2021 AAP Admissions Thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think one piece of the admissions puzzle everyone is missing here is the fact that the committee wants to see how/why your child "Needs" to be in AAP. My understanding is many parents write narratives that only talk about how great their kid is. They want to know why you child will not do as well if they stay in general education. Perhaps some of the children with lower test scores have parents who wrote referrals clearly explaining this -- with concrete examples. It's not just all about high performance, it's also about justifying *why* your kid needs AAP to succeed.

I agree 100%. People seem to view the application as something that will be viewed objectively, rather than as something that a person with human feelings will read and be persuaded one way or the other by intangibles in the application. The whole thing is ridiculous, because acceptance is more about whether the parent knows how to present his/her child well and less about the child's actual merits. When I first applied for my oldest, I made the mistake of thinking that it was mostly about the scores, so I presented my child as a smart, good student rather than presenting her as a child who "needs AAP." She was rejected with a 97th percentile CogAT, 15 GBRS, and LII in math and language arts since K.

When I had to appeal for my DD, the AART gave me a lot of advice on what to include and what not to include in the letter. These were things like DON'T: Try to prove that your kid is smart, suggest your kid is bored in regular classes, suggest that the AAP committee or your child's teachers made a mistake, criticize anything about the process, compare your child to anyone else who got in. DO: Give concrete examples of how your child is being held back or denied opportunities in gen ed that your child needs, Give specific examples of why your child would thrive in AAP. My kid got in on appeals, so the advice must have been decent.

I'm betting that a decent number of the mystery rejections are from parents who are doing things on the "Don't do" list. The AART seemed to suggest that saying your kid is bored in school, coming across as arrogant or presumptive, or in any way criticizing your kid's teachers or the AAP process would irritate the reviewers and lead to almost certain rejection.

Isn't a 97% COGAT a relatively mediocre score compared to those in the AAP pool? Was it 97% local or national?

Yes, almost everyone in AAP scored 97% or higher on COGAT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Isn't a 97% COGAT a relatively mediocre score compared to those in the AAP pool? Was it 97% local or national?

No. It's right under the pool cutoff. Over half of the kids who get accepted into AAP weren't in the pool. This is all from 4 years ago, but at my kids' school, every kid with a 120+ CogAT who was supported by the school got in, except my DD with the 130 CogAT. According to the AAP equity report, GBRS is 4 times as important as any test scores for admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, almost everyone in AAP scored 97% or higher on COGAT

That's just flat out false. Do you get your kicks out of trolling on this forum, or do you just like making up facts? 97th percentile nationally on CogAT is around 90th percentile locally. AAP takes 20% of the FCPS kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There are other posters who will tell you that their 140+ or 135+ IQ DC is being well served by the AAP program (including my older DC, fwiw). I'm not sure I'd take that I'd take that post as gospel. Experiences vary.

It's all school dependent. Some AAP centers teach to the lowest common denominator within AAP and then ignore the kids who are years beyond that. Other schools make a point of challenging the top kids. Some of the high IQ kids in the first type of school are still happy and act as if they're being served well, because they enjoy spending all day talking to their friends rather than learning much of anything.

Maybe the best metric for figuring out what type of AAP center you're zoned to is getting data on how many students return to the base school or drop down to gen ed after a year. My kids' center is a lowest common denominator center, and no one ever washes out to the base school or to gen ed. Tons of kids leave for private, though. That's a pretty strong sign that the school is catering to the bottom at the expense of the top.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NNAT : 150
Reports: all 4
GBRS: dont know but strong

Not in

Has anyone figured out any logic? What is the success of appeals? What can we do to make the appeal successful?

We are in a similar boat. We had NNAT of 150 and NOT IN.

I got the GBRS today and 2 sections showed "Frequently observed" and 2 sections as "Occasionally observed".
Not sure what it means. Can someone please explain GBRS based on it?

Not In
NNAT 149
If GBRS has "Occasionally Observed" - can we discuss with teacher or AART to upgrade GBRS or can anything else be done - so it will have less impact when we Appeal?

They are based on teacher observations. 2 Occasionally Observed is unfortunately your kiss of death[u]. There shouldnt be any--from what i can tell.

Not true, we got 2Os & 2Fs and DC is IN.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think one piece of the admissions puzzle everyone is missing here is the fact that the committee wants to see how/why your child "Needs" to be in AAP. My understanding is many parents write narratives that only talk about how great their kid is. They want to know why you child will not do as well if they stay in general education. Perhaps some of the children with lower test scores have parents who wrote referrals clearly explaining this -- with concrete examples. It's not just all about high performance, it's also about justifying *why* your kid needs AAP to succeed.

I agree 100%. People seem to view the application as something that will be viewed objectively, rather than as something that a person with human feelings will read and be persuaded one way or the other by intangibles in the application. The whole thing is ridiculous, because acceptance is more about whether the parent knows how to present his/her child well and less about the child's actual merits. When I first applied for my oldest, I made the mistake of thinking that it was mostly about the scores, so I presented my child as a smart, good student rather than presenting her as a child who "needs AAP." She was rejected with a 97th percentile CogAT, 15 GBRS, and LII in math and language arts since K.

When I had to appeal for my DD, the AART gave me a lot of advice on what to include and what not to include in the letter. These were things like DON'T: Try to prove that your kid is smart, suggest your kid is bored in regular classes, suggest that the AAP committee or your child's teachers made a mistake, criticize anything about the process, compare your child to anyone else who got in. DO: Give concrete examples of how your child is being held back or denied opportunities in gen ed that your child needs, Give specific examples of why your child would thrive in AAP. My kid got in on appeals, so the advice must have been decent.

I'm betting that a decent number of the mystery rejections are from parents who are doing things on the "Don't do" list. The AART seemed to suggest that saying your kid is bored in school, coming across as arrogant or presumptive, or in any way criticizing your kid's teachers or the AAP process would irritate the reviewers and lead to almost certain rejection.

Oops, I did not get this advice and I included in my parent sheet "[Child] has been saying that second grade is boring." She still got accepted. Not saying it's a good idea to include that, but it's not an auto-reject... probably depends on what reviewer you get.

No parent should be writing anything, it should not be allowed. Ever. Just another way that many parents have gamed the AAP process.

Perhaps the reviewer read it more in the vein of "my child is bored and I am worried she is learning her love of learning and becoming depressed because of the lack of being challenged," rather than reading it as your kid just complaining second grade is too easy. There's nuance there, but it could definitely go either way. I was also ready to write about how bored my kid was, but then someone warned me against it and instead suggested I include information about how she needed AAP for her personality to blossom, etc. It worked for us. But also.. yeah, she's crazy bored in second grade LOL.

[Anonymous]

Hi - I am trying to make sense of my DS's rejection for AAP. I submitted an application for my 2nd grader who is currently attending a private school (he was in FCPS for 1st grade, we moved him for 2nd). WISC score was a 126, 4 COs on the GBRS, top of the class grades for the last 2 years or report cards that we submitted. The teacher wrote in the recommendation letter that he is currently excelling at 3-5th grade level of schoolwork in all subjects, not just math and that he is naturally curious, loves learning and is emotionally mature when interacting with his peers. I am assuming that I used poor work examples from his classwork and that the parent letter I submitted worked against him somehow? I'm confused and at a loss. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi - I am trying to make sense of my DS's rejection for AAP. I submitted an application for my 2nd grader who is currently attending a private school (he was in FCPS for 1st grade, we moved him for 2nd). WISC score was a 126, 4 COs on the GBRS, top of the class grades for the last 2 years or report cards that we submitted. The teacher wrote in the recommendation letter that he is currently excelling at 3-5th grade level of schoolwork in all subjects, not just math and that he is naturally curious, loves learning and is emotionally mature when interacting with his peers. I am assuming that I used poor work examples from his classwork and that the parent letter I submitted worked against him somehow? I'm confused and at a loss. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Did he get good score for NNAT in 1st grade? His WISC is good but not 130. WISC 130 = 98 percentile.

[Anonymous]

My son is in Algebra I in 6th grade. He could easily go higher, but he is pulled back by the others in his class. sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi - I am trying to make sense of my DS's rejection for AAP. I submitted an application for my 2nd grader who is currently attending a private school (he was in FCPS for 1st grade, we moved him for 2nd). WISC score was a 126, 4 COs on the GBRS, top of the class grades for the last 2 years or report cards that we submitted. The teacher wrote in the recommendation letter that he is currently excelling at 3-5th grade level of schoolwork in all subjects, not just math and that he is naturally curious, loves learning and is emotionally mature when interacting with his peers. I am assuming that I used poor work examples from his classwork and that the parent letter I submitted worked against him somehow? I'm confused and at a loss. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Did he get good score for NNAT in 1st grade? His WISC is good but not 130. WISC 130 = 98 percentile.

He got a 119 on the 1st grade test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi - I am trying to make sense of my DS's rejection for AAP. I submitted an application for my 2nd grader who is currently attending a private school (he was in FCPS for 1st grade, we moved him for 2nd). WISC score was a 126, 4 COs on the GBRS, top of the class grades for the last 2 years or report cards that we submitted. The teacher wrote in the recommendation letter that he is currently excelling at 3-5th grade level of schoolwork in all subjects, not just math and that he is naturally curious, loves learning and is emotionally mature when interacting with his peers. I am assuming that I used poor work examples from his classwork and that the parent letter I submitted worked against him somehow? I'm confused and at a loss. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Did he get good score for NNAT in 1st grade? His WISC is good but not 130. WISC 130 = 98 percentile.

He got a 119 on the 1st grade test.

NNAT was low, and WISC was good but not high enough. Work samples may also be an issue. My DC is now In (5th grade) and I can see a clear difference in work samples submitted this year vs in 4th. (We parent referred this year as DC has been in a LIV class since 3rd):

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi - I am trying to make sense of my DS's rejection for AAP. I submitted an application for my 2nd grader who is currently attending a private school (he was in FCPS for 1st grade, we moved him for 2nd). WISC score was a 126, 4 COs on the GBRS, top of the class grades for the last 2 years or report cards that we submitted. The teacher wrote in the recommendation letter that he is currently excelling at 3-5th grade level of schoolwork in all subjects, not just math and that he is naturally curious, loves learning and is emotionally mature when interacting with his peers. I am assuming that I used poor work examples from his classwork and that the parent letter I submitted worked against him somehow? I'm confused and at a loss. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Did he get good score for NNAT in 1st grade? His WISC is good but not 130. WISC 130 = 98 percentile.

He got a 119 on the 1st grade test.

None of his test scores hit the 132 in pool cut off. Grades really are not that important in the process. No idea about the work samples. Did his Teacher provide you with any work samples?

There is a belief that it is harder to get into AAP through Private Schools, but I don't think we have seen any numbers to prove this. One comment that I have seen is that the committee is less likely to trust the GBRSs from the Private School because the Teachers are not trained on how to apply the GBRSs and they are less likely done by a committee.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone’s child gotten in with a nnat score of 106?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone’s child gotten in with a nnat score of 106?

That’s literally the definition of average. It would be a travesty if someone got in with that and basically proof that admissions is a total sham

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone’s child gotten in with a nnat score of 106?

My DC had an NNAT in the 90s. We (and his first grade teacher) knew it was not reflective of his abilities. His Cogat was better / but not by much (about 123). In 3rd, he was diagnosed with an LD. Retook cogat in 4th and entered AAP in 5th. He is now in 7th and is doing well in Algebra 1 (A-).