How does one prep place account for 25% of TJ Admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You actually don't need objective criteria to figure this out. And there wouldn't be a cutoff. If the 51st kid is legitimately at the same level as the 50th, they'd get in. Same with the 52nd. If the dropoff is from 49 to 50, that's where the cutoff would be.

They should get rid of teacher recommendations and essays, and instead ask the TJ semifinalists for a list of their 5 greatest achievements, as well as some sort of documentation verifying the achievement. Most TJ semifinalists will come across as very smart, motivated, but ultimately pretty normal kids. A smaller handful will seem legitimately very impressive. Pick those kids, and then lottery off the remaining spots.

Agree on essays, do not agree on recs. Teachers are able to lend perhaps the best insight into whether a student is a positive contributor to the academic environment above and beyond their pure skills and content knowledge - and TJ and other elite academic institutions are better places when populated with students who bring a growth mindset and a collaborative, rather than a competitive, academic attitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Agree on essays, do not agree on recs. Teachers are able to lend perhaps the best insight into whether a student is a positive contributor to the academic environment above and beyond their pure skills and content knowledge - and TJ and other elite academic institutions are better places when populated with students who bring a growth mindset and a collaborative, rather than a competitive, academic attitude.

The problem, though, is that you can't eliminate racism and sexism from teacher recs. If AA, hispanic, and female students receive worse recommendations because the teachers don't perceive them as being good enough for TJ, then nothing will be solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Agree on essays, do not agree on recs. Teachers are able to lend perhaps the best insight into whether a student is a positive contributor to the academic environment above and beyond their pure skills and content knowledge - and TJ and other elite academic institutions are better places when populated with students who bring a growth mindset and a collaborative, rather than a competitive, academic attitude.

The problem, though, is that you can't eliminate racism and sexism from teacher recs. If AA, hispanic, and female students receive worse recommendations because the teachers don't perceive them as being good enough for TJ, then nothing will be solved.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everything seems to be about “gaining an edge” and exploiting every possible angle with these TJHSST families. They absolutely suck all the fun out of high school with their grim zero-sum game mentality. It provides quite a window as to why applications from other students have been declining sharply.

Says the racist who cannot work hard.

TJ grad here who managed to get in without prepping, succeed without cheating, and graduate with a 4.1/1560/$10K+ in scholarship offers...all with minimal parental oversight. Sorry about your need to control your kid's entire life at any cost rather than actually raise a self-motivated individual.

Why are you bragging about 4.1 weighted gpa? It’s not bad but that is bottom half and 10k in scholarship money is way below average for TJ grad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Agree on essays, do not agree on recs. Teachers are able to lend perhaps the best insight into whether a student is a positive contributor to the academic environment above and beyond their pure skills and content knowledge - and TJ and other elite academic institutions are better places when populated with students who bring a growth mindset and a collaborative, rather than a competitive, academic attitude.

The problem, though, is that you can't eliminate racism and sexism from teacher recs. If AA, hispanic, and female students receive worse recommendations because the teachers don't perceive them as being good enough for TJ, then nothing will be solved.

I would place a bit of burden on the Admissions Office and Admissions Committee to cross-reference recs from the same teachers and raise red flags where they see systemic issues. A math teacher at Carson or Longfellow probably has to write over 100 of these things, so you can get a decent sample size, especially if you emphasize a rating scale.

But the point is well-taken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everything seems to be about “gaining an edge” and exploiting every possible angle with these TJHSST families. They absolutely suck all the fun out of high school with their grim zero-sum game mentality. It provides quite a window as to why applications from other students have been declining sharply.

Says the racist who cannot work hard.

TJ grad here who managed to get in without prepping, succeed without cheating, and graduate with a 4.1/1560/$10K+ in scholarship offers...all with minimal parental oversight. Sorry about your need to control your kid's entire life at any cost rather than actually raise a self-motivated individual.

Why are you bragging about 4.1 weighted gpa? It’s not bad but that is bottom half and 10k in scholarship money is way below average for TJ grad.

Probably because they have a good life and don't care about your assertion that they were bottom half. Might have been top half in other areas and gotten into great schools. Also, depending on when they graduated, 4.1 may very well have been very high - TJ and FCPS used to operate on a much different grading scale back in the day where APs received only a .5 weight and you needed a 94 to get a 4.0, and a 93.4 was a 3.5.

[Anonymous]

Cheating is WRONG, but there is NOTHING WRONG with working very hard people. Same as spots or anything else in life.
I do not support cheating. But I'm tired of people saying xyz has no life because he/she studies all the time. If it is not your kid, then it is none of your business!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cheating is WRONG, but there is NOTHING WRONG with working very hard people. Same as spots or anything else in life.
I do not support cheating. But I'm tired of people saying xyz has no life because he/she studies all the time. If it is not your kid, then it is none of your business!

If it is someone else's kid's family engaging in unethical behavior in an attempt to unbalance the admissions process to a school that I pay taxes to fund and support, then it is absolutely my business. What went on at Curie is AT BARE MINIMUM extremely unethical and aided 133 students in matriculating to TJ last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheating is WRONG, but there is NOTHING WRONG with working very hard people. Same as spots or anything else in life.
I do not support cheating. But I'm tired of people saying xyz has no life because he/she studies all the time. If it is not your kid, then it is none of your business!

If it is someone else's kid's family engaging in unethical behavior in an attempt to unbalance the admissions process to a school that I pay taxes to fund and support, then it is absolutely my business. What went on at Curie is AT BARE MINIMUM extremely unethical and aided 133 students in matriculating to TJ last year.

You pay tax regardless of what schools they go to anyway. These kids' parents also pay taxes too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cheating is WRONG, but there is NOTHING WRONG with working very hard people. Same as spots or anything else in life.
I do not support cheating. But I'm tired of people saying xyz has no life because he/she studies all the time. If it is not your kid, then it is none of your business!

We have got to decouple the idea of "hard work" from the idea of "TJ prep". They are two VERY separate things that share some commonalities but have very different ends in mind.

Efforts to make them one and the same are meant to propel the myth of superiority and "merit" and look down on anyone who doesn't "work hard" in the same ways that they do.

If you believe that East and South Asians "work harder" than anyone else, and use the amount of time they spend single-mindedly optimizing the TJ admissions process as evidence, that is inarguably a racist attitude and you need to sit down and keep quiet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheating is WRONG, but there is NOTHING WRONG with working very hard people. Same as spots or anything else in life.
I do not support cheating. But I'm tired of people saying xyz has no life because he/she studies all the time. If it is not your kid, then it is none of your business!

If it is someone else's kid's family engaging in unethical behavior in an attempt to unbalance the admissions process to a school that I pay taxes to fund and support, then it is absolutely my business. What went on at Curie is AT BARE MINIMUM extremely unethical and aided 133 students in matriculating to TJ last year.

You pay tax regardless of what schools they go to anyway. These kids' parents also pay taxes too.

Yep. And therefore it matters to all of us, even those of us who have no kids at all or who send our kids to private schools. Thank you for making my point - couldn't have done it better myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheating is WRONG, but there is NOTHING WRONG with working very hard people. Same as spots or anything else in life.
I do not support cheating. But I'm tired of people saying xyz has no life because he/she studies all the time. If it is not your kid, then it is none of your business!

If it is someone else's kid's family engaging in unethical behavior in an attempt to unbalance the admissions process to a school that I pay taxes to fund and support, then it is absolutely my business. What went on at Curie is AT BARE MINIMUM extremely unethical and aided 133 students in matriculating to TJ last year.

You pay tax regardless of what schools they go to anyway. These kids' parents also pay taxes too.

Yep. And therefore it matters to all of us, even those of us who have no kids at all or who send our kids to private schools. Thank you for making my point - couldn't have done it better myself.

Funny, people who have no kids or who send kids to private schools will not making comments here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheating is WRONG, but there is NOTHING WRONG with working very hard people. Same as spots or anything else in life.
I do not support cheating. But I'm tired of people saying xyz has no life because he/she studies all the time. If it is not your kid, then it is none of your business!

If it is someone else's kid's family engaging in unethical behavior in an attempt to unbalance the admissions process to a school that I pay taxes to fund and support, then it is absolutely my business. What went on at Curie is AT BARE MINIMUM extremely unethical and aided 133 students in matriculating to TJ last year.

You pay tax regardless of what schools they go to anyway. These kids' parents also pay taxes too.

Yep. And therefore it matters to all of us, even those of us who have no kids at all or who send our kids to private schools. Thank you for making my point - couldn't have done it better myself.

Funny, people who have no kids or who send kids to private schools will not making comments here.

Keep believing that. There are lots of reasons for people to care about schools and opportunities for kids above and beyond actually having kids themselves to take advantage of those opportunities. It's called giving a *bleep* about your community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheating is WRONG, but there is NOTHING WRONG with working very hard people. Same as spots or anything else in life.
I do not support cheating. But I'm tired of people saying xyz has no life because he/she studies all the time. If it is not your kid, then it is none of your business!

We have got to decouple the idea of "hard work" from the idea of "TJ prep". They are two VERY separate things that share some commonalities but have very different ends in mind.

Efforts to make them one and the same are meant to propel the myth of superiority and "merit" and look down on anyone who doesn't "work hard" in the same ways that they do.

If you believe that East and South Asians "work harder" than anyone else, and use the amount of time they spend single-mindedly optimizing the TJ admissions process as evidence, that is inarguably a racist attitude and you need to sit down and keep quiet.

Asians tend to study harder than other groups just like blacks tend to spend more time playing basketball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cheating is WRONG, but there is NOTHING WRONG with working very hard people. Same as spots or anything else in life.
I do not support cheating. But I'm tired of people saying xyz has no life because he/she studies all the time. If it is not your kid, then it is none of your business!

We have got to decouple the idea of "hard work" from the idea of "TJ prep". They are two VERY separate things that share some commonalities but have very different ends in mind.

Efforts to make them one and the same are meant to propel the myth of superiority and "merit" and look down on anyone who doesn't "work hard" in the same ways that they do.

If you believe that East and South Asians "work harder" than anyone else, and use the amount of time they spend single-mindedly optimizing the TJ admissions process as evidence, that is inarguably a racist attitude and you need to sit down and keep quiet.

Asians tend to study harder than other groups just like blacks tend to spend more time playing basketball.

Just gonna keep telling on yourself. Cool.