TJ admissions now verifying free and reduced price meal status for successful 2026 applicants
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Anonymous
Huh? |
Anonymous
Almost everyone had 4.0 so irrelevant. The 300 for the SPS and the 300 for the math/science essay are the most significant components of the score - by far. |
Anonymous
| If there are kids who declined AOS/AET because they got in TJ, this will be a disaster for them. |
Anonymous
According to the rubric that was made public as part of discovery during the ongoing lawsuit, the score for GPA is 75 * GPA. Since there is a 3.5 minimum GPA required to be eligible to apply and a 4.0 maximum GPA based on how it was calculated for the purposes of the application, every student will have. GPA score between 362.5 and 400. As such, the maximum difference in terms of GPA between any two applicants is 400 - 362.5 = 37.5. To say that GPA is worth 300 points, while strictly true, is misleading, since every applicant earns at least 362.5 of those points. Since the experience factors are worth either 45 or 90 points each, that means that a 3.5 GPA combined with any experience factor outweighs a 4.0 GPA with no experience factors. In other words, the experience factors are extremely valuable. |
Anonymous
Not that valuable. Only 12% of total possible score. Almost irrelevant since almost everyone accepted had 4.0. The high-point components of the application are: 300 for the SPS 300 for the math/science essay They comprise the vast majority of the applicant’s score. If a kid didn’t get in, they probably didn’t write an exceptional essay or portrait. |
Anonymous
The essay was apparently very easy and most of the portrait has nothing to do with STEM The whole thing was/is a disaster. |
Anonymous
Solving the problem and articulately it “exceptionally” are two different things. |
Anonymous
How is it a "disaster"? They can verify that they indeed qualify for FARMS (as they stated on their application), and they will remain at TJ. |
Anonymous
The total possible score is irrelevant and you're being intentionally misleading. Consider two hypothetical students Student A: 4.0 GPA, 4.5 on both essays, no experience factors: 840 points Student B: 3.61 GPA, 4 on both essays, FRM: 840.75 points In this hypothetical case, FRM makes up for a much weaker GPA *and* lower scores on both essays. In other words, Student A outscores Student B fairly significantly on all 3 core areas of the application but still loses out to Student B due to Student B's experience factor. Even worse, consider these two: Student C: 4.0 GPA, 5 on both essays, no experience factors: 900 points Student D: 3.9 GPA, 4.5 on both essays, FRM: 922.5 points Student E: 3.8 GPA, 4 on one essay and 4.5 on the other essay, FRM: 885 points Student C effectively has a perfect application - it can't be improved in any of the 3 core areas - but still loses out to Student D by a considerable margin and nearly loses out to Student E as well. What should Student C's parents tell their child? |
Anonymous
I posted they put this in to get rid of the low-integrity applicants. It was an obvious ruse to filter out the toxic families. |
Anonymous
Because there will be students who are unadmitted from TJ as a result of this fiasco, and people make important life decisions on the basis of information such as admissions decisions. The TJ admissions office apparently counseled applicants that they could answer yes because everyone was receiving free meals during the pandemic. Even those who didn't obtain such counsel may reasonably have believed that answering yes was honest and truthful regardless of their economic circumstances. As such, it is unfair to claim that everyone who answered yes is a liar or a cheater. If the point of the question was to ask whether one would have been eligible for free meals even if the pandemic policy was not in place, they should have carefully asked the right question. They instead used an old application (it also asked about teacher recommendations and made reference to semifinalists, both of which are vestiges of the old admissions process) and failed to update it in light of the new admissions process or the pandemic policies. Having failed to ask the right questions, they should not have automatically awarded FRM points to anyone who checked yes without confirming FRM status. They could have asked for verification of FRM status back in October or November. And no matter what else they screwed up, surely they should have sorted this all out *before* issuing admissions decisions (and a press release touting the FRM numbers)! |
Anonymous
No they screwed up. If this was intentional they would have sent this message out along with the initial offer letters at a minimum. |
Anonymous
They didn’t think anyone would notice. |
Anonymous
It is blatantly obvious that the purpose of the question is to identify low income kids. You can dance around the meaning of what "is" is, but you knew you were attempting to gain an unfair advantage. |
Anonymous
+1. Even worse. Let's say your hypothetical student A and student C are both taking Honors Algebra II in 8th grade, with straight As for all of their high school level math classes. Also, both are in AAP classes in all core subjects. Students B, D, and E are taking Honors Algebra I in 8th, and they're taking one regular level class among Science, History, or English. The point totals would still all be exactly the same, since the kids aren't rewarded in any way for taking more advanced courses. |