What is going on with TJ admissions this year?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So regarding the selection procedure of TJ students - What is it they are looking for after the top 1.5% of students are sorted?

If the Student portrait sheet and problem-solving essay are good, is the next step is they look if the student's math grades are good? Again in Math grades, will they prefer Algebra 1 or Geometry students if both students have Grade A?

It's a point system that has been posted somewhere else on DCUM.

A friend of mine who is connected claims it's going to be a lottery next year to put an end to all this nonsense once and for all.

The lottery was thrown out. There is no way a lotter would pass with Youngkin as governor.

He is a Governor, not a King. I have not memorized the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia but I doubt that the Governor is granted the power to determine how a specific school in the Commonwealth chooses its students. His Cabinet selections and other appointments can effect the Department of Education, and TJ through that, but they are not going to be able to say yes or no to a lottery at TJ. And TJ is a niche issue with a niche section of voters, outside of ads targeting the small group of parents obsessed with TJ, he is not running on reforming TJ admissions as a part of his platform.

But the Publicans think they can ignore the rule of law and feel they can act unilaterally in all matters. Look at Trump making off with classified documents. Anyone else would be in jail for treason for this nonsense.

VA Statute on Governor's Schools would not allow for a lottery system. We should all obey the law including Demorats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people are saying it's a lottery already, that the top kids are not getting in at their school.

Chances are they have a very limited idea of what constitutes "top kids".

Currently, "top kids" = kids awarded the most points on their unproctored, unverified essays and largely unverified experience factors. Hopefully, the essays will at least be proctored for the upcoming year.

[Anonymous]

Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

It has Science and Technology in the title dufus. TJ isn't a college it's supposed to be reserved for the most talented STEM students period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

It has Science and Technology in the title dufus. TJ isn't a college it's supposed to be reserved for the most talented STEM students period.

It won't matter if the kid gets a Nobel prize or wins the Math Olympiad. There is so much more to it holistically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people are saying it's a lottery already, that the top kids are not getting in at their school.

Chances are they have a very limited idea of what constitutes "top kids".

Currently, "top kids" = kids awarded the most points on their unproctored, unverified essays and largely unverified experience factors. Hopefully, the essays will at least be proctored for the upcoming year.

I hope not! I just spent a ton on the essay class at the prep center.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have an eighth grader considering TJ. I was following TJ admissions last year but then lost track after appeals.

Is FCPS still doing the top kids from each middle school?
Will there still be extra weight on if you are free lunch or URM?
Will there be a test this year and when?

Yes to top kids from each middle school
Yes to students from economically disadvantaged families
No to racial groups - this has never been the case
No to a content oriented exam, but yes to a student portrait sheet

All of this subject to change based on court decisions coming up early this year.

Are you seriously going to say there was no push to get more URMs?

There's a difference between "a push to get more students from underrepresented groups" and "extra weight if you are one". The former, yes, the latter, no.

The whole point of the portrait sheet and to a lesser extent the writing sample was to do this. Additionally there were actual bonus points for URM and FARMS folks.

There weren't ever any bonus points for URMs for TJ admissions. There were originally bonus points for attending an underrepresented middle school, but those points were eliminated. That being said, I have no doubt that the decision to allocate seats by attending school rather than by zoned school/high school/pyramid was made entirely to decrease the number of Asians.

Really? Then how come it's 60%+ Asians even now?

Yep, 60% even after that. Maybe they are both talented and work hard.

Perhaps, but with that high a number I'd also suspect the test is culturally biased.

Such an aggressive comment. Aren’t almost all of these kids American?

Isn’t the American culture a melting pot? Or just a melting pot of English and German?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

It has Science and Technology in the title dufus. TJ isn't a college it's supposed to be reserved for the most talented STEM students period.

It won't matter if the kid gets a Nobel prize or wins the Math Olympiad. There is so much more to it holistically.

This is cheater’s talk!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

Yeah. On one hand, you have a kid with perfect grades who is at an elite, top tier level in math. On the other hand, you have an Algebra I in 8th grade student who hasn't done any STEM ECs, but wrote a pretty essay. It's just such a toss up as to which one should be prioritized for the STEM magnet school.

Reasonably speaking, though, if you were to look at elite level accomplishments among FCPS 8th graders and automatically admit kids with them, that would only fill like 20 seats. There would still be 530 seats left to spread around to all of those other 'quality TJ students.'

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

Yeah. On one hand, you have a kid with perfect grades who is at an elite, top tier level in math. On the other hand, you have an Algebra I in 8th grade student who hasn't done any STEM ECs, but wrote a pretty essay. It's just such a toss up as to which one should be prioritized for the STEM magnet school.

Reasonably speaking, though, if you were to look at elite level accomplishments among FCPS 8th graders and automatically admit kids with them, that would only fill like 20 seats. There would still be 530 seats left to spread around to all of those other 'quality TJ students.'

They way parents on this board talk, all 550 seats could be fit by the elite level accomplishments. Let's be real, there are probably only 20-50 kids who fall into that elite category but there are plenty of parents here who believe that their kid is in that elite category.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

Yeah. On one hand, you have a kid with perfect grades who is at an elite, top tier level in math. On the other hand, you have an Algebra I in 8th grade student who hasn't done any STEM ECs, but wrote a pretty essay. It's just such a toss up as to which one should be prioritized for the STEM magnet school.

Reasonably speaking, though, if you were to look at elite level accomplishments among FCPS 8th graders and automatically admit kids with them, that would only fill like 20 seats. There would still be 530 seats left to spread around to all of those other 'quality TJ students.'

They way parents on this board talk, all 550 seats could be fit by the elite level accomplishments. Let's be real, there are probably only 20-50 kids who fall into that elite category but there are plenty of parents here who believe that their kid is in that elite category.

People are pretty good about acknowledging that there are at most 100 kids who "need" TJ and another 2000 kids who could fill out the remaining seats with little to no loss of quality of the school. My problem is that those 50-100 kids aren't necessarily getting selected in the current system. Yes, there absolutely are only 20 ish kids with elite accomplishments in the TJ catchment area. It's absurd to suggest that those 20 kids don't need TJ and may not be 'quality TJ students.' This really doesn't need to be all or nothing. A system could be set up to ensure that those kids who are true academic elites or who absolutely need TJ get in, but also ensure that there's diversity, appreciation of a wide variety of talents, and plenty of those other qualities TJ would like to see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

Yeah. On one hand, you have a kid with perfect grades who is at an elite, top tier level in math. On the other hand, you have an Algebra I in 8th grade student who hasn't done any STEM ECs, but wrote a pretty essay. It's just such a toss up as to which one should be prioritized for the STEM magnet school.

Reasonably speaking, though, if you were to look at elite level accomplishments among FCPS 8th graders and automatically admit kids with them, that would only fill like 20 seats. There would still be 530 seats left to spread around to all of those other 'quality TJ students.'

They way parents on this board talk, all 550 seats could be fit by the elite level accomplishments. Let's be real, there are probably only 20-50 kids who fall into that elite category but there are plenty of parents here who believe that their kid is in that elite category.

People are pretty good about acknowledging that there are at most 100 kids who "need" TJ and another 2000 kids who could fill out the remaining seats with little to no loss of quality of the school. My problem is that those 50-100 kids aren't necessarily getting selected in the current system. Yes, there absolutely are only 20 ish kids with elite accomplishments in the TJ catchment area. It's absurd to suggest that those 20 kids don't need TJ and may not be 'quality TJ students.' This really doesn't need to be all or nothing. A system could be set up to ensure that those kids who are true academic elites or who absolutely need TJ get in, but also ensure that there's diversity, appreciation of a wide variety of talents, and plenty of those other qualities TJ would like to see.

Less the bottom-half do impact the school by some measures. For example look at the SOL scores. Almost all schools in FCPS had some progress upwards

For TJHSST the pass advanced rate in Geometry went down 31% from 73% to 42%

Biology and Algebra 2 Pass advanced level went down (but not that much 13 and 10%) from 66% to 53% and from 63% to 53%

These test and results do not matter for people who believe that the best way to find in-nate talent is via un-proctored and un-verified essays. So yes, overall for the top spots/test nationwide the bottom-half does not matter but for the average scores etc. they will.