TJ admissions change from Merit to Essay impact to Asian American Students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This part is true.

"Admissions changed to Essay based, and increased enrollment of 8th grade algebra1 students”

If you didn’t enroll Algebra 1 in 7th grade, then it tells us that you failed to meet the benchmark score on the Iowa test and failed to achieve an advanced pass on the SOL. One thing FPCS knows for sure is that most of those students who enrolled in entry level math 7 honors are definitely non-Asian. Therefore, even without knowing your background, they do know where your background excels. They can recruit from just about any school across the county and be certain that those applicants who present Geometry HN or higher at the time of application are mostly likely Asians. So, skim from the bottom and not from the top. No need to rely exclusively on the applicants zip code. They can just look at the math course in 7th grade.

racial balancing at the expense of declining talent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Of course, it's no coincidence that algebra 1 count went from 20+ in 2024 before admissions change to 160+ in the 2025 class, and the new class was declared as having more diversity.

"Compared to TJ Class of 2024, the proportion of students in Class of 2025 admitted with the minimal required math background of Algebra 1 in 8th grade increased sevenfold, from 4.5% to 31%"
https://www.fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

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

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.

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Of course, it's no coincidence that algebra 1 count went from 20+ in 2024 before admissions change to 160+ in the 2025 class, and the new class was declared as having more diversity.

"Compared to TJ Class of 2024, the proportion of students in Class of 2025 admitted with the minimal required math background of Algebra 1 in 8th grade increased sevenfold, from 4.5% to 31%"
https://www.fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

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

Admissions are a secret process for a reason. Manipulate as needed first, and cook an explanation later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Of course, it's no coincidence that algebra 1 count went from 20+ in 2024 before admissions change to 160+ in the 2025 class, and the new class was declared as having more diversity.

"Compared to TJ Class of 2024, the proportion of students in Class of 2025 admitted with the minimal required math background of Algebra 1 in 8th grade increased sevenfold, from 4.5% to 31%"
https://www.fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

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

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Supposedly the largest beneficiaries of the changes to the race-blind process were low-income Asian families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Of course, it's no coincidence that algebra 1 count went from 20+ in 2024 before admissions change to 160+ in the 2025 class, and the new class was declared as having more diversity.

"Compared to TJ Class of 2024, the proportion of students in Class of 2025 admitted with the minimal required math background of Algebra 1 in 8th grade increased sevenfold, from 4.5% to 31%"
https://www.fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

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

Admissions are a secret process for a reason. Manipulate as needed first, and cook an explanation later.

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Supposedly the largest beneficiaries of the changes to the race-blind process were low-income Asian families.

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Supposedly the largest beneficiaries of the changes to the race-blind process were low-income Asian families.

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Of course, it's no coincidence that algebra 1 count went from 20+ in 2024 before admissions change to 160+ in the 2025 class, and the new class was declared as having more diversity.

"Compared to TJ Class of 2024, the proportion of students in Class of 2025 admitted with the minimal required math background of Algebra 1 in 8th grade increased sevenfold, from 4.5% to 31%"
https://www.fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

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

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.

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Of course, it's no coincidence that algebra 1 count went from 20+ in 2024 before admissions change to 160+ in the 2025 class, and the new class was declared as having more diversity.

"Compared to TJ Class of 2024, the proportion of students in Class of 2025 admitted with the minimal required math background of Algebra 1 in 8th grade increased sevenfold, from 4.5% to 31%"
https://www.fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

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

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.

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.

You must not be very familiar with the SAT. They change it every few years. It's a completely different test now that it was in the last iteration, or the one before that, or the one before that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Of course, it's no coincidence that algebra 1 count went from 20+ in 2024 before admissions change to 160+ in the 2025 class, and the new class was declared as having more diversity.

"Compared to TJ Class of 2024, the proportion of students in Class of 2025 admitted with the minimal required math background of Algebra 1 in 8th grade increased sevenfold, from 4.5% to 31%"
https://www.fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

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

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.

I can agree with this. My child was there during the time cited here, and he was very aware of a lot of deeply unhappy fellow students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Of course, it's no coincidence that algebra 1 count went from 20+ in 2024 before admissions change to 160+ in the 2025 class, and the new class was declared as having more diversity.

"Compared to TJ Class of 2024, the proportion of students in Class of 2025 admitted with the minimal required math background of Algebra 1 in 8th grade increased sevenfold, from 4.5% to 31%"
https://www.fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

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

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.

It's even more stressful now but on the bottom end. For an Algebra 1 student, the journey to Calc AB seems like scaling Mount Everest. What's even harder to swallow is watching over two-thirds of their peers already having scaled to twice high multivariable peak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Of course, it's no coincidence that algebra 1 count went from 20+ in 2024 before admissions change to 160+ in the 2025 class, and the new class was declared as having more diversity.

"Compared to TJ Class of 2024, the proportion of students in Class of 2025 admitted with the minimal required math background of Algebra 1 in 8th grade increased sevenfold, from 4.5% to 31%"
https://www.fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

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

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.

It's even more stressful now but on the bottom end. For an Algebra 1 student, the journey to Calc AB seems like scaling Mount Everest. What's even harder to swallow is watching over two-thirds of their peers already having scaled to twice high multivariable peak.

What a strange worldview you have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Of course, it's no coincidence that algebra 1 count went from 20+ in 2024 before admissions change to 160+ in the 2025 class, and the new class was declared as having more diversity.

"Compared to TJ Class of 2024, the proportion of students in Class of 2025 admitted with the minimal required math background of Algebra 1 in 8th grade increased sevenfold, from 4.5% to 31%"
https://www.fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

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

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.

It's even more stressful now but on the bottom end. For an Algebra 1 student, the journey to Calc AB seems like scaling Mount Everest. What's even harder to swallow is watching over two-thirds of their peers already having scaled to twice high multivariable peak.

Have you talked to actual students who are expressing these thoughts to you? Are you a teacher at TJ? How is it that you know so many students and where they stand in terms of class rank?