, get strong teacher recommendations, and would have some notable EC achievements without spending a dime on prep.

Curie mainly allowed some South Asian Loudoun kids to leapfrog other South Asian Loudoun kids when competing for the LCPS TJ spots.

This is only sort of true.

The biggest difference that Curie made, according to TJ students who went there, was that Curie raised their scores on the Quant-Q exam because they were given access to old Quant-Q questions by former Curie students.

This is problematic for two reasons:

1) The Quant-Q was chosen by the TJ Admissions Office in part because it was a secured exam, and it would allow the Office to evaluate students’ raw problem solving ability with respect to questions they’d never seen before;

2) Semifinalists were selected using not the raw scores on the exams, but rather on the percentile score normed against the entire population taking the exams within that time window - which means that any artificial inflation of scores from exam prep for a SECURED EXAM would inflate the score that was needed in order to qualify for the semifinalist pool. It goes without saying that otherwise qualified students were removed from the semifinalist pool because of Curie and other such expensive prep companies, and those kids who were kicked out would have come from everywhere.

All I remember was 1/3'rd of the entering class had their names listed in the Curie ad as having been their clients. When I consider how many other prep centers there are, I can't help but think the vast majority of students that are admitted had to prep. This makes it difficult for kids who don't spend ungodly sums on prep to compete in order to access a public school program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curie results for 2026?

They got 133 in 2024 and 93 in 2025.

So one prep center accounts for 133 of 500 students selected? This makes me think that most if not all had some kind of prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curie results for 2026?

They got 133 in 2024 and 93 in 2025.

So one prep center accounts for 133 of 500 students selected? This makes me think that most if not all had some kind of prep.

113 out of 486 for class of 2024.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virginia Valor Football club costs $2,700 per year of travel soccer for the U9-U12 category.

May be some parents think math supplementation is better than travel soccer. Or should we be stigmatizing those that invest in supplemental math/science.

Pay to play or an investment in your kid?

Math supplementation is fine! There's nothing wrong with signing your kid up for that if that's where their genuine interest lies.

But parents should STOP feeling as though that money and time that they invest is going to be directly rewarded with a spot at TJ, which is a publicly funded educational opportunity that is supposed to serve the entirety of the catchment area.

It isn't, and never was. People going to Curie generally don't get in, but a high proportion of Loudoun students who get in went to Curie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curie results for 2026?

They got 133 in 2024 and 93 in 2025.

Curie's having 93 out of 550 seats, suggests either Fairfax didn't eliminate the preppability of admissions, or that Curie was getting a lot of students who were going to get in anyways.