UVA - "holistic" vs GPA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

(The bottom line with TJ is that when you press the button to attend TJ, you know your chances of college admissions decrease unless you are in the top 10% or so of your graduating class.)

Not true. Just look at TJ college destination statistics. Half of the class gets admitted to UVA and WM. Any college no matter how selective, the admission rates from TJ are multiples of other FCPS schools. Your own kid got into Berkeley most likely because of the unique combination of the exceptional STEM school and passion for performing art

Neither Uva or Wm want too many from TJ, even if they easily meet the gpa and SAT preferences for the school. That's calle "holistic" admissions. Indeed Uva could be completely filled with NOVA kids only if gpa and SAT were the only qualifiers.

And change it name to UNoVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't understand what holistic admissions means. It means you first have to have the goods -- extraordinarily high academic achievement -- before all the other stuff counts. Your kid didn't have the goods.

No, it doesn’t. It means the school admissions team can define “have the goods” any way they want to.

Precisely. And, yes, Dean J has been very clear about taking the most rigorous courses. SCHEV provides more statistical information on state schools than any other state in the USA. google State Council Higher Education Virginia and look at all the statistics provided even for privates in Virginia. But you must do your homework before applying. My own DD could never have gotten into UVA so we didn't even try, which creates some sour grapes amongst Virginians but it is what it is. She went to another fine Virginia school. Listen to your high school counselor, go to Naviance, read the SCHEV stats. Read Dean J's stuff with a grain of salt because, yes, her job is to get kids to apply so they can be rejected. Don't get your kid excited about a school that you either don't have the money for or for which she or he doesn't have the GPA or stats. Grill your high school counselor: precisely what happened last year for your high school's applicants? It was a traumatic year for a lot of TJ students because Virginia Tech decided to go big on first-generation AND yield protection so a lot of TJ kids with great applications didn't get in. Ask your counselor are they going to check off the "most rigorous" box. Read new books on the field. Hire a consultant who can get you through the minefield. You or your child must do the homework. Read Reddit for the particular college. And then College Confidential

[Anonymous]

There no longer is a most rigorous box

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA is overrated. UCB and Michigan are better schools and they want the TJ kids. Obviously it costs more for in-state students. But the experience is worth it.

If UVA is serious about improving its standing, it needs to improve its STEM and engineering programs. It needs recruit more from TJ not less.

Don't you ever get tired of posting this stuff? You are wrong about science and stem. Even if you were, the Commonwealth has VTech. And it has W&M for a SLAC experiene. You really want great engineering and cybersecurity in particular? GMU. We are blessed with riches in Virginia but you have to pick the university that is right for what you want to do. UVA is a very small school compared to UCB and Michigan. There are only so many slots open to in-state Virginians. For what it's worth my kid did engineering at UVA is now doing electrical engineering grad work at Princeton.


Please read what James RYan has been doing in science and technology and engineering at UVA before you post again. I'm sorry your kid didn't get in but your uneducated posts aren't helping those on this site you need information. Google UVA engineering. https://news.virginia.edu/content/engineering-executive-dean-named-vice-provost-research-george-washington.

DP. What's tricky for UVA is that UCB and UMichigan are universally considered more prestigious/better schools than UVA. UVA maybe has a case for being as prestigious as UCLA, but the latter is way more well-known, popular, and it's in sunny LA which means that students will almost unilaterally prefer it. That leaves it at arguably the 4th best public school, a title it shares with UNC, but that simply doesn't really sound as impressive as UVA grads and parents think it does, and isn't helped by the fact that schools like Florida, Georgia Tech, and UCSB are fast approaching the status of UVA and in some circles are already considered more prestigious. Even further, the fact that it shares a state with W&M, another well-known public, doesn't help UVA's case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There no longer is a most rigorous box

Because schools that list it as important will calculate it on their own in relationship to the high school profile your counselor submits with the application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There no longer is a most rigorous box

Actually, it turns out that they just rearranged the form, so that the box list is horizontal. Scroll most of the way down the second page to the section titled Curriculum. https://commonapp.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/#d0000000eEna/a/1L000000guQg/GnFtbzQMfhXi0S4IXIOgI1r2h28wqtbNX2aUHuRbd3k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

(The bottom line with TJ is that when you press the button to attend TJ, you know your chances of college admissions decrease unless you are in the top 10% or so of your graduating class.)

Not true. Just look at TJ college destination statistics. Half of the class gets admitted to UVA and WM. Any college no matter how selective, the admission rates from TJ are multiples of other FCPS schools. Your own kid got into Berkeley most likely because of the unique combination of the exceptional STEM school and passion for performing art

Only a moron would compare college admissions from a highly selective admissions STEM school with a base school. It is idiotic.

But the initial PP said the "top 10%" when 50% of the class gets admitted to UVA/WM/VT Engineering--the top in-state schools. A factual correction.
And it's not unreasonable to compare the top 50% of TJ to the top 10% at the base schools--they are essentially the same caliber, with similar SATs etc. Not every top student wants to go to TJ and this is a high achieving area.

Nowhere near 50% of the class is admitted to those schools. 2/3 of the TJ applicants to UVA are rejected, and they come mostly from the top half of students.

[Anonymous]

I have been told if you want UVA, take the class where the kids can get the A, regardless of rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There no longer is a most rigorous box

Because schools that list it as important will calculate it on their own in relationship to the high school profile your counselor submits with the application.

[b]


The readers can figure it out in seconds from the profile of the senior class sent with the transcript.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been told if you want UVA, take the class where the kids can get the A, regardless of rigor. [/quote]


false. Dean J has been clear on this. It's rigor and performance in those courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There no longer is a most rigorous box

Actually, it turns out that they just rearranged the form, so that the box list is horizontal. Scroll most of the way down the second page to the section titled Curriculum. https://commonapp.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/#d0000000eEna/a/1L000000guQg/GnFtbzQMfhXi0S4IXIOgI1r2h28wqtbNX2aUHuRbd3k

And note the question about how ranking is done. So when your high school counsel says, and they will, "we don't rank" ask them exactly how they are going to fill out the form. Pin them down. There is no point in applying to the most elite schools if you don't have the counselor's backing on rank and rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

(The bottom line with TJ is that when you press the button to attend TJ, you know your chances of college admissions decrease unless you are in the top 10% or so of your graduating class.)

Not true. Just look at TJ college destination statistics. Half of the class gets admitted to UVA and WM. Any college no matter how selective, the admission rates from TJ are multiples of other FCPS schools. Your own kid got into Berkeley most likely because of the unique combination of the exceptional STEM school and passion for performing art

Only a moron would compare college admissions from a highly selective admissions STEM school with a base school. It is idiotic.

But the initial PP said the "top 10%" when 50% of the class gets admitted to UVA/WM/VT Engineering--the top in-state schools. A factual correction.
And it's not unreasonable to compare the top 50% of TJ to the top 10% at the base schools--they are essentially the same caliber, with similar SATs etc. Not every top student wants to go to TJ and this is a high achieving area.

Nowhere near 50% of the class is admitted to those schools. 2/3 of the TJ applicants to UVA are rejected, and they come mostly from the top half of students.

You don’t know what you are talking about. See for yourself here
http://www.cinfoshare.org/education/college-destinations
Class of 2019, 425 students, 348 applied to UVA, 197 accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA is overrated. UCB and Michigan are better schools and they want the TJ kids. Obviously it costs more for in-state students. But the experience is worth it.

If UVA is serious about improving its standing, it needs to improve its STEM and engineering programs. It needs recruit more from TJ not less.

Don't you ever get tired of posting this stuff? You are wrong about science and stem. Even if you were, the Commonwealth has VTech. And it has W&M for a SLAC experiene. You really want great engineering and cybersecurity in particular? GMU. We are blessed with riches in Virginia but you have to pick the university that is right for what you want to do. UVA is a very small school compared to UCB and Michigan. There are only so many slots open to in-state Virginians. For what it's worth my kid did engineering at UVA is now doing electrical engineering grad work at Princeton.


Please read what James RYan has been doing in science and technology and engineering at UVA before you post again. I'm sorry your kid didn't get in but your uneducated posts aren't helping those on this site you need information. Google UVA engineering. https://news.virginia.edu/content/engineering-executive-dean-named-vice-provost-research-george-washington.

You sound very parochial when you write stuff like "your kid didn't get in". It's not that hard to get in from Virginia. I have a DC attending UVA right now and another one accepted but attending a top Ivy. I am not sure what you were trying to say by posting a link about a UVA engineering faculty getting another job at GWU. UVA is not strong in STEM and it doesn't help more UVA rejects go to Michigan and UCB. I have no idea what Ryan is doing but it will take a long time before UVA's STEM programs are respected.