From Page 3: "Compared to previous years, there is a huge leap in the number of students taking Algebra 1 rather than higher level math. There were 161 students admitted who only had taken Algebra 1 In previous years, that number has been about 20 students ... " It appears Algebr 1 criteria was used to sift out the 1140+ denied asian american applicants |
1) Did you miss the note that said that "Breakdown of Applicants by race is approximated based on 2024 class data"? You're citing a purely speculative table. 2) The table cited says nothing about math advancement. Are you just assuming that Asians are more advanced in math? |
All I know is they invite the very top students from each school. Some schools have more resources than others. |
In order to make that assertion, you would need more granular data on the percentage of the 161 students admitted were in fact Asian. If it's something less than 5%, you might have something there. The more likely common thread is that a large percentage of the students admitted from Alg1 are from disadvantaged economic situations, historically underrepresented schools, or both. I am strongly pro-reform, and that percentage does make me a bit uncomfortable, if I'm being honest. I'd like to know more about how we got there. |
I would think it has more to do with pandemic learning loss than anything else. |
racial balancing at the expense of declining talent |
You’d also have to look at composition of those classes - what % of applicants/8th graders took A1/G/A2? (We actually looked at this a few years ago, if I have time I’ll try to see if updated data is available.) Also, how well did the kids do in those classes? Were many of those A2 kids getting Cs? Did their GPA cut them from the running after the change? Even better, analyze all of this over multiple classes. |
These are not approximated…
The impact of the admissions changes: The number of Asian students enrolled at TJ by school year (fall): Aside from 2020 & 2019, there are MORE Asian students at TJ since the admissions change than any other year in the school’s history. The data shows that Asian students were accepted at a higher rate than almost all other groups, aside from Hispanic students. Asian 19% Black 14% Hispanic 21% White 17% Multiracial/Other* 13% ALL 18% So, to recap, the number of Asian students at TJ is almost at a record high. |
Admissions are a secret process for a reason. Manipulate as needed first, and cook an explanation later. |
The reason admissions processes are secret (by the way, the TJ Admissions process is WAY less opaque than it should be) is to prevent people from narrowly tailoring either their or their child's lives in pursuit of the acceptance letter. Purely objective, rubric-based admissions processes result in dangerously homogenous admit populations. At TJ in the 2010s, that manifested itself in a hyper-competitive environment where you had too many kids who were trying to achieve the same goals along the same path when multiple paths were readily available. It was a deeply unhealthy environment and eventually resulted in TJ's first instances of suicide and a huge spike in self-harm. |
Supposedly the largest beneficiaries of the changes to the race-blind process were low-income Asian families. |
That's a page straight out of race-based college admissions, which are now a thing of the past. TJ admissions is even more slimy, using SES as the cover. |
It's not "supposedly". It's confirmed in the data. One low-income Asian admit in the Class of 2024, and 51 of them in the Class of 2025. |
Asian percentage went from 74% to 53% in a year, were excluded from expanded seat quota. Racial restriction. |
Transparency is always better than opaque and subjective measures. Asians were routinely scored lower on “personality traits” by Harvard only so that admission outcomes could be engineered as desired. Harvard leveraged subjective criteria in the 1920s as well to restrict the number of Jewish students. People study to the test - whether it is TJ, SAT, LSAT or MCAT. You may get homogeneity as a result but it is way better than engineered outcomes that are not tied to merit in any way. There is a reason elite schools are returning to standardized testing. |