WL IB or TJ or Private

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think first you rule out TJ if he's not interested in STEM, then your decision is between W-L and private. I can give you the W-L side of the debate.

Firstly, if your kids are in the top 50% of students, they will have access to impressive IB, AP and DE classes and mostly impressive teachers. The general education classes are sometimes remedial, which was a surprise. Both my kids have made connections with many of their teachers and have a number to choose from when requesting college letters of recommendation or recommendations for summer jobs. They have participated in the music and athletic programs and made lots of friends.

There is a group of kids who are troublemakers, but they tend not to lash out at kids outside their groups. The administrators are enforcing rules more this year and handing out suspensions and detentions. My kids say they are able to work around these groups with little effort.

In terms of college counseling, WL will keep your kid on track with deadlines and give them access to almost daily visits by college reps. They tend to give more assistance to the kids without means to get their applications done, not one on one counseling. So if you need that, hire someone. We haven't needed it.

My kids tell me regularly how lucky they feel to go to W-L, and I'm sure not everyone has the same positive experience but thought I'd share.

XL WL best days are behind it. They are adding another 400 students to the school over the next 3 years. Maybe IB will be insulated from the expanse, but it will just be too big to manage properly.

2020 WL Enrollment 2100
2024 WL Enrollment 2500

So will it stop at 2700 or 2900?

TJ is 1900 students

TJ will be 2200 students next year. TJ is amazing. But I doubt your kid can count on getting in. There just aren’t that many spots.

Op was offered a spot at TJ

i
Pretty sure TJ offers are not out.

TJ offers don't come out until late April. Private school deposits are usually due before the TJ offers are released. We were in this position last year and took the private spot. I was so glad we did, because the new TJ admissions system is random. The kids who got the spots from our MS were not the top math/science students by any measure-- but they did check the TJ experience factors. Just something to consider if you attend a more diverse APS middle school and don't check those boxes. We also had WL IB as an option, but our kid liked the smaller size of the private school. He's getting so much 1:1 interaction with teachers this year in private school-- that's been the biggest and best change from APS.

Absolutely. Of course it’s the admissions system. That’s why your kid didn’t get into TJ. For sure. You know that lots of mediocre APS kids get into the top privates too.

In our MS, the majority of the spots went to kids who were *not* in 8th grade Geometry, who did *not* do the science fair, who were *not* winning math competitions, etc... all the things that used to matter for TJ. The standout math and science kids at our middle school did not get the spots. The new admissions system at TJ weights certain experience factors (FARMS, ESL) heavily in admissions. When APS only gets four "allocated" spots per school, it matters. APS kids aren't eligible for the "unallocated" pool spots like the Fairfax kids, so once the four spots at your school are gone, your kid is out of the running. The lawsuit related to this new process has been covered extensively in the Washington Post. [/quote

Huh. Standout kids at our school got the spots. Wonder why it was so different? Maybe the kids you are talking about had things in their essay that you don’t know about. Maybe your kid did a crappy job on the problem solving essay or the other one. A lot of factors. But you go ahead and judge because the didn’t pick YOUR kid! Please tell us more about how the man is keeping your kid down!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think first you rule out TJ if he's not interested in STEM, then your decision is between W-L and private. I can give you the W-L side of the debate.

Firstly, if your kids are in the top 50% of students, they will have access to impressive IB, AP and DE classes and mostly impressive teachers. The general education classes are sometimes remedial, which was a surprise. Both my kids have made connections with many of their teachers and have a number to choose from when requesting college letters of recommendation or recommendations for summer jobs. They have participated in the music and athletic programs and made lots of friends.

There is a group of kids who are troublemakers, but they tend not to lash out at kids outside their groups. The administrators are enforcing rules more this year and handing out suspensions and detentions. My kids say they are able to work around these groups with little effort.

In terms of college counseling, WL will keep your kid on track with deadlines and give them access to almost daily visits by college reps. They tend to give more assistance to the kids without means to get their applications done, not one on one counseling. So if you need that, hire someone. We haven't needed it.

My kids tell me regularly how lucky they feel to go to W-L, and I'm sure not everyone has the same positive experience but thought I'd share.

XL WL best days are behind it. They are adding another 400 students to the school over the next 3 years. Maybe IB will be insulated from the expanse, but it will just be too big to manage properly.

2020 WL Enrollment 2100
2024 WL Enrollment 2500

So will it stop at 2700 or 2900?

TJ is 1900 students

TJ will be 2200 students next year. TJ is amazing. But I doubt your kid can count on getting in. There just aren’t that many spots.

Op was offered a spot at TJ

i
Pretty sure TJ offers are not out.

TJ offers don't come out until late April. Private school deposits are usually due before the TJ offers are released. We were in this position last year and took the private spot. I was so glad we did, because the new TJ admissions system is random. The kids who got the spots from our MS were not the top math/science students by any measure-- but they did check the TJ experience factors. Just something to consider if you attend a more diverse APS middle school and don't check those boxes. We also had WL IB as an option, but our kid liked the smaller size of the private school. He's getting so much 1:1 interaction with teachers this year in private school-- that's been the biggest and best change from APS.

Absolutely. Of course it’s the admissions system. That’s why your kid didn’t get into TJ. For sure. You know that lots of mediocre APS kids get into the top privates too.

In our MS, the majority of the spots went to kids who were *not* in 8th grade Geometry, who did *not* do the science fair, who were *not* winning math competitions, etc... all the things that used to matter for TJ. The standout math and science kids at our middle school did not get the spots. The new admissions system at TJ weights certain experience factors (FARMS, ESL) heavily in admissions. When APS only gets four "allocated" spots per school, it matters. APS kids aren't eligible for the "unallocated" pool spots like the Fairfax kids, so once the four spots at your school are gone, your kid is out of the running. The lawsuit related to this new process has been covered extensively in the Washington Post. [/quote

Huh. Standout kids at our school got the spots. Wonder why it was so different? Maybe the kids you are talking about had things in their essay that you don’t know about. Maybe your kid did a crappy job on the problem solving essay or the other one. A lot of factors. But you go ahead and judge because the didn’t pick YOUR kid! Please tell us more about how the man is keeping your kid down!

Um, you are wrong to think TJ is a meritocracy of academics. That’s what the litigation is about…. Trying to diversify the school based on income and race. Which is laudable but it’s true that this is both happening and a significant change to the way in. Which TJ picked prior classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think first you rule out TJ if he's not interested in STEM, then your decision is between W-L and private. I can give you the W-L side of the debate.

Firstly, if your kids are in the top 50% of students, they will have access to impressive IB, AP and DE classes and mostly impressive teachers. The general education classes are sometimes remedial, which was a surprise. Both my kids have made connections with many of their teachers and have a number to choose from when requesting college letters of recommendation or recommendations for summer jobs. They have participated in the music and athletic programs and made lots of friends.

There is a group of kids who are troublemakers, but they tend not to lash out at kids outside their groups. The administrators are enforcing rules more this year and handing out suspensions and detentions. My kids say they are able to work around these groups with little effort.

In terms of college counseling, WL will keep your kid on track with deadlines and give them access to almost daily visits by college reps. They tend to give more assistance to the kids without means to get their applications done, not one on one counseling. So if you need that, hire someone. We haven't needed it.

My kids tell me regularly how lucky they feel to go to W-L, and I'm sure not everyone has the same positive experience but thought I'd share.

XL WL best days are behind it. They are adding another 400 students to the school over the next 3 years. Maybe IB will be insulated from the expanse, but it will just be too big to manage properly.

2020 WL Enrollment 2100
2024 WL Enrollment 2500

So will it stop at 2700 or 2900?

TJ is 1900 students

TJ will be 2200 students next year. TJ is amazing. But I doubt your kid can count on getting in. There just aren’t that many spots.

Op was offered a spot at TJ

i
Pretty sure TJ offers are not out.

TJ offers don't come out until late April. Private school deposits are usually due before the TJ offers are released. We were in this position last year and took the private spot. I was so glad we did, because the new TJ admissions system is random. The kids who got the spots from our MS were not the top math/science students by any measure-- but they did check the TJ experience factors. Just something to consider if you attend a more diverse APS middle school and don't check those boxes. We also had WL IB as an option, but our kid liked the smaller size of the private school. He's getting so much 1:1 interaction with teachers this year in private school-- that's been the biggest and best change from APS.

Absolutely. Of course it’s the admissions system. That’s why your kid didn’t get into TJ. For sure. You know that lots of mediocre APS kids get into the top privates too.

In our MS, the majority of the spots went to kids who were *not* in 8th grade Geometry, who did *not* do the science fair, who were *not* winning math competitions, etc... all the things that used to matter for TJ. The standout math and science kids at our middle school did not get the spots. The new admissions system at TJ weights certain experience factors (FARMS, ESL) heavily in admissions. When APS only gets four "allocated" spots per school, it matters. APS kids aren't eligible for the "unallocated" pool spots like the Fairfax kids, so once the four spots at your school are gone, your kid is out of the running. The lawsuit related to this new process has been covered extensively in the Washington Post. [/quote

Huh. Standout kids at our school got the spots. Wonder why it was so different? Maybe the kids you are talking about had things in their essay that you don’t know about. Maybe your kid did a crappy job on the problem solving essay or the other one. A lot of factors. But you go ahead and judge because the didn’t pick YOUR kid! Please tell us more about how the man is keeping your kid down!

Um, you are wrong to think TJ is a meritocracy of academics. That’s what the litigation is about…. Trying to diversify the school based on income and race. Which is laudable but it’s true that this is both happening and a significant change to the way in. Which TJ picked prior classes.

Further, regardless of how you feel about affirmative action, the point of it is to put URMs into institutions like TJ from which they have been excluded based on prior admissions decisions. That means in fact that URMs with scores that would not meet prior TJ testing criteria are now admitted. Students, particularly Asian students for TJ, who traditionally had done quite well on eg the exam and entrance criteria are now having fewer admits. Meaning that it is not necessarily the “top” academic Arlington MS students getting in (which no one could tell you anyway since all the top kids have As meaning there are probably 75 of them at say DHMS/WMS alone.)

[Anonymous]

There are people posting on Facebook that the proposed APS budget cuts the funding for APS students to go to TJ, so something to keep in mind too.

[Anonymous]

Private. GTFO public. HSs are tanking. If you can swing it, you won’t regret it.

Ours did APS k-8 and private HS. What a world of difference.

[Anonymous]

The problem for Arlington students is that the new TJ admissions system was designed to correct a situation unique to Fairfax County, but it doesn't work in Arlington with our middle schools being so different demographically and our spots being so limited. In Fairfax, the school board was trying to address the fact that the majority of TJ students were pulling from a small number of middle schools in the Mclean area. They created a system where each school got a number of "allocated" spots (1.5% for each middle school, where the students were only competing against each other within the middle school), and then after that the remaining students went into a common pool where they could compete for "unallocated" spots. When Fairfax gave extra points based on FARMS/ESL/SPED factors, it meant that many of the allocated spots went to students with those factors. But there were still a ton of unallocated spots available to the Fairfax kids. As a result, Carson still sent 47 kids to the freshman class, Longfellow 30, etc.

In APS middle schools, we only get the 1.5% allocated spots (~ 4 per middle school), but the same admissions criteria is applied. So if you have kids applying who are getting a bonus bump for FARMS/ESL/SPED, then it can be very hard to overcome that advantage on the essay points alone. Additionally, in APS, there is not as much opportunity for 8th graders to distinguish themselves on GPA. Fairfax uses a grade scale that includes A-, so the kids who are straight As have a higher GPA weight than the kids with A- averages. As you know, in Arlington, everyone gets an A between 90-100, so all the Arlington kids have the same GPA, even if in reality some kids are getting 90s and other kids are consistently getting 99s and 100s. There is also no advantage to being on the Pre-Alg/Alg 1/Geometry track anymore. (Under the old system, Geometry was a requirement.)

At least for APS, it would be fairer to pool all the Arlington applicants together for evaluation, and then all students would be equally advantaged/disadvantaged by the demographic bonus points. As it is now, the impact hits differently based on how diverse your middle school demographics are and who applies. That's just a fact, regardless of your political thoughts on the subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem for Arlington students is that the new TJ admissions system was designed to correct a situation unique to Fairfax County, but it doesn't work in Arlington with our middle schools being so different demographically and our spots being so limited. In Fairfax, the school board was trying to address the fact that the majority of TJ students were pulling from a small number of middle schools in the Mclean area. They created a system where each school got a number of "allocated" spots (1.5% for each middle school, where the students were only competing against each other within the middle school), and then after that the remaining students went into a common pool where they could compete for "unallocated" spots. When Fairfax gave extra points based on FARMS/ESL/SPED factors, it meant that many of the allocated spots went to students with those factors. But there were still a ton of unallocated spots available to the Fairfax kids. As a result, Carson still sent 47 kids to the freshman class, Longfellow 30, etc.

In APS middle schools, we only get the 1.5% allocated spots (~ 4 per middle school), but the same admissions criteria is applied. So if you have kids applying who are getting a bonus bump for FARMS/ESL/SPED, then it can be very hard to overcome that advantage on the essay points alone. Additionally, in APS, there is not as much opportunity for 8th graders to distinguish themselves on GPA. Fairfax uses a grade scale that includes A-, so the kids who are straight As have a higher GPA weight than the kids with A- averages. As you know, in Arlington, everyone gets an A between 90-100, so all the Arlington kids have the same GPA, even if in reality some kids are getting 90s and other kids are consistently getting 99s and 100s. There is also no advantage to being on the Pre-Alg/Alg 1/Geometry track anymore. (Under the old system, Geometry was a requirement.)

At least for APS, it would be fairer to pool all the Arlington applicants together for evaluation, and then all students would be equally advantaged/disadvantaged by the demographic bonus points. As it is now, the impact hits differently based on how diverse your middle school demographics are and who applies. That's just a fact, regardless of your political thoughts on the subject.

The grades and experience factors are a small part of admissions. The test/essay questions are the big part of the new admissions - that's it.

Someone upthread mentioned that they didn't want TJ because their kid wasn't the right type of kid to go to TJ, didn't go to math competitions, etc. The change in admissions was partially designed to change that stereotype and reopen the school to more kids, to kids interested in math and to kids interested in science rather than just math competition kids. Seems to have been successful, too. Although the stereotype may take a while to fade in people's minds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem for Arlington students is that the new TJ admissions system was designed to correct a situation unique to Fairfax County, but it doesn't work in Arlington with our middle schools being so different demographically and our spots being so limited. In Fairfax, the school board was trying to address the fact that the majority of TJ students were pulling from a small number of middle schools in the Mclean area. They created a system where each school got a number of "allocated" spots (1.5% for each middle school, where the students were only competing against each other within the middle school), and then after that the remaining students went into a common pool where they could compete for "unallocated" spots. When Fairfax gave extra points based on FARMS/ESL/SPED factors, it meant that many of the allocated spots went to students with those factors. But there were still a ton of unallocated spots available to the Fairfax kids. As a result, Carson still sent 47 kids to the freshman class, Longfellow 30, etc.

In APS middle schools, we only get the 1.5% allocated spots (~ 4 per middle school), but the same admissions criteria is applied. So if you have kids applying who are getting a bonus bump for FARMS/ESL/SPED, then it can be very hard to overcome that advantage on the essay points alone. Additionally, in APS, there is not as much opportunity for 8th graders to distinguish themselves on GPA. Fairfax uses a grade scale that includes A-, so the kids who are straight As have a higher GPA weight than the kids with A- averages. As you know, in Arlington, everyone gets an A between 90-100, so all the Arlington kids have the same GPA, even if in reality some kids are getting 90s and other kids are consistently getting 99s and 100s. There is also no advantage to being on the Pre-Alg/Alg 1/Geometry track anymore. (Under the old system, Geometry was a requirement.)

At least for APS, it would be fairer to pool all the Arlington applicants together for evaluation, and then all students would be equally advantaged/disadvantaged by the demographic bonus points. As it is now, the impact hits differently based on how diverse your middle school demographics are and who applies. That's just a fact, regardless of your political thoughts on the subject.

The grades and experience factors are a small part of admissions. The test/essay questions are the big part of the new admissions - that's it.

Someone upthread mentioned that they didn't want TJ because their kid wasn't the right type of kid to go to TJ, didn't go to math competitions, etc. The change in admissions was partially designed to change that stereotype and reopen the school to more kids, to kids interested in math and to kids interested in science rather than just math competition kids. Seems to have been successful, too. Although the stereotype may take a while to fade in people's minds.

It is not true that experience factors are a small part of admissions. As part of the litigation, text messages and emails were produced in discovery (and covered in the local press) where FCPS school board members and senior administrators openly discussed setting the points high enough for experience factors to meaningfully shift the demographics of the school. That was the basis for the lawsuit, with the plaintiffs alleging that it was anti-Asian. You might not agree with that political interpretation, but you can't dismiss that the experience factors matter a lot. You can find all of the texts and emails online-- it is not a secret.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem for Arlington students is that the new TJ admissions system was designed to correct a situation unique to Fairfax County, but it doesn't work in Arlington with our middle schools being so different demographically and our spots being so limited. In Fairfax, the school board was trying to address the fact that the majority of TJ students were pulling from a small number of middle schools in the Mclean area. They created a system where each school got a number of "allocated" spots (1.5% for each middle school, where the students were only competing against each other within the middle school), and then after that the remaining students went into a common pool where they could compete for "unallocated" spots. When Fairfax gave extra points based on FARMS/ESL/SPED factors, it meant that many of the allocated spots went to students with those factors. But there were still a ton of unallocated spots available to the Fairfax kids. As a result, Carson still sent 47 kids to the freshman class, Longfellow 30, etc.

In APS middle schools, we only get the 1.5% allocated spots (~ 4 per middle school), but the same admissions criteria is applied. So if you have kids applying who are getting a bonus bump for FARMS/ESL/SPED, then it can be very hard to overcome that advantage on the essay points alone. Additionally, in APS, there is not as much opportunity for 8th graders to distinguish themselves on GPA. Fairfax uses a grade scale that includes A-, so the kids who are straight As have a higher GPA weight than the kids with A- averages. As you know, in Arlington, everyone gets an A between 90-100, so all the Arlington kids have the same GPA, even if in reality some kids are getting 90s and other kids are consistently getting 99s and 100s. There is also no advantage to being on the Pre-Alg/Alg 1/Geometry track anymore. (Under the old system, Geometry was a requirement.)

At least for APS, it would be fairer to pool all the Arlington applicants together for evaluation, and then all students would be equally advantaged/disadvantaged by the demographic bonus points. As it is now, the impact hits differently based on how diverse your middle school demographics are and who applies. That's just a fact, regardless of your political thoughts on the subject.

The grades and experience factors are a small part of admissions. The test/essay questions are the big part of the new admissions - that's it.

Someone upthread mentioned that they didn't want TJ because their kid wasn't the right type of kid to go to TJ, didn't go to math competitions, etc. The change in admissions was partially designed to change that stereotype and reopen the school to more kids, to kids interested in math and to kids interested in science rather than just math competition kids. Seems to have been successful, too. Although the stereotype may take a while to fade in people's minds.

Part of the goal was to broaden the appeal of THHSST as well. It seems to be working. Not so across the country in SF.

Lowell HS in San Francisco also attempted opening a up admissions to its elite high school a couple years back, but eventually restored its entrance exam at the behest of parents, many in SF’s Asian American community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem for Arlington students is that the new TJ admissions system was designed to correct a situation unique to Fairfax County, but it doesn't work in Arlington with our middle schools being so different demographically and our spots being so limited. In Fairfax, the school board was trying to address the fact that the majority of TJ students were pulling from a small number of middle schools in the Mclean area. They created a system where each school got a number of "allocated" spots (1.5% for each middle school, where the students were only competing against each other within the middle school), and then after that the remaining students went into a common pool where they could compete for "unallocated" spots. When Fairfax gave extra points based on FARMS/ESL/SPED factors, it meant that many of the allocated spots went to students with those factors. But there were still a ton of unallocated spots available to the Fairfax kids. As a result, Carson still sent 47 kids to the freshman class, Longfellow 30, etc.

In APS middle schools, we only get the 1.5% allocated spots (~ 4 per middle school), but the same admissions criteria is applied. So if you have kids applying who are getting a bonus bump for FARMS/ESL/SPED, then it can be very hard to overcome that advantage on the essay points alone. Additionally, in APS, there is not as much opportunity for 8th graders to distinguish themselves on GPA. Fairfax uses a grade scale that includes A-, so the kids who are straight As have a higher GPA weight than the kids with A- averages. As you know, in Arlington, everyone gets an A between 90-100, so all the Arlington kids have the same GPA, even if in reality some kids are getting 90s and other kids are consistently getting 99s and 100s. There is also no advantage to being on the Pre-Alg/Alg 1/Geometry track anymore. (Under the old system, Geometry was a requirement.)

At least for APS, it would be fairer to pool all the Arlington applicants together for evaluation, and then all students would be equally advantaged/disadvantaged by the demographic bonus points. As it is now, the impact hits differently based on how diverse your middle school demographics are and who applies. That's just a fact, regardless of your political thoughts on the subject.

The grades and experience factors are a small part of admissions. The test/essay questions are the big part of the new admissions - that's it.

Someone upthread mentioned that they didn't want TJ because their kid wasn't the right type of kid to go to TJ, didn't go to math competitions, etc. The change in admissions was partially designed to change that stereotype and reopen the school to more kids, to kids interested in math and to kids interested in science rather than just math competition kids. Seems to have been successful, too. Although the stereotype may take a while to fade in people's minds.

It is not true that experience factors are a small part of admissions. As part of the litigation, text messages and emails were produced in discovery (and covered in the local press) where FCPS school board members and senior administrators openly discussed setting the points high enough for experience factors to meaningfully shift the demographics of the school. That was the basis for the lawsuit, with the plaintiffs alleging that it was anti-Asian. You might not agree with that political interpretation, but you can't dismiss that the experience factors matter a lot. You can find all of the texts and emails online-- it is not a secret.

We get it. You don’t like the admissions change. Enough. That wasn’t the question. Go post in AAP with the rest of the TJ haters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem for Arlington students is that the new TJ admissions system was designed to correct a situation unique to Fairfax County, but it doesn't work in Arlington with our middle schools being so different demographically and our spots being so limited. In Fairfax, the school board was trying to address the fact that the majority of TJ students were pulling from a small number of middle schools in the Mclean area. They created a system where each school got a number of "allocated" spots (1.5% for each middle school, where the students were only competing against each other within the middle school), and then after that the remaining students went into a common pool where they could compete for "unallocated" spots. When Fairfax gave extra points based on FARMS/ESL/SPED factors, it meant that many of the allocated spots went to students with those factors. But there were still a ton of unallocated spots available to the Fairfax kids. As a result, Carson still sent 47 kids to the freshman class, Longfellow 30, etc.

In APS middle schools, we only get the 1.5% allocated spots (~ 4 per middle school), but the same admissions criteria is applied. So if you have kids applying who are getting a bonus bump for FARMS/ESL/SPED, then it can be very hard to overcome that advantage on the essay points alone. Additionally, in APS, there is not as much opportunity for 8th graders to distinguish themselves on GPA. Fairfax uses a grade scale that includes A-, so the kids who are straight As have a higher GPA weight than the kids with A- averages. As you know, in Arlington, everyone gets an A between 90-100, so all the Arlington kids have the same GPA, even if in reality some kids are getting 90s and other kids are consistently getting 99s and 100s. There is also no advantage to being on the Pre-Alg/Alg 1/Geometry track anymore. (Under the old system, Geometry was a requirement.)

At least for APS, it would be fairer to pool all the Arlington applicants together for evaluation, and then all students would be equally advantaged/disadvantaged by the demographic bonus points. As it is now, the impact hits differently based on how diverse your middle school demographics are and who applies. That's just a fact, regardless of your political thoughts on the subject.

The grades and experience factors are a small part of admissions. The test/essay questions are the big part of the new admissions - that's it.

Someone upthread mentioned that they didn't want TJ because their kid wasn't the right type of kid to go to TJ, didn't go to math competitions, etc. The change in admissions was partially designed to change that stereotype and reopen the school to more kids, to kids interested in math and to kids interested in science rather than just math competition kids. Seems to have been successful, too. Although the stereotype may take a while to fade in people's minds.

It is not true that experience factors are a small part of admissions. As part of the litigation, text messages and emails were produced in discovery (and covered in the local press) where FCPS school board members and senior administrators openly discussed setting the points high enough for experience factors to meaningfully shift the demographics of the school. That was the basis for the lawsuit, with the plaintiffs alleging that it was anti-Asian. You might not agree with that political interpretation, but you can't dismiss that the experience factors matter a lot. You can find all of the texts and emails online-- it is not a secret.

We get it. You don’t like the admissions change. Enough. That wasn’t the question. Go post in AAP with the rest of the TJ haters.

It’s extremely useful to understand the admissions process when comparing HS. We faced the same decision recently and came out against choosing to apply to TJ for many reasons. But it’s absolutely fair to the OP to understand what you are getting with TJ—as opposed to W&L IB or private school.

And so we are clear, you apparently work at Syphax since I’ve now decided to scream Syphax every time APE comes up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem for Arlington students is that the new TJ admissions system was designed to correct a situation unique to Fairfax County, but it doesn't work in Arlington with our middle schools being so different demographically and our spots being so limited. In Fairfax, the school board was trying to address the fact that the majority of TJ students were pulling from a small number of middle schools in the Mclean area. They created a system where each school got a number of "allocated" spots (1.5% for each middle school, where the students were only competing against each other within the middle school), and then after that the remaining students went into a common pool where they could compete for "unallocated" spots. When Fairfax gave extra points based on FARMS/ESL/SPED factors, it meant that many of the allocated spots went to students with those factors. But there were still a ton of unallocated spots available to the Fairfax kids. As a result, Carson still sent 47 kids to the freshman class, Longfellow 30, etc.

In APS middle schools, we only get the 1.5% allocated spots (~ 4 per middle school), but the same admissions criteria is applied. So if you have kids applying who are getting a bonus bump for FARMS/ESL/SPED, then it can be very hard to overcome that advantage on the essay points alone. Additionally, in APS, there is not as much opportunity for 8th graders to distinguish themselves on GPA. Fairfax uses a grade scale that includes A-, so the kids who are straight As have a higher GPA weight than the kids with A- averages. As you know, in Arlington, everyone gets an A between 90-100, so all the Arlington kids have the same GPA, even if in reality some kids are getting 90s and other kids are consistently getting 99s and 100s. There is also no advantage to being on the Pre-Alg/Alg 1/Geometry track anymore. (Under the old system, Geometry was a requirement.)

At least for APS, it would be fairer to pool all the Arlington applicants together for evaluation, and then all students would be equally advantaged/disadvantaged by the demographic bonus points. As it is now, the impact hits differently based on how diverse your middle school demographics are and who applies. That's just a fact, regardless of your political thoughts on the subject.

The grades and experience factors are a small part of admissions. The test/essay questions are the big part of the new admissions - that's it.

Someone upthread mentioned that they didn't want TJ because their kid wasn't the right type of kid to go to TJ, didn't go to math competitions, etc. The change in admissions was partially designed to change that stereotype and reopen the school to more kids, to kids interested in math and to kids interested in science rather than just math competition kids. Seems to have been successful, too. Although the stereotype may take a while to fade in people's minds.

It is not true that experience factors are a small part of admissions. As part of the litigation, text messages and emails were produced in discovery (and covered in the local press) where FCPS school board members and senior administrators openly discussed setting the points high enough for experience factors to meaningfully shift the demographics of the school. That was the basis for the lawsuit, with the plaintiffs alleging that it was anti-Asian. You might not agree with that political interpretation, but you can't dismiss that the experience factors matter a lot. You can find all of the texts and emails online-- it is not a secret.

We get it. You don’t like the admissions change. Enough. That wasn’t the question. Go post in AAP with the rest of the TJ haters.

It’s extremely useful to understand the admissions process when comparing HS. We faced the same decision recently and came out against choosing to apply to TJ for many reasons. But it’s absolutely fair to the OP to understand what you are getting with TJ—as opposed to W&L IB or private school.

And so we are clear, you apparently work at Syphax since I’ve now decided to scream Syphax every time APE comes up.

But you don't understand the process and you are giving wrong information on this thread. That's not helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem for Arlington students is that the new TJ admissions system was designed to correct a situation unique to Fairfax County, but it doesn't work in Arlington with our middle schools being so different demographically and our spots being so limited. In Fairfax, the school board was trying to address the fact that the majority of TJ students were pulling from a small number of middle schools in the Mclean area. They created a system where each school got a number of "allocated" spots (1.5% for each middle school, where the students were only competing against each other within the middle school), and then after that the remaining students went into a common pool where they could compete for "unallocated" spots. When Fairfax gave extra points based on FARMS/ESL/SPED factors, it meant that many of the allocated spots went to students with those factors. But there were still a ton of unallocated spots available to the Fairfax kids. As a result, Carson still sent 47 kids to the freshman class, Longfellow 30, etc.

In APS middle schools, we only get the 1.5% allocated spots (~ 4 per middle school), but the same admissions criteria is applied. So if you have kids applying who are getting a bonus bump for FARMS/ESL/SPED, then it can be very hard to overcome that advantage on the essay points alone. Additionally, in APS, there is not as much opportunity for 8th graders to distinguish themselves on GPA. Fairfax uses a grade scale that includes A-, so the kids who are straight As have a higher GPA weight than the kids with A- averages. As you know, in Arlington, everyone gets an A between 90-100, so all the Arlington kids have the same GPA, even if in reality some kids are getting 90s and other kids are consistently getting 99s and 100s. There is also no advantage to being on the Pre-Alg/Alg 1/Geometry track anymore. (Under the old system, Geometry was a requirement.)

At least for APS, it would be fairer to pool all the Arlington applicants together for evaluation, and then all students would be equally advantaged/disadvantaged by the demographic bonus points. As it is now, the impact hits differently based on how diverse your middle school demographics are and who applies. That's just a fact, regardless of your political thoughts on the subject.

The grades and experience factors are a small part of admissions. The test/essay questions are the big part of the new admissions - that's it.

Someone upthread mentioned that they didn't want TJ because their kid wasn't the right type of kid to go to TJ, didn't go to math competitions, etc. The change in admissions was partially designed to change that stereotype and reopen the school to more kids, to kids interested in math and to kids interested in science rather than just math competition kids. Seems to have been successful, too. Although the stereotype may take a while to fade in people's minds.

It is not true that experience factors are a small part of admissions. As part of the litigation, text messages and emails were produced in discovery (and covered in the local press) where FCPS school board members and senior administrators openly discussed setting the points high enough for experience factors to meaningfully shift the demographics of the school. That was the basis for the lawsuit, with the plaintiffs alleging that it was anti-Asian. You might not agree with that political interpretation, but you can't dismiss that the experience factors matter a lot. You can find all of the texts and emails online-- it is not a secret.

We get it. You don’t like the admissions change. Enough. That wasn’t the question. Go post in AAP with the rest of the TJ haters.

It’s extremely useful to understand the admissions process when comparing HS. We faced the same decision recently and came out against choosing to apply to TJ for many reasons. But it’s absolutely fair to the OP to understand what you are getting with TJ—as opposed to W&L IB or private school.

And so we are clear, you apparently work at Syphax since I’ve now decided to scream Syphax every time APE comes up.

No moron. Not APE. AAP. The Fairfax gifted program. Figured you’d understand that acronym because you are so informed about TJ. Post all your valuable tidbits re admissions on that board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But you don't understand the process and you are giving wrong information on this thread. That's not helpful.

Everything posted above about the TJ admissions process can be found on the TJ website, the FCPS website, or in the publicly-available document repository from the lawsuit. Readers of this thread can research and determine this for themselves. But enjoy your tantrum.

[Anonymous]

The TJ admissions rubric was made public and it was noted that GPA and experience factors were a very small part of the admissions determination and that the test questions/essay questions were by far the most important part of the admissions determination.