Anyone know of a humanities magnet high school (alternative to TJ)?
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Anonymous
| You say a lot of what was posted is incorrect but do not say why they are incorrect. Maybe you wish they were incorrect not that they are in fact incorrect given your characterizations of "STEM drones" and "insufferable parents". |
Anonymous
you would expect this from very smart kids, but most of those are extra-curricular activities and not directly related to the mission of the school which is STEM. |
Anonymous
| I think the Humanities related achievements/activities were posted in response to PP who had implied that TJ did not have a decent humanities program. |
Anonymous
| Looks like we already have a Humanities Magnet School for the county. No need for another Humanities Magnet School. |
Anonymous
| I guess my problem with TJ being the only magnet school in the area is that to get in, the student has to have very high math scores; which makes sense, as it is a STEM-focused school. But where is the magnet school that requires high scores in reading/grammar/English and/or history and social studies? |
Anonymous
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Actually, the 1st round of the TJ admissions process consists of review of grades for all of the academic classes (English, Social Studies, Math & Science) and scores on both Verbal and Math sections. Many people think the Verbal section is more difficult than the math section (or math section is too easy) including TJ math teachers and others.
At the 2nd round, writing skill is significantly more important than anything else since the 2 longer essays and the Student Information Sheet (consisting of about 8 shorter essays) count for approximately 60 to 70% of the total weight with the math exam score and grades given about 20% weight with the rest of the weight given to recommendations. Given the current admissions process, high scores or skills in reading/grammar/English is more important than high scores or skills in math or science to be admitted to TJ which is ironic. |
Anonymous
These are the exact percentages used in the TJ admissions decision process, taken from the admissions office website. In the second (semifinalist) round, only the math score from the admissions test and science and math GPAs are included, a total of 35%. Teacher recs are 20%, with one required to be from a math or science teacher, but many kids ask a math or science teacher for the second rec also. So that's at least 45% and possibly 55% math and science related. One of the longer essays usually involves a question about the applicant's own science activities, the other is usually an ethically based question in a scientific setting. The SIS asks the students to write about their curricular and extracurricular activities. Many applicants choose to write about their pursuit of math and science both in and out of school. So even if we only add in half the essay and SIS percentages, we still end up with at least 68.5% to 78.5% of the decision being directly related to the student's performance and demonstrated interest in math and science. Clearly, math and science background form the better part of the point scale for admission to TJ. |
Anonymous
That's a bit of a stretch as the content of those essays matter - not just how well you write but also what you write. I can't speak for the school, but I have to think they're looking for people who can demonstrate they interested principally in STEM. |
Anonymous
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From FCAG:
*Semi-finalist Pool Requiring Essay Grading DOUBLED *TJ Exam Essays & Student Information Sheet Now Make up 70% of Admission Decisions Final Selections Based on 5 Factors: Factor Min Value Max Value Range Impact on Admission TJ Essays 50 250 200 34.6% SIS 0 200 200 34.6% Recs 120 200 80 13.8% Math exam 120 200 80 13.8% Math/sci GPA 132 150 18 3.1% Total 422 1000 578 100.0% Unintended Results in Admissions: • Student 1: Perfect Scores on MATH, GPA, and RECS. Received Average Grade on ESSAYS and SIS (Student Information Sheet). REJECTED. • Student 2: Lowest Scores for All semi-finalists for MATH, GPA, and RECS. Received Top ESSAYS and SIS Scores. ACCEPTED. |
Anonymous
well I can't really feel sorry for this person. The right prep class lasting for a year or two will drill, drill, drill those essays until one is highly facile at saying what they believe TJ wants to hear. |
Anonymous
| I think you contradict yourself since those who specifically prepared for essays/SIS responses will likely receive higher scores (compared to those who may not have specifically prepared for essays/SIS) on those and get accepted. |
Anonymous
huh? I was commenting on student 1. |
Anonymous
This does not surprise me and frankly, I think it is a great thing that the admissions committee is NOT looking solely at a "perfect" math test score. They should be looking at a broad set of factors and making the decision based on the whole student. |
Anonymous
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It would be nice if the decision was based on the whole student or broad set of factors but what happens is each component scores are added and the admissions decisions are based on this sum of the scores without looking at the "whole student" or "broad set of factors" with subjective portions making up about 84% of the total admissions score.
The essays and SIS are very subjective and just talking about science and math is not enough since many students with achievements in science and math get rejected each year by getting average scores on essays or SIS. |
Anonymous
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Who is submitting the information to the FCAG website? I don't know anyone who has seen their children's scores for the essays and SIS- where is this information coming from for Student 1 and Student 2?
Also, the math portion of the exam and the math and science GPA enter into consideration twice. They have to be high enough to move the applicant from the first round to the second round, and then they are part of the scoring in the second round, also. It's hard to take unsourced information seriously. I'll stick with the information published directly on the TJ admissions website. |