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

[Anonymous]

I'm glad Youngkin won the election. That means the citizens in this State has suffered too much at the hand of Left. It's the hope that VA could become more reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I don't see TJ as a place that should demand that 13 year olds have already devoted their childhood to STEM but should be a place for kids who are smart and motivated and interested in STEM to attend. I also see that many kids do not have the ability to participate in STEM extra curricular activities. Those activities require time, money, and transportation. Yes, many programs offer scholarships for under privileged kids but the child still has to get to the class, which requires transportation and someone to drop off and pick up. Not every child has that ability. Not every ES has the same STEM after school programs.

Why opportunities should be given to kids who didn't devote to STEM before and their parents were not willing to pay time and efforts on their children's education?
Everybody has 24 hours a day. It's equal. The diligent parents do their own full time work and also spend a lot of time and efforts on their children's education. The diligent students spend time on study while other kids spend time on party. Why they should be penalized for the diligent work?

This quote highlights the mentality of many in the status-quo community. For them, TJ is a reward for what they consider to be acceptable or correct parenting.

They also create this false dichotomy between students who engage with academics in exactly the same way that they do and students who spend all their time partying or playing video games.

If you have spent any reasonable amount of time with the Class of 2025, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that these students are not spending all of their time partying and playing video games.

It's part and parcel of the very limited world view and understanding that the GOP operatives play on to convince these folks that something that's "rightfully theirs" is being stolen from them.

And by the way - Trump's SCOTUS appointees had a chance to shut it down and did nothing. And Youngkin has done nothing, in spite of the fact that the Class of 2027 application cycle is beginning BEFORE the case finally gets heard by the Fourth Circuit - never mind when it will make it back to SCOTUS.

You all got played, and the result will be that your children will be less safe and that public schools will be less funded.

TJ admission is the reward to the intelligence and diligence. It's merit-based.

[Anonymous]

TJ admission should be the reward to the intelligence and diligence. It should be merit-based. It is not now. I hope next year it could change back to its normal track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TJ admission should be the reward to the intelligence and diligence. It should be merit-based. It is not now. I hope next year it could change back to its normal track.

It is, you just don't like how they are measuring merit and you don't like that they are looking for merit in every middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad Youngkin won the election. That means the citizens in this State has suffered too much at the hand of Left. It's the hope that VA could become more reasonable.

Youngkin DGAF about public schools. He was to implement vouchers/charters that will defund public schools.

He just said what the idiots wanted to hear to get elected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ admission should be the reward to the intelligence and diligence. It should be merit-based. It is not now. I hope next year it could change back to its normal track.

It is, you just don't like how they are measuring merit and you don't like that they are looking for merit in every middle school.

Don't call free lunch eligibility as merit. it's the help, not merit.
Don't call geographic quota as merit. It is politics, not merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad Youngkin won the election. That means the citizens in this State has suffered too much at the hand of Left. It's the hope that VA could become more reasonable.

Youngkin DGAF about public schools. He was to implement vouchers/charters that will defund public schools.

He just said what the idiots wanted to hear to get elected.

You are wrong about Youngkin but you want to keep posting this nonsense about vouchers over public schools. Why do you keep
Posting this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know many points was saying yes to FARMS worth?

90 points

How many total possible points?

Not sure what it means? I think they just added 90 points to total

How many points were the other components worth? GPA. Essays etc

300 GPA, 300 SPS, 300 Math/Science test. up to 225 additional experience points of which meals was 90.

Stop lying on these threads. GPA is only worth 37.5 points, with a minimum possible value of 262.5 through a maximum of 300. The meals bonus was worth over twice as many points as the entire span from a 3.5 GPA through a 4.0.

Huh?

According to the rubric that was made public as part of discovery during the ongoing lawsuit, the score for GPA is 75 * GPA.

Since there is a 3.5 minimum GPA required to be eligible to apply and a 4.0 maximum GPA based on how it was calculated for the purposes of the application, every student will have. GPA score between 362.5 and 400.

As such, the maximum difference in terms of GPA between any two applicants is 400 - 362.5 = 37.5.

To say that GPA is worth 300 points, while strictly true, is misleading, since every applicant earns at least 362.5 of those points.

Since the experience factors are worth either 45 or 90 points each, that means that a 3.5 GPA combined with any experience factor outweighs a 4.0 GPA with no experience factors. In other words, the experience factors are extremely valuable.

Not that valuable. Only 12% of total possible score.

Almost irrelevant since almost everyone accepted had 4.0.

The high-point components of the application are:
300 for the SPS
300 for the math/science essay

They comprise the vast majority of the applicant’s score. If a kid didn’t get in, they probably didn’t write an exceptional essay or portrait.

The essay was apparently very easy and most of the portrait has nothing to do with STEM

The whole thing was/is a disaster.

According to my kid, very few of the students who were expected to get in actually got in i.e., majority of the kids who are generally known to be smart, stood out in the class, perfect or almost perfect GPA, took advantage (and did well) of STEM electives offered by the school, participated in school offered STEM after-school activities etc didn't get admission, but some random and unexpected kids, few of them even had B's got admissions, which surprised many of his peers. He was initially disappointed to be wait listed, but after learning who else got wait listed (and who actually got admissions..lol), he felt TJ doesn't really matter anymore. Well, my kid isn't good at creative writing, which he knows, so its not totally unexpected and as we know GPA doesn't really carry that much weightage compared to portrait sheet and science essay. He was hoping TJ will look into his electives and how well he did in all the courses (as FCPS has whole course work in hand) and consider the after school activities (even if only school based activities are considered), but it didn't really matter at the end (TJ probably didn't look into any of this). Anyways.. this is is how the TJ cohort is going to look like going forward and I doubt anyone realizes a drop in standards and competitiveness any time soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Don’t be obtuse.

We don’t need to hear your twisted rationalizations for cheating.

Calling me obtuse and my arguments twisted doesn't make it so. Why not just clearly point out the flaws in my reasoning if they're so evident to you?

We aren’t talking about job interviews or studying for a test.

We are talking about the ways parents are cheating the system to give their kids an unfair advantage in AAP/TJ admissions.

It’s unethical to prep for the CogAT and it’s unethical to use former test questions for the old TJ test. It’s cheating the system. If your kids are bright enough let them qualify for AAP/TJ on their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad Youngkin won the election. That means the citizens in this State has suffered too much at the hand of Left. It's the hope that VA could become more reasonable.

Youngkin DGAF about public schools. He was to implement vouchers/charters that will defund public schools.

He just said what the idiots wanted to hear to get elected.

You are wrong about Youngkin but you want to keep posting this nonsense about vouchers over public schools. Why do you keep
Posting this?

Because that is the GOP’s goal for education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know many points was saying yes to FARMS worth?

90 points

How many total possible points?

Not sure what it means? I think they just added 90 points to total

How many points were the other components worth? GPA. Essays etc

300 GPA, 300 SPS, 300 Math/Science test. up to 225 additional experience points of which meals was 90.

Stop lying on these threads. GPA is only worth 37.5 points, with a minimum possible value of 262.5 through a maximum of 300. The meals bonus was worth over twice as many points as the entire span from a 3.5 GPA through a 4.0.

Huh?

According to the rubric that was made public as part of discovery during the ongoing lawsuit, the score for GPA is 75 * GPA.

Since there is a 3.5 minimum GPA required to be eligible to apply and a 4.0 maximum GPA based on how it was calculated for the purposes of the application, every student will have. GPA score between 362.5 and 400.

As such, the maximum difference in terms of GPA between any two applicants is 400 - 362.5 = 37.5.

To say that GPA is worth 300 points, while strictly true, is misleading, since every applicant earns at least 362.5 of those points.

Since the experience factors are worth either 45 or 90 points each, that means that a 3.5 GPA combined with any experience factor outweighs a 4.0 GPA with no experience factors. In other words, the experience factors are extremely valuable.

Not that valuable. Only 12% of total possible score.

Almost irrelevant since almost everyone accepted had 4.0.

The high-point components of the application are:
300 for the SPS
300 for the math/science essay

They comprise the vast majority of the applicant’s score. If a kid didn’t get in, they probably didn’t write an exceptional essay or portrait.

The essay was apparently very easy and most of the portrait has nothing to do with STEM

The whole thing was/is a disaster.

According to my kid, very few of the students who were expected to get in actually got in i.e., majority of the kids who are generally known to be smart, stood out in the class, perfect or almost perfect GPA, took advantage (and did well) of STEM electives offered by the school, participated in school offered STEM after-school activities etc didn't get admission, but some random and unexpected kids, few of them even had B's got admissions, which surprised many of his peers. He was initially disappointed to be wait listed, but after learning who else got wait listed (and who actually got admissions..lol), he felt TJ doesn't really matter anymore. Well, my kid isn't good at creative writing, which he knows, so its not totally unexpected and as we know GPA doesn't really carry that much weightage compared to portrait sheet and science essay. He was hoping TJ will look into his electives and how well he did in all the courses (as FCPS has whole course work in hand) and consider the after school activities (even if only school based activities are considered), but it didn't really matter at the end (TJ probably didn't look into any of this). Anyways.. this is is how the TJ cohort is going to look like going forward and I doubt anyone realizes a drop in standards and competitiveness any time soon.

Well, talk to some other parents, get organized and take your facts to Coalition for TJ or Governor Youngkin. Bellyaching on DCUM is not going to do anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad Youngkin won the election. That means the citizens in this State has suffered too much at the hand of Left. It's the hope that VA could become more reasonable.

Youngkin DGAF about public schools. He was to implement vouchers/charters that will defund public schools.

He just said what the idiots wanted to hear to get elected.

Public schools are a failure and are the biggest source of systemic racism as the education gap has only increased over time. #schoolchoice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I don't see TJ as a place that should demand that 13 year olds have already devoted their childhood to STEM but should be a place for kids who are smart and motivated and interested in STEM to attend. I also see that many kids do not have the ability to participate in STEM extra curricular activities. Those activities require time, money, and transportation. Yes, many programs offer scholarships for under privileged kids but the child still has to get to the class, which requires transportation and someone to drop off and pick up. Not every child has that ability. Not every ES has the same STEM after school programs.

Why opportunities should be given to kids who didn't devote to STEM before and their parents were not willing to pay time and efforts on their children's education?
Everybody has 24 hours a day. It's equal. The diligent parents do their own full time work and also spend a lot of time and efforts on their children's education. The diligent students spend time on study while other kids spend time on party. Why they should be penalized for the diligent work?

This quote highlights the mentality of many in the status-quo community. For them, TJ is a reward for what they consider to be acceptable or correct parenting.

They also create this false dichotomy between students who engage with academics in exactly the same way that they do and students who spend all their time partying or playing video games.

If you have spent any reasonable amount of time with the Class of 2025, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that these students are not spending all of their time partying and playing video games.

It's part and parcel of the very limited world view and understanding that the GOP operatives play on to convince these folks that something that's "rightfully theirs" is being stolen from them.

And by the way - Trump's SCOTUS appointees had a chance to shut it down and did nothing. And Youngkin has done nothing, in spite of the fact that the Class of 2027 application cycle is beginning BEFORE the case finally gets heard by the Fourth Circuit - never mind when it will make it back to SCOTUS.

You all got played, and the result will be that your children will be less safe and that public schools will be less funded.

x1 billion

Very well said.

Unfortunately, it will just fall on deaf ears.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm glad Youngkin won the election. That means the citizens in this State has suffered too much at the hand of Left. It's the hope that VA could become more reasonable.

Youngkin DGAF about public schools. He was to implement vouchers/charters that will defund public schools.

He just said what the idiots wanted to hear to get elected.

Public schools are a failure and are the biggest source of systemic racism as the education gap has only increased over time. #schoolchoice

Go away, MAGA trash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know many points was saying yes to FARMS worth?

90 points

How many total possible points?

Not sure what it means? I think they just added 90 points to total

How many points were the other components worth? GPA. Essays etc

300 GPA, 300 SPS, 300 Math/Science test. up to 225 additional experience points of which meals was 90.

Stop lying on these threads. GPA is only worth 37.5 points, with a minimum possible value of 262.5 through a maximum of 300. The meals bonus was worth over twice as many points as the entire span from a 3.5 GPA through a 4.0.

Huh?

According to the rubric that was made public as part of discovery during the ongoing lawsuit, the score for GPA is 75 * GPA.

Since there is a 3.5 minimum GPA required to be eligible to apply and a 4.0 maximum GPA based on how it was calculated for the purposes of the application, every student will have. GPA score between 362.5 and 400.

As such, the maximum difference in terms of GPA between any two applicants is 400 - 362.5 = 37.5.

To say that GPA is worth 300 points, while strictly true, is misleading, since every applicant earns at least 362.5 of those points.

Since the experience factors are worth either 45 or 90 points each, that means that a 3.5 GPA combined with any experience factor outweighs a 4.0 GPA with no experience factors. In other words, the experience factors are extremely valuable.

Not that valuable. Only 12% of total possible score.

Almost irrelevant since almost everyone accepted had 4.0.

The high-point components of the application are:
300 for the SPS
300 for the math/science essay

They comprise the vast majority of the applicant’s score. If a kid didn’t get in, they probably didn’t write an exceptional essay or portrait.

The essay was apparently very easy and most of the portrait has nothing to do with STEM

The whole thing was/is a disaster.

According to my kid, very few of the students who were expected to get in actually got in i.e., majority of the kids who are generally known to be smart, stood out in the class, perfect or almost perfect GPA, took advantage (and did well) of STEM electives offered by the school, participated in school offered STEM after-school activities etc didn't get admission, but some random and unexpected kids, few of them even had B's got admissions, which surprised many of his peers. He was initially disappointed to be wait listed, but after learning who else got wait listed (and who actually got admissions..lol), he felt TJ doesn't really matter anymore. Well, my kid isn't good at creative writing, which he knows, so its not totally unexpected and as we know GPA doesn't really carry that much weightage compared to portrait sheet and science essay. He was hoping TJ will look into his electives and how well he did in all the courses (as FCPS has whole course work in hand) and consider the after school activities (even if only school based activities are considered), but it didn't really matter at the end (TJ probably didn't look into any of this). Anyways.. this is is how the TJ cohort is going to look like going forward and I doubt anyone realizes a drop in standards and competitiveness any time soon.

There will be two more TJ classes admitted under the merit-based system, and given the lag during which test scores are accumulated and normalized across states, it will likely take another five years before TJ starts getting downgraded by publications like US News.

In the interim, look for FCPS to publicize every instance in which TJ continues to be highly rated as if it confirms they did something right by changing the admissions process, even though these ratings will be based on the performance of students admitted before the change.

An increasing percentage of the highest achieving kids with the most STEM aptitude will decide to stay at their base schools, and TJ will become an above-average school that provides a better education to kids who'd otherwise be attending Annandale, Justice, Lewis, Mount Vernon, etc. And those schools, conversely, could end up declining further if a greater number of kids who otherwise might have been role models at those schools, even if not really viable candidates for admission to TJ under the old merit-based system, end up at TJ instead.