Official TJ Admissions Decisions Results for the Class of 2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t say they don’t deserve it. I’d say kids who learn outside of school are not entitled to advanced public education.

So let me get this straight… we as a society should be discouraging kids from learning outside of school?

I wouldn't go that far, but public schools should not make decisions about advanced placement based on outside classes.

Agreed. Enrichment is fine but determining access to Public School programs based on outside enrichment opportunities is a non-starter. Not every child has the ability to access those opportunities due to time for parents, cost, distance or some combination of issues. The bar should be set based on the commonly available paths within the public schools. The accelerated math path available in Public Schools would lead to kids taking Algebra 1 Honors and Geometry Honors in Middle School. That should be the bar that is set. Not robotics or math competitions or science awards because those are not activities that are offered in every Public School in FCPS.

Setting the bar based on what every kid can reasonably access makes sense. It identifies kids with the raw potential, advanced math, good grades, and an interest in STEM. TJ can build on those raw materials.

If people want to find a way to fund and encourage participation in robotics and Math Olympiad and similar programs in every ES and MS then we can move the bar. The fact that those programs are readily available to my kid at an upper middle class ES so he can stay after school and engage in STEM but are not available to most kids at Title I schools means that my kid has an artificial advantage for application to TJ if those activities are taken into consideration. All I have to do is sign him up and he can stay after school for an hour to take a variety of programs. We can afford RSM and have the time to drive him to and from the classes. We can afford STEM Scouts. If he wanted to dig in deeper, we would find a program and make it work because we can. Many families do not have that same ability.

Essentially what people are objecting to is the idea of widening the aperture by restricting the application to considering factors that are available to all students through the Public Schools. I am not going to stop paying for STEM programs for my kid because they will not be a factor in a TJ application if he should choose to apply. I pay for those because he enjoys them and asks to do them. That is what enrichment is. Expanding his knowledge in areas that he is interested in through additional activities that he enjoys. But we don't sign him up for anything without knowing that he is interested and he has a say in his activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t say they don’t deserve it. I’d say kids who learn outside of school are not entitled to advanced public education.

So let me get this straight… we as a society should be discouraging kids from learning outside of school?

I wouldn't go that far, but public schools should not make decisions about advanced placement based on outside classes.

I'm all for kids pursuing enrichment in subjects that they're passionate about, but have to agree. Advanced placement shouldn't require outside enrichment but that's where we are as the stats that places like Curie publish suggest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t say they don’t deserve it. I’d say kids who learn outside of school are not entitled to advanced public education.

So let me get this straight… we as a society should be discouraging kids from learning outside of school?

I wouldn't go that far, but public schools should not make decisions about advanced placement based on outside classes.

Agreed. Enrichment is fine but determining access to Public School programs based on outside enrichment opportunities is a non-starter. Not every child has the ability to access those opportunities due to time for parents, cost, distance or some combination of issues. The bar should be set based on the commonly available paths within the public schools. The accelerated math path available in Public Schools would lead to kids taking Algebra 1 Honors and Geometry Honors in Middle School. That should be the bar that is set. Not robotics or math competitions or science awards because those are not activities that are offered in every Public School in FCPS.

Setting the bar based on what every kid can reasonably access makes sense. It identifies kids with the raw potential, advanced math, good grades, and an interest in STEM. TJ can build on those raw materials.

If people want to find a way to fund and encourage participation in robotics and Math Olympiad and similar programs in every ES and MS then we can move the bar. The fact that those programs are readily available to my kid at an upper middle class ES so he can stay after school and engage in STEM but are not available to most kids at Title I schools means that my kid has an artificial advantage for application to TJ if those activities are taken into consideration. All I have to do is sign him up and he can stay after school for an hour to take a variety of programs. We can afford RSM and have the time to drive him to and from the classes. We can afford STEM Scouts. If he wanted to dig in deeper, we would find a program and make it work because we can. Many families do not have that same ability.

Essentially what people are objecting to is the idea of widening the aperture by restricting the application to considering factors that are available to all students through the Public Schools. I am not going to stop paying for STEM programs for my kid because they will not be a factor in a TJ application if he should choose to apply. I pay for those because he enjoys them and asks to do them. That is what enrichment is. Expanding his knowledge in areas that he is interested in through additional activities that he enjoys. But we don't sign him up for anything without knowing that he is interested and he has a say in his activities.

This is exactly the correct take. One of my great hopes about this change in the admissions process is that students make choices about their extracurricular pursuits based not on optimizing their TJ application, but rather based on their genuine interests.

The impact of this change on the health of middle school students in this area will be immeasurable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest went to TJ, the middle got accepted but decided to stay at base school, and the third didn't even applied. When my eldest got accepted, I told her she would have a good an experience at our base HS and wouldn't have to deal with the long bus ride each morning. She went ahead anyway since a group of her close friends also got accepted. It was a struggle for her the first couple of years but it eventually turned out to be a great experience for her, graduated and went on to UVA. The younger two stayed at our base HS, also had great HS experience, with the exception of the pandemic for the youngest. The middle also attended UVA and graduated in 3 years. The last is entering UVA this Fall. All 3 decided to major in CS.
The point of this long rambling is that TJ is just another HS for all of its reputation, and kids can find success at any HS in FCPS. With the politicizing and parental cliquish meddlings, I wonder why parents are still so enamored with the school.

My kid started RCMS wanting to apply to TJ. After six months of seeing the competition and the bs posturing she was no longer interested. 4 25 gpa, geometry, and a first generation immigrant with a good hardship story. So she probably had a shot. But does not consider herself a special genius and will be just fine at the base school.

How do you get 4.25 gpa?

Algebra in 7th and Geometry in 8th would be honors and I think those give a grade point boost but I could be wrong.

That and straight As in AAP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest went to TJ, the middle got accepted but decided to stay at base school, and the third didn't even applied. When my eldest got accepted, I told her she would have a good an experience at our base HS and wouldn't have to deal with the long bus ride each morning. She went ahead anyway since a group of her close friends also got accepted. It was a struggle for her the first couple of years but it eventually turned out to be a great experience for her, graduated and went on to UVA. The younger two stayed at our base HS, also had great HS experience, with the exception of the pandemic for the youngest. The middle also attended UVA and graduated in 3 years. The last is entering UVA this Fall. All 3 decided to major in CS.
The point of this long rambling is that TJ is just another HS for all of its reputation, and kids can find success at any HS in FCPS. With the politicizing and parental cliquish meddlings, I wonder why parents are still so enamored with the school.

My kid started RCMS wanting to apply to TJ. After six months of seeing the competition and the bs posturing she was no longer interested. 4 25 gpa, geometry, and a first generation immigrant with a good hardship story. So she probably had a shot. But does not consider herself a special genius and will be just fine at the base school.

How do you get 4.25 gpa?

Algebra in 7th and Geometry in 8th would be honors and I think those give a grade point boost but I could be wrong.

That and straight As in AAP

I believe the admissions criteria specifically said they were looking at unweighted GPA.

[Anonymous]

No need for AAP since they set aside a quota for each MS, regardless of whether they are AAP centers. Just have FARMS, ESL and attend a previously underrepresented middle school. None of this has anything to do with aptitude and passion for STEM but that’s no longer the criteria for admission to TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t say they don’t deserve it. I’d say kids who learn outside of school are not entitled to advanced public education.

That's overly simplistic. Many of the highly gifted kids end up taking outside classes because there's no other way for them to meet their potential or receive any level of intellectual stimulation in FCPS. Even if the parents aren't wealthy, they find a way to make it work for their kid.

Some kids pick up addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division easily and by age 3 or so. Some of these kids enter K already knowing how to do three digit multiplication in their heads. In some cases, the school itself assesses the kid and jumps the kid up a year or two in math. These kids are still in a position to be bored out of their minds during school math. Eventually, almost all of these end up at RSM or AoPS, just to have any semblance of a math peer group.

I didn't formally supplement my kid at all until 2nd grade, when we started AoPS (kid tested into 5th grade Beast and ultimately finished AoPS algebra in 4th). At this point, my kid had already been identified and skipped ahead in math several years by FCPS. All of my kid's math knowledge up to that point fits in one of these boxes: Kid learned from school and home use of Dreambox, kid learned from watching older siblings, kid learned the concept immediately after a very brief explanation, or I have no idea at all where the kid learned it. One example is that when my kid was 4 and we were walking my older child to the bus stop, the kid wanted me to ask division questions. I tried to trick the kid by asking for 83 divided by 9. Kid said "That doesn't work." I said, "when you divide, you'll have groups and you'll have some left over. Just tell me how many groups and then how many are left over." Just like that, kid was flawless with remainders. The school math specialist observed many of the same behaviors when she assessed my kid. He would learn concepts that would be covered for like 2 weeks during 4th grade in like 1 minute as a 1st grader.

I think kids that FCPS itself identifies and skips forward in math beyond even the normal AAP track are entitled to advanced public education, even if they are also supplementing outside of school (which they all will be, since these kids will hunger for math and be bored out of their minds in FCPS math even after being skipped ahead). TJ used to be the solution, because it had a lot of post-AP calc classes. Now, if kids that FCPS accelerated don't get accepted to TJ, they will run out of math classes by 10th or 11th grade. There's AP Calc, then GMU DE for multivariable calc and linear algebra. Then, there's nothing. I don't necessarily think that kids like this should be guaranteed placement at TJ, but FCPS needs some solution for the math track for these kids. They could perhaps have more online or dual enrollment options. They could pay for GMU classes. They could have some of the TJ math classes be virtual for the kids who have exhausted school math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Agreed. Enrichment is fine but determining access to Public School programs based on outside enrichment opportunities is a non-starter. Not every child has the ability to access those opportunities due to time for parents, cost, distance or some combination of issues. The bar should be set based on the commonly available paths within the public schools. The accelerated math path available in Public Schools would lead to kids taking Algebra 1 Honors and Geometry Honors in Middle School. That should be the bar that is set. Not robotics or math competitions or science awards because those are not activities that are offered in every Public School in FCPS.

Setting the bar based on what every kid can reasonably access makes sense. It identifies kids with the raw potential, advanced math, good grades, and an interest in STEM. TJ can build on those raw materials.

Perhaps they could develop the process to identify the raw potential of being able to do STEM.

[Anonymous]

Yup, even your child isn’t entitled to advanced public education. Although after reading that it looks like your child is one of the few lucky ones who has gotten it in the form of acceleration. Not many schools do that. Even when kids come into school ahead in math (either by dad teaching him or her or dreambox or whatever.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Agreed. Enrichment is fine but determining access to Public School programs based on outside enrichment opportunities is a non-starter. Not every child has the ability to access those opportunities due to time for parents, cost, distance or some combination of issues. The bar should be set based on the commonly available paths within the public schools. The accelerated math path available in Public Schools would lead to kids taking Algebra 1 Honors and Geometry Honors in Middle School. That should be the bar that is set. Not robotics or math competitions or science awards because those are not activities that are offered in every Public School in FCPS.

Setting the bar based on what every kid can reasonably access makes sense. It identifies kids with the raw potential, advanced math, good grades, and an interest in STEM. TJ can build on those raw materials.

Perhaps they could develop the process to identify the raw potential of being able to do STEM.

That's not how Governor's schools work.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. Public school should try to provide the best education for each student subject to budgetary constraints. Kinds have different abilities and interests. This will require tracking. People that reject tracking don't seem to realize how this hurts high performing kids. Furthermore, they will use these kids to, in essence, tutor lower performing kids.

The problem for public schools is that this attitude will piss off many parents, causing a lack of support for public schools. As a result we will see increasing support for voucher programs. (This is the same issue as forcing unpopular curricula.). You alleged supporters of "equitable" public schooling will have no one to blame but yourselves when this house of cards falls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t say they don’t deserve it. I’d say kids who learn outside of school are not entitled to advanced public education.

That's overly simplistic. Many of the highly gifted kids end up taking outside classes because there's no other way for them to meet their potential or receive any level of intellectual stimulation in FCPS. Even if the parents aren't wealthy, they find a way to make it work for their kid.

Some kids pick up addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division easily and by age 3 or so. Some of these kids enter K already knowing how to do three digit multiplication in their heads. In some cases, the school itself assesses the kid and jumps the kid up a year or two in math. These kids are still in a position to be bored out of their minds during school math. Eventually, almost all of these end up at RSM or AoPS, just to have any semblance of a math peer group.

I didn't formally supplement my kid at all until 2nd grade, when we started AoPS (kid tested into 5th grade Beast and ultimately finished AoPS algebra in 4th). At this point, my kid had already been identified and skipped ahead in math several years by FCPS. All of my kid's math knowledge up to that point fits in one of these boxes: Kid learned from school and home use of Dreambox, kid learned from watching older siblings, kid learned the concept immediately after a very brief explanation, or I have no idea at all where the kid learned it. One example is that when my kid was 4 and we were walking my older child to the bus stop, the kid wanted me to ask division questions. I tried to trick the kid by asking for 83 divided by 9. Kid said "That doesn't work." I said, "when you divide, you'll have groups and you'll have some left over. Just tell me how many groups and then how many are left over." Just like that, kid was flawless with remainders. The school math specialist observed many of the same behaviors when she assessed my kid. He would learn concepts that would be covered for like 2 weeks during 4th grade in like 1 minute as a 1st grader.

I think kids that FCPS itself identifies and skips forward in math beyond even the normal AAP track are entitled to advanced public education, even if they are also supplementing outside of school (which they all will be, since these kids will hunger for math and be bored out of their minds in FCPS math even after being skipped ahead). TJ used to be the solution, because it had a lot of post-AP calc classes. Now, if kids that FCPS accelerated don't get accepted to TJ, they will run out of math classes by 10th or 11th grade. There's AP Calc, then GMU DE for multivariable calc and linear algebra. Then, there's nothing. I don't necessarily think that kids like this should be guaranteed placement at TJ, but FCPS needs some solution for the math track for these kids. They could perhaps have more online or dual enrollment options. They could pay for GMU classes. They could have some of the TJ math classes be virtual for the kids who have exhausted school math.

Your kid is very much the exception to the rule. While I am sure there are a handful of kids like yours. I would hope kids like your got into TJ but I am not certain that TJ is even the best fit for kids who are that advanced.

There is a world of difference between a prodigy who needs outside classes and the like because they are natively gifted and the typical TJ applicant who is probably very smart, maybe even gifted, but who benefited from AoPS or RSM and STEM extras. Plenty of kids in lesser regarded MS are smart and capable but have not had a chance to have their talents nurtured outside of school the way many traditional TJ applicants have. The kids from those poorer MS have been left out of the TJ possibilities because of their lack of opportunity in the past. The new process gives those kids a chance by removing those extras from the application process.

And here is the thing, pretty much all of the kids whose parents have the money/time/resources to provide for supplementation, will do well at any school because their have parents who are invested in their education. While TJ is amazing in all that it offers, the kids who didn’t get into TJ in past years still had the support at home and the work ethic to do well at their base schools and in college. Just like the kids who didn’t get into AAP still did well in MS and HS. TJ is not the end all and be all. The fact that the admissions process was adjusted to make TJ available to some different kids is not the end of the world, or the end of TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t say they don’t deserve it. I’d say kids who learn outside of school are not entitled to advanced public education.

That's overly simplistic. Many of the highly gifted kids end up taking outside classes because there's no other way for them to meet their potential or receive any level of intellectual stimulation in FCPS. Even if the parents aren't wealthy, they find a way to make it work for their kid.

Some kids pick up addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division easily and by age 3 or so. Some of these kids enter K already knowing how to do three digit multiplication in their heads. In some cases, the school itself assesses the kid and jumps the kid up a year or two in math. These kids are still in a position to be bored out of their minds during school math. Eventually, almost all of these end up at RSM or AoPS, just to have any semblance of a math peer group.

I didn't formally supplement my kid at all until 2nd grade, when we started AoPS (kid tested into 5th grade Beast and ultimately finished AoPS algebra in 4th). At this point, my kid had already been identified and skipped ahead in math several years by FCPS. All of my kid's math knowledge up to that point fits in one of these boxes: Kid learned from school and home use of Dreambox, kid learned from watching older siblings, kid learned the concept immediately after a very brief explanation, or I have no idea at all where the kid learned it. One example is that when my kid was 4 and we were walking my older child to the bus stop, the kid wanted me to ask division questions. I tried to trick the kid by asking for 83 divided by 9. Kid said "That doesn't work." I said, "when you divide, you'll have groups and you'll have some left over. Just tell me how many groups and then how many are left over." Just like that, kid was flawless with remainders. The school math specialist observed many of the same behaviors when she assessed my kid. He would learn concepts that would be covered for like 2 weeks during 4th grade in like 1 minute as a 1st grader.

I think kids that FCPS itself identifies and skips forward in math beyond even the normal AAP track are entitled to advanced public education, even if they are also supplementing outside of school (which they all will be, since these kids will hunger for math and be bored out of their minds in FCPS math even after being skipped ahead). TJ used to be the solution, because it had a lot of post-AP calc classes. Now, if kids that FCPS accelerated don't get accepted to TJ, they will run out of math classes by 10th or 11th grade. There's AP Calc, then GMU DE for multivariable calc and linear algebra. Then, there's nothing. I don't necessarily think that kids like this should be guaranteed placement at TJ, but FCPS needs some solution for the math track for these kids. They could perhaps have more online or dual enrollment options. They could pay for GMU classes. They could have some of the TJ math classes be virtual for the kids who have exhausted school math.

Your kid is very much the exception to the rule. While I am sure there are a handful of kids like yours. I would hope kids like your got into TJ but I am not certain that TJ is even the best fit for kids who are that advanced.

There is a world of difference between a prodigy who needs outside classes and the like because they are natively gifted and the typical TJ applicant who is probably very smart, maybe even gifted, but who benefited from AoPS or RSM and STEM extras. Plenty of kids in lesser regarded MS are smart and capable but have not had a chance to have their talents nurtured outside of school the way many traditional TJ applicants have. The kids from those poorer MS have been left out of the TJ possibilities because of their lack of opportunity in the past. The new process gives those kids a chance by removing those extras from the application process.

And here is the thing, pretty much all of the kids whose parents have the money/time/resources to provide for supplementation, will do well at any school because their have parents who are invested in their education. While TJ is amazing in all that it offers, the kids who didn’t get into TJ in past years still had the support at home and the work ethic to do well at their base schools and in college. Just like the kids who didn’t get into AAP still did well in MS and HS. TJ is not the end all and be all. The fact that the admissions process was adjusted to make TJ available to some different kids is not the end of the world, or the end of TJ.

JY it was the end of the world under the merit based admissions system?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t say they don’t deserve it. I’d say kids who learn outside of school are not entitled to advanced public education.

That's overly simplistic. Many of the highly gifted kids end up taking outside classes because there's no other way for them to meet their potential or receive any level of intellectual stimulation in FCPS. Even if the parents aren't wealthy, they find a way to make it work for their kid.

Some kids pick up addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division easily and by age 3 or so. Some of these kids enter K already knowing how to do three digit multiplication in their heads. In some cases, the school itself assesses the kid and jumps the kid up a year or two in math. These kids are still in a position to be bored out of their minds during school math. Eventually, almost all of these end up at RSM or AoPS, just to have any semblance of a math peer group.

I didn't formally supplement my kid at all until 2nd grade, when we started AoPS (kid tested into 5th grade Beast and ultimately finished AoPS algebra in 4th). At this point, my kid had already been identified and skipped ahead in math several years by FCPS. All of my kid's math knowledge up to that point fits in one of these boxes: Kid learned from school and home use of Dreambox, kid learned from watching older siblings, kid learned the concept immediately after a very brief explanation, or I have no idea at all where the kid learned it. One example is that when my kid was 4 and we were walking my older child to the bus stop, the kid wanted me to ask division questions. I tried to trick the kid by asking for 83 divided by 9. Kid said "That doesn't work." I said, "when you divide, you'll have groups and you'll have some left over. Just tell me how many groups and then how many are left over." Just like that, kid was flawless with remainders. The school math specialist observed many of the same behaviors when she assessed my kid. He would learn concepts that would be covered for like 2 weeks during 4th grade in like 1 minute as a 1st grader.

I think kids that FCPS itself identifies and skips forward in math beyond even the normal AAP track are entitled to advanced public education, even if they are also supplementing outside of school (which they all will be, since these kids will hunger for math and be bored out of their minds in FCPS math even after being skipped ahead). TJ used to be the solution, because it had a lot of post-AP calc classes. Now, if kids that FCPS accelerated don't get accepted to TJ, they will run out of math classes by 10th or 11th grade. There's AP Calc, then GMU DE for multivariable calc and linear algebra. Then, there's nothing. I don't necessarily think that kids like this should be guaranteed placement at TJ, but FCPS needs some solution for the math track for these kids. They could perhaps have more online or dual enrollment options. They could pay for GMU classes. They could have some of the TJ math classes be virtual for the kids who have exhausted school math.

Your kid is very much the exception to the rule. While I am sure there are a handful of kids like yours. I would hope kids like your got into TJ but I am not certain that TJ is even the best fit for kids who are that advanced.

There is a world of difference between a prodigy who needs outside classes and the like because they are natively gifted and the typical TJ applicant who is probably very smart, maybe even gifted, but who benefited from AoPS or RSM and STEM extras. Plenty of kids in lesser regarded MS are smart and capable but have not had a chance to have their talents nurtured outside of school the way many traditional TJ applicants have. The kids from those poorer MS have been left out of the TJ possibilities because of their lack of opportunity in the past. The new process gives those kids a chance by removing those extras from the application process.

And here is the thing, pretty much all of the kids whose parents have the money/time/resources to provide for supplementation, will do well at any school because their have parents who are invested in their education. While TJ is amazing in all that it offers, the kids who didn’t get into TJ in past years still had the support at home and the work ethic to do well at their base schools and in college. Just like the kids who didn’t get into AAP still did well in MS and HS. TJ is not the end all and be all. The fact that the admissions process was adjusted to make TJ available to some different kids is not the end of the world, or the end of TJ.

You hit the nail on the head here. And while they talk a good game about “improving the pipeline” and “raising the quality in K-8” - which all progressives also agree is necessary - the reality of it is that the status quo folks don’t want the increased competition for elite college admissions that will come from providing opportunities for these underrepresented groups in environments like TJ.

They know that investing in the pipeline is a massive effort that will take decades - by which point their manufactured superstars will have exited that pipeline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Your kid is very much the exception to the rule. While I am sure there are a handful of kids like yours. I would hope kids like your got into TJ but I am not certain that TJ is even the best fit for kids who are that advanced.

I don't necessarily care about whether my kid gets into TJ. He might be better served taking real college classes at GMU instead. It is the case now that my kid's local high school only offers one year of math beyond AP calc. This means my kid won't have math classes in 11th or 12th grade at the base school. If FCPS accelerates the kid, then FCPS needs to find some way to provide appropriate math instruction all the way through 12th grade. If it's not going to be TJ, then they should expand DE classes or virtual classes for the kids who need them.

In the old system, kids like mine crushed the tests, had glowing teacher recommendations, and almost invariably got accepted. It's quite possible that my kid will get an A- in some AAP English class because while he writes a good essay, he's terrible with creative writing. He also would not do a great job with any TJ essays that amount to bragging about yourself. I have no clue whether he'll be accepted in the new system.