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Official TJ Admissions Decisions Results for the Class of 2025
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Anonymous
It’s pointless to incessantly assume all TJ applicants cheated their way into TJ and it’s pointless to incessantly assume all Asians are wealthy and privileged and cheat when most of them do not cheat and are lower middle class to middle class. |
. Of all the Indian families we know, just one has a kid diagnosed with ADHD (God knows how many have undiagnosed kids). The number of White families we know with kids diagnosed with ADHD is at least a dozen.
Anonymous
But we know for a fact a large number were only able to make the cut because of outside enrichment. Places like Curie even boast about this. |
Anonymous
We do not know that for a fact but we do know for a fact that dozens and dozens of unethical and genuinely privileged white parents cheated and bought their way into elite universities for their offspring while taking part in criminal felonies along the way. |
Anonymous
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I think the fact that Curie boasted that like ~100 kids whom they prepped got into TJ is undisputed. They published the names. The Curie preppers were all Asian by the look of the surnames listed.
I think it’s also a fact that these Asian preppers are not wealthy. But you do have to have some economic security to pull that amount of prep off. Many families in the county could not do this even if they wanted to. The wealthy who cheat of any race are a whole nother level of awful. But it all messes up TJ. We had something nice, and you all ruined it. |
Anonymous
We do know it for a fact. They posted the first and last names of their success stories on their Facebook page before they took them down due to being called out. |
Anonymous
+1 I was going to respond with the exact same comment. A marketing material from a prep company is not evidence of cause and effect. It's like Gatorade running a commercial that 90% NBA players drink Gatorade. Does it mean you have to drink Gatorade to get into NBA. No. But we do know for a fact vast majority of the criminals caught cheating in college admissions were white parents. Apparently prepping for SAT is not that easy as they claimed, so they hired test takers to cheat on the test. |
Anonymous
How do we know for a fact that those students ONLY made the "cut" because they signed up for a prep class? What evidence do you have that conclusively show that the students in question made the "cut" only because of the prep class? It is possible some or many of them could have made the "cut" without the prep class. Maybe the prep class exaggerated the claim. Maybe some of the students never completed the prep class. You cannot equate taking a prep class to committing serious crimes involving bribery of school officials, fraud with applications, deception during application process , paying someone to take SAT or change scores etc. |
Anonymous
No one is equating the two. They are both problems that need to be solved relating to admissions. We are in Northern Virginia, and as such we discuss the problem that is local to us. |
Anonymous
The problem is that there should not exist a market for people to pay thousands of dollars for their 12 year old to have better access to a publicly financed educational opportunity. It doesn’t really matter how effective it is - the fact that such a market exists and has been a deterrent to others applying is the problem. It’s also an issue that this particular company appears only to serve South Asians, but that’s another issue for another day. |
Anonymous
From Vern Williams. One of Virginia's finest teachers. Who happens to be black (I am sure you guys will find ways to discredit him) https://www.mathreasoning.com/about https://www.mathreasoning.com/news-writing/my-take-proposed-tj-admissions-process (Please read entire article. Excerpt below) Many have asked for my take on the proposed changes to the Thomas Jefferson High School admissions process. Once one goes down the road of politically protecting groups based on race or ethnicity it leads to very strange and contradictory circumstances. The nation’s number one high school somehow needs to be fixed because current politically protected minorities are not adequately represented in the student body. Ironically the wrong (politically unprotected) minorities claim over 70% of the seats at TJ. Over the last few weeks they have been demonized by the superintendent, the Thomas Jefferson Principal, and the majority of members on the Fairfax County School Board. During my forty-plus years as an FCPS teacher I always made clear that I would never view my students through a racial or cultural lens. I am part of the old school crowd who still believes, as did Martin Luther King, that one should be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. The “One Fairfax” doctrine seems to suggest the opposite view. I sense that changing the TJ Admissions process is only the beginning. Every program for advanced/gifted students ranging from AP participation to AAP will be viewed through a racial lens instead of an academic/readiness lens. I feel that they will be diluted to the point of non-existence. So what should be done to improve the admissions process instead of destroying it? Create a test that is prep proof (I could easily help with that) and truly test the higher level thinking skills needed for many of the advanced math and science concepts encountered at TJ. Keep the teacher recommendation as part of the process since middle school teachers truly know the capabilities, interests, and passions of their students. To suggest that they might show bias (as has been alleged by some) in their recommendations is an insult to every FCPS middle school teacher. Create a quality information/activities piece where students are asked to describe their successes as well as how they reacted to setbacks. I can discern between students who join Mathcounts or Science Olympiad in order to pad their resumes and those who join because they genuinely love math and science. Even if it means conducting interviews, the difference can be determined. |
Anonymous
The evidence seems as conclusive as it is damning |
Anonymous
Where is the evidence that these students ONLY made the cut due to prep class? |
Anonymous
That evidence is neither necessary nor relevant to the broader point. It’s indisputable that they did better than they would have otherwise. And the exam was graded on a curve with a percentile cutoff. Plus all of the above. You’ve lost the war and your argument is invalid, so I understand the desire to move the goalposts. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
If TJ was expanded so that the thousands of kids who qualify were served it would no longer be special and the “families who value education” aka preppers would seek out other programs they could compete in. If TJ required an IQ test they would just start prepping for that. I’m kind of sick of hearing about the sad academic superstars who won’t get into TJ. They will be fine at any school. Everyone should be more worried about the kids for whom TJ could change their lives. If you really cared about STEAM kids in America you’d agree. Please, first your IQ is screaming that it needs help! Just so you know, IQ cannot be prepped!!! It is inherent in people. Either you have it or you don't! It is like Common Sense which is apparently very uncommon. Second, no one would want to go to TJ, if we had more STEM schools in VA. Trust me!!! It is the need of time! Grow up! I could not let this one just slip by. The IQ tests like the WPPSI or WISC can be prepped. These are in no way perfect instruments that measure the raw intelligence inherent in people. If you google search what is on these tests you can certainly prep yourself or your kid to get an higher score. Many white parents prep their kids to take wisc for AAP. I thought you could simply pay some quack to administer one to show that your kid was gifted? Things changes now. You could simply pay some quack to administer one to show that the kid is ADHD to gain advantage for admission. Tons of families have done this in the past to gain "extra time" for the Quant-Q, which is a heavily time-intensive exam and used to have a huge impact on TJ admissions. The advantage of having 75 minutes on this exam instead of 50 would be enormous if a student didn't actually need it. Most parents getting fake diagnosis are white. This may be true broadly, but for the purposes of the TJ admissions exam it is not. Accommodations testing took place in the TJ Library for many years during the school day - always a curiosity for the kids who are currently at TJ, they love peering into the windows - and there weren't a whole lot of white kids in there. But to be fair, white folks haven't been all that interested in TJ for a while. NP. The previous PP is right. Most Brown people (not sure about east asians) don't like seeing/taking their kid to a psychologist/psychiatrist (or whoever you need to see for this type of thing). We think our kids are perfect . Of all the Indian families we know, just one has a kid diagnosed with ADHD (God knows how many have undiagnosed kids). The number of White families we know with kids diagnosed with ADHD is at least a dozen. Because, you know, they openly admit to stuff like this. The numbers in the room were what they were. Year after year, over 50 kids, overwhelmingly South Asian. Agree with PP regarding East Asians. Don’t see a lot of that for whatever reason. dp, can confirm (graduated a few years ago). this is a well kept secret in our community. dp, can confirm (graduated a few years ago). that you are lying. it is such a stigma for south asian parents to go to a psychiatrist. Not a good thing at all but that's the case. seems like someone is trying to create discord. not to worry. asians are going to vote republican en masse with this war on merit and vilification of their kids happening across the nation. they are called swing states for a reason. By merit do you mean the war on people gaming the system with expensive outside enrichment to give them an edge over those who cannot afford tot spend $$$ on this? Do you mean the criminal investigation Varsity Blue which caught dozens of white parents committing fraud, bribing college officials? It’s so pointless to keep bringing this up over and over. Every single pro-reform person, no matter what race, thinks that Varsity Blues was awful and is glad that people are being punished for it. We hate legacy admissions too. All of these things are issues that need to be solved. It’s pointless to incessantly assume all TJ applicants cheated their way into TJ and it’s pointless to incessantly assume all Asians are wealthy and privileged and cheat when most of them do not cheat and are lower middle class to middle class. [i][u]. We do not know that for a fact but we do know for a fact that dozens and dozens of unethical and genuinely privileged white parents cheated and bought their way into elite universities for their offspring while taking part in criminal felonies along the way. We do know it for a fact. They posted the first and last names of their success stories on their Facebook page before they took them down due to being called out. The evidence seems as conclusive as it is damning Where is the evidence that these students ONLY made the cut due to prep class? That evidence is neither necessary nor relevant to the broader point. It’s indisputable that they did better than they would have otherwise. And the exam was graded on a curve with a percentile cutoff. Plus all of the above. You’ve lost the war and your argument is invalid, so I understand the desire to move the goalposts. This discussion started because of the PP claim that "But we know for a fact a large number were only able to make the cut because of outside enrichment. Places like Curie even boast about this." So, where is the evidence these students made the cut only because of the prep center? Still waiting. |