Waitlisted at TJ - now what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the confidential “TJ Scoring rubric”:



[/img]https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4289cac951f24569ad9488/247ecb50-ef38-48bf-96a2-d44a2dc854a5/Rubric-2.jpg[/img]


It was confidential in order to hide it from parents and prospective parents.

It will be a great day when TJ Admissions no longer has to use such a rubric. Objectivity in any admissions process leads to the forced admission of students who aren't necessarily right for the environment but who scored well on metrics that may or may not correlate with success at the school - while rejecting others who would be very well-suited because they didn't necessarily perform well on those metrics.

It also has a tendency to create a class of students who are too similar to each other - which is part of why, in this instance, the most important piece of the admissions puzzle was the geographic allotment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the confidential “TJ Scoring rubric”:



[/img]https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4289cac951f24569ad9488/247ecb50-ef38-48bf-96a2-d44a2dc854a5/Rubric-2.jpg[/img]


It was confidential in order to hide it from parents and prospective parents.

It will be a great day when TJ Admissions no longer has to use such a rubric. Objectivity in any admissions process leads to the forced admission of students who aren't necessarily right for the environment but who scored well on metrics that may or may not correlate with success at the school - while rejecting others who would be very well-suited because they didn't necessarily perform well on those metrics.

It also has a tendency to create a class of students who are too similar to each other - which is part of why, in this instance, the most important piece of the admissions puzzle was the geographic allotment.

We could have used height, weight and color of hair as criteria to get "dissimilar students". It is a governor's school for academic excellence hence the use of academic criteria. But whatever sails your boat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^That's even worse than I imagined. GPA is very devalued, considering that the lowest possible point total is 3.5 * 75 = 262.5, while the highest is only 300. If the essays were roughly equal, this means that a 3.5 GPA kid, potentially in only 3 honors classes + Algebra I with any experience factor would have a higher score than a 4.0 AAP kid taking Algebra II or pre-Calc without experience factors. Any of an IEP, ELL status, or being at an underrepresented school is valued at 1.2 times the entire span from a 3.5 to a 4.0 GPA. Kids get 2.4 times the entire span of points from a 3.5 to a 4.0 GPA for being economically disadvantaged.

I wonder if the point cutoff for Carson or Longfellow was higher than 900, meaning that at least some experience factor was necessary to get picked.

It was for at least three FCPS middle schools. It was also high enough that being Special Education did not clear the bar. You needed to have the Free Meals questions as a Yes in order to be admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Knowing what I know I know now about free meals, absolutely considering asking the TJ admissions office to change our answer to Yes for both questions and see if it helps DC on the waitlist. We don’t quite make the income cut off, but are within $12,000 for reduced price meals. I’m sure plenty of families lied

What a terrible system.

Did you ever call? Did the admissions office let you change the free meals answers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:14:05 PP here. I knew that GPA was 300 points, but I assumed it was scaled such that the range from 3.5-4.0 was from 0-300. It's absurd for the point range to only be from 262.5-300.

If it's scaled from 0-300 for GPA 3.5-4.0, then it is very unfair for Algebra II HN students. A lot of them struggled in the first quarter.
This admission system penalizes students who are intelligent and hard working. It's very sad.
TJ is not the only school suffering this. There are also other schools had the same tragedy. This is a terrible trend. It will make this country less competitive.

Mostly its not the kid but the parents who make them work hard and apparently they are intelligent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the confidential “TJ Scoring rubric”:



[/img]https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f4289cac951f24569ad9488/247ecb50-ef38-48bf-96a2-d44a2dc854a5/Rubric-2.jpg[/img]


It was confidential in order to hide it from parents and prospective parents.

It will be a great day when TJ Admissions no longer has to use such a rubric. Objectivity in any admissions process leads to the forced admission of students who aren't necessarily right for the environment but who scored well on metrics that may or may not correlate with success at the school - while rejecting others who would be very well-suited because they didn't necessarily perform well on those metrics.

It also has a tendency to create a class of students who are too similar to each other - which is part of why, in this instance, the most important piece of the admissions puzzle was the geographic allotment.

We could have used height, weight and color of hair as criteria to get "dissimilar students". It is a governor's school for academic excellence hence the use of academic criteria. But whatever sails your boat

who's we?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:14:05 PP here. I knew that GPA was 300 points, but I assumed it was scaled such that the range from 3.5-4.0 was from 0-300. It's absurd for the point range to only be from 262.5-300.

If it's scaled from 0-300 for GPA 3.5-4.0, then it is very unfair for Algebra II HN students. A lot of them struggled in the first quarter.
This admission system penalizes students who are intelligent and hard working. It's very sad.
TJ is not the only school suffering this. There are also other schools had the same tragedy. This is a terrible trend. It will make this country less competitive.

In November, ask yourself: “which party alone is consistently pushing these policies that lower the academic bar and weaken our schools? (it is always the Democrats doing this).

Don’t vote for democrats !

I would like to vote on that issue. But Rs can't clear the first hurdle for me re: 1) gun control support and 2) reproductive rights support. So I can't get to any other priorities since they fail on the most essential pieces.

absolutely. if republicans move to the center on 1 and 2, they can really clean up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^That's even worse than I imagined. GPA is very devalued, considering that the lowest possible point total is 3.5 * 75 = 262.5, while the highest is only 300. If the essays were roughly equal, this means that a 3.5 GPA kid, potentially in only 3 honors classes + Algebra I with any experience factor would have a higher score than a 4.0 AAP kid taking Algebra II or pre-Calc without experience factors. Any of an IEP, ELL status, or being at an underrepresented school is valued at 1.2 times the entire span from a 3.5 to a 4.0 GPA. Kids get 2.4 times the entire span of points from a 3.5 to a 4.0 GPA for being economically disadvantaged.

I wonder if the point cutoff for Carson or Longfellow was higher than 900, meaning that at least some experience factor was necessary to get picked.

It was for at least three FCPS middle schools. It was also high enough that being Special Education did not clear the bar. You needed to have the Free Meals questions as a Yes in order to be admitted.

If your kid is special needs or poor, in most cases, you would not apply to TJ even if you think they would get in. Getting in to a very demanding school is just the entry point. You need to do well once you are in.

[Anonymous]

If you didn't lie on the FARMS question, I bet there is a good chance you will get off the waitlist, as many will lose their spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you didn't lie on the FARMS question, I bet there is a good chance you will get off the waitlist, as many will lose their spot.

I wish I could believe that to be true in DD’s case, but she is a Longfellow student (through no fault of her own), and the new admission rubric was deliberately designed against Longfellow students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you didn't lie on the FARMS question, I bet there is a good chance you will get off the waitlist, as many will lose their spot.

We lied on the FARMS question and answered NO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you didn't lie on the FARMS question, I bet there is a good chance you will get off the waitlist, as many will lose their spot.

Nope. Parents answered the question that was asked.

Interested to hear what the admissions office said to anyone on the waitlist who called to update their answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you didn't lie on the FARMS question, I bet there is a good chance you will get off the waitlist, as many will lose their spot.

We lied on the FARMS question and answered NO.

Same.

In hindsight, I see that we should have said Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you didn't lie on the FARMS question, I bet there is a good chance you will get off the waitlist, as many will lose their spot.

Nope. Parents answered the question that was asked.

Interested to hear what the admissions office said to anyone on the waitlist who called to update their answer.

I think this was just a joke statement. They are not going to take your updated info, reevaluate the application, give your child a spot, and kick someone else out because you suddenly say you received free meals.

Now they are actually doing all of the above for people who answered yes when the correct answer was no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^That's even worse than I imagined. GPA is very devalued, considering that the lowest possible point total is 3.5 * 75 = 262.5, while the highest is only 300. If the essays were roughly equal, this means that a 3.5 GPA kid, potentially in only 3 honors classes + Algebra I with any experience factor would have a higher score than a 4.0 AAP kid taking Algebra II or pre-Calc without experience factors. Any of an IEP, ELL status, or being at an underrepresented school is valued at 1.2 times the entire span from a 3.5 to a 4.0 GPA. Kids get 2.4 times the entire span of points from a 3.5 to a 4.0 GPA for being economically disadvantaged.

I wonder if the point cutoff for Carson or Longfellow was higher than 900, meaning that at least some experience factor was necessary to get picked.

It was for at least three FCPS middle schools. It was also high enough that being Special Education did not clear the bar. You needed to have the Free Meals questions as a Yes in order to be admitted.

Citation? How do you know the admitted students’ scores?