What is going on with TJ admissions this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

You are really the definition of a retard. Pity your kids.

I don’t have any. I just happen to know TJ better than anyone on these boards and I come here because it is the leading source of disinformation about TJ anywhere on the Internet.

You seem certifiably a retard. You just happen to know TJ better than anyone on this board. How? Why? What makes you so?

Anyone who is exceptional in whatever way - math, science, art, language, music; who would be rated say top 50 to 100 in a broadly defined field should have a place at TJ. A kid who can make USAJMO in 7th grade is the very definition of such a kid. I dont happen to know anyone personally like that but almost anyone who knows anything about USAJMO and TJ would agree. You might disagree. But there are people who argue that the earth is flat and you would fit right in.

Someone else replied to you underneath - whatever.

The kid you are talking about in 7th grade? You have no idea what the rest of that kid's profile is like.

I will say this - you are the first person I've seen advocate for exceptional talents in art and music to have a place at TJ, and there's something to be said for that.

But you've now used the R word twice - which means neither I nor anyone else should listen to word one of what you have to say about anything regarding children and education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been advocating right from the beginning the best compromise would be 100 seats with rigorous admissions criteria + 450 lottery.

The problem is the rigorous admission criteria are debatable. I'd argue for criteria that more closely resembled college admissions and took a broader view of the students and their accomplishments. A lottery isn't necessary, especially if they use local norms to ensure a level playing field to account for enrichment opportunities as a result of SES differences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been advocating right from the beginning the best compromise would be 100 seats with rigorous admissions criteria + 450 lottery.

The problem is the rigorous admission criteria are debatable. I'd argue for criteria that more closely resembled college admissions and took a broader view of the students and their accomplishments. A lottery isn't necessary, especially if they use local norms to ensure a level playing field to account for enrichment opportunities as a result of SES differences.

Pro-reform and definitely agree. This is part of why I said earlier - the point-based rubric that spits out the class based on a combination of factors and identical weights is not a good way to choose a class.

People who are trained in admissions work understand how to evaluate an application in total and how to use information to develop a narrative.

I prefer the new way of doing things at TJ to the old because the old way had too many access points for hyper-motivated parents to put their thumbs on the scale. The new way is at least largely free of that issue, but doesn't gather enough information about applicants to really deliver a strong enough picture.

It's my hope that FCPS will continue its relentless march forward with this process as it becomes evident that students from all races and socioeconomic backgrounds can see TJ as an attractive option where they can succeed and contribute to an exceptional academic environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been advocating right from the beginning the best compromise would be 100 seats with rigorous admissions criteria + 450 lottery.

The problem is the rigorous admission criteria are debatable. I'd argue for criteria that more closely resembled college admissions and took a broader view of the students and their accomplishments. A lottery isn't necessary, especially if they use local norms to ensure a level playing field to account for enrichment opportunities as a result of SES differences.

Pro-reform and definitely agree. This is part of why I said earlier - the point-based rubric that spits out the class based on a combination of factors and identical weights is not a good way to choose a class.

People who are trained in admissions work understand how to evaluate an application in total and how to use information to develop a narrative.

I prefer the new way of doing things at TJ to the old because the old way had too many access points for hyper-motivated parents to put their thumbs on the scale. The new way is at least largely free of that issue, but doesn't gather enough information about applicants to really deliver a strong enough picture.

It's my hope that FCPS will continue its relentless march forward with this process as it becomes evident that students from all races and socioeconomic backgrounds can see TJ as an attractive option where they can succeed and contribute to an exceptional academic environment.

+1000. This isn't complicated. A basic principle of admissions work is this: if you evaluate your entire group in one way, and look for the closest analogs to a pre-existing "ideal candidate", you will end up with an admitted group that is extremely similar to one another. This can work in very small academic environments, but selecting the 550 kids that look the closest to an arbitrary ideal is going to result in a toxic and hyper-competitive environment no matter the demographic backgrounds of the admitted group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

You are really the definition of a retard. Pity your kids.

I don’t have any. I just happen to know TJ better than anyone on these boards and I come here because it is the leading source of disinformation about TJ anywhere on the Internet.

You seem certifiably a retard. You just happen to know TJ better than anyone on this board. How? Why? What makes you so?

Anyone who is exceptional in whatever way - math, science, art, language, music; who would be rated say top 50 to 100 in a broadly defined field should have a place at TJ. A kid who can make USAJMO in 7th grade is the very definition of such a kid. I dont happen to know anyone personally like that but almost anyone who knows anything about USAJMO and TJ would agree. You might disagree. But there are people who argue that the earth is flat and you would fit right in.

Someone else replied to you underneath - whatever.

The kid you are talking about in 7th grade? You have no idea what the rest of that kid's profile is like.

I will say this - you are the first person I've seen advocate for exceptional talents in art and music to have a place at TJ, and there's something to be said for that.

But you've now used the R word twice - which means neither I nor anyone else should listen to word one of what you have to say about anything regarding children and education.

DP. The problem is that no one knows what the rest of the kid's profile is like, including the TJ admissions selectors. The application fundamentally lacks substance. If a comprehensive application packet reveals a kid who is elite at math but highly problematic, that's one thing. In this case, it's likely that the kid was not at all problematic, but was leapfrogged by the other 4.0 Longfellow or Carson kids who had parents write the essays, had parents proofread the essays, googled the science question answer, or are very good at writing canned answers to generic questions. This is what happens when admissions is based mostly on unproctored essays with no credit given for elite accomplishments.

The kid I know who got into TJ should not have been picked under any real application process. The fact that he got in shows that the process is quite broken.

[Anonymous]

Folks for the last time this is a STEM school. It's not about wholistic admissions. It's who is the most talented in STEM.

The model should be what MIT and other highly ranked technical focused colleges use for their admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

You are really the definition of a retard. Pity your kids.

I don’t have any. I just happen to know TJ better than anyone on these boards and I come here because it is the leading source of disinformation about TJ anywhere on the Internet.

You seem certifiably a retard. You just happen to know TJ better than anyone on this board. How? Why? What makes you so?

Anyone who is exceptional in whatever way - math, science, art, language, music; who would be rated say top 50 to 100 in a broadly defined field should have a place at TJ. A kid who can make USAJMO in 7th grade is the very definition of such a kid. I dont happen to know anyone personally like that but almost anyone who knows anything about USAJMO and TJ would agree. You might disagree. But there are people who argue that the earth is flat and you would fit right in.

Someone else replied to you underneath - whatever.

The kid you are talking about in 7th grade? You have no idea what the rest of that kid's profile is like.

I will say this - you are the first person I've seen advocate for exceptional talents in art and music to have a place at TJ, and there's something to be said for that.

But you've now used the R word twice - which means neither I nor anyone else should listen to word one of what you have to say about anything regarding children and education.

DP. The problem is that no one knows what the rest of the kid's profile is like, including the TJ admissions selectors. The application fundamentally lacks substance. If a comprehensive application packet reveals a kid who is elite at math but highly problematic, that's one thing. In this case, it's likely that the kid was not at all problematic, but was leapfrogged by the other 4.0 Longfellow or Carson kids who had parents write the essays, had parents proofread the essays, googled the science question answer, or are very good at writing canned answers to generic questions. This is what happens when admissions is based mostly on unproctored essays with no credit given for elite accomplishments.

The kid I know who got into TJ should not have been picked under any real application process. The fact that he got in shows that the process is quite broken.

How in the world can you possibly know this?

And how do you possibly know specifically what the admissions committee was looking for in evaluating the essay responses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Folks for the last time this is a STEM school. It's not about wholistic admissions. It's who is the most talented in STEM.

The model should be what MIT and other highly ranked technical focused colleges use for their admissions.

These two things are not mutually exclusive.

And "highly ranked technical-focused colleges" - whatever that garbled syntactical mess is supposed to mean - don't all evaluate students the same ways. MIT and Caltech don't have admissions processes that look remotely like one another.

And by the way, these are colleges that are evaluating 17-18 year olds, not a high school admissions office evaluating 13-14 year olds. There is no comparison to be made between the two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

You are really the definition of a retard. Pity your kids.

I don’t have any. I just happen to know TJ better than anyone on these boards and I come here because it is the leading source of disinformation about TJ anywhere on the Internet.

You seem certifiably a retard. You just happen to know TJ better than anyone on this board. How? Why? What makes you so?

Anyone who is exceptional in whatever way - math, science, art, language, music; who would be rated say top 50 to 100 in a broadly defined field should have a place at TJ. A kid who can make USAJMO in 7th grade is the very definition of such a kid. I dont happen to know anyone personally like that but almost anyone who knows anything about USAJMO and TJ would agree. You might disagree. But there are people who argue that the earth is flat and you would fit right in.

Someone else replied to you underneath - whatever.

The kid you are talking about in 7th grade? You have no idea what the rest of that kid's profile is like.

I will say this - you are the first person I've seen advocate for exceptional talents in art and music to have a place at TJ, and there's something to be said for that.

But you've now used the R word twice - which means neither I nor anyone else should listen to word one of what you have to say about anything regarding children and education.

DP. The problem is that no one knows what the rest of the kid's profile is like, including the TJ admissions selectors. The application fundamentally lacks substance. If a comprehensive application packet reveals a kid who is elite at math but highly problematic, that's one thing. In this case, it's likely that the kid was not at all problematic, but was leapfrogged by the other 4.0 Longfellow or Carson kids who had parents write the essays, had parents proofread the essays, googled the science question answer, or are very good at writing canned answers to generic questions. This is what happens when admissions is based mostly on unproctored essays with no credit given for elite accomplishments.

The kid I know who got into TJ should not have been picked under any real application process. The fact that he got in shows that the process is quite broken.

How in the world can you possibly know this?

And how do you possibly know specifically what the admissions committee was looking for in evaluating the essay responses?

I know that the kid needed absurd amounts of tutoring to keep up with middle school AAP classwork. I also know that none of the kid's teachers would have given a positive recommendation suggesting that TJ would be a good fit. I actually feel very sorry for this kid. He's being set up to either be one of those kids working on homework until 2 am every night, or he's going to wash out of TJ.

[Anonymous]

There was a group that got together to discuss TJ, for people admitted or on the waitlist. One person on there was a teacher familiar with the process, and implored parents to consider the difficulty level of TJ. At least some of these students who likely should not have been admitted ended up declining admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Less the bottom-half do impact the school by some measures. For example look at the SOL scores. Almost all schools in FCPS had some progress upwards

For TJHSST the pass advanced rate in Geometry went down 31% from 73% to 42%

Biology and Algebra 2 Pass advanced level went down (but not that much 13 and 10%) from 66% to 53% and from 63% to 53%

These test and results do not matter for people who believe that the best way to find in-nate talent is via un-proctored and un-verified essays. So yes, overall for the top spots/test nationwide the bottom-half does not matter but for the average scores etc. they will.

Do you have a source for these pass rates? I was going to say you've buried the lede, but then I saw it was actually at the start of your post.
For TJ to have a 42% pass rate in geometry doesn't speak well for their teaching, or they are admitting very poor performing students who shouldn't be there. They generally didn't accept kids at TJ who hasn't taken geometry, so 73% could be 8/11 students passing. 42% out of more than 100 says something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

You are really the definition of a retard. Pity your kids.

I don’t have any. I just happen to know TJ better than anyone on these boards and I come here because it is the leading source of disinformation about TJ anywhere on the Internet.

You seem certifiably a retard. You just happen to know TJ better than anyone on this board. How? Why? What makes you so?

Anyone who is exceptional in whatever way - math, science, art, language, music; who would be rated say top 50 to 100 in a broadly defined field should have a place at TJ. A kid who can make USAJMO in 7th grade is the very definition of such a kid. I dont happen to know anyone personally like that but almost anyone who knows anything about USAJMO and TJ would agree. You might disagree. But there are people who argue that the earth is flat and you would fit right in.

Someone else replied to you underneath - whatever.

The kid you are talking about in 7th grade? You have no idea what the rest of that kid's profile is like.

I will say this - you are the first person I've seen advocate for exceptional talents in art and music to have a place at TJ, and there's something to be said for that.

But you've now used the R word twice - which means neither I nor anyone else should listen to word one of what you have to say about anything regarding children and education.

DP. The problem is that no one knows what the rest of the kid's profile is like, including the TJ admissions selectors. The application fundamentally lacks substance. If a comprehensive application packet reveals a kid who is elite at math but highly problematic, that's one thing. In this case, it's likely that the kid was not at all problematic, but was leapfrogged by the other 4.0 Longfellow or Carson kids who had parents write the essays, had parents proofread the essays, googled the science question answer, or are very good at writing canned answers to generic questions. This is what happens when admissions is based mostly on unproctored essays with no credit given for elite accomplishments.

The kid I know who got into TJ should not have been picked under any real application process. The fact that he got in shows that the process is quite broken.

How in the world can you possibly know this?

And how do you possibly know specifically what the admissions committee was looking for in evaluating the essay responses?

I know that the kid needed absurd amounts of tutoring to keep up with middle school AAP classwork. I also know that none of the kid's teachers would have given a positive recommendation suggesting that TJ would be a good fit. I actually feel very sorry for this kid. He's being set up to either be one of those kids working on homework until 2 am every night, or he's going to wash out of TJ.

I am guessing you'd be surprised at the number of TJ kids who received an absurd amount of tutoring and continue to when at TJ.

(whispers) ... they come mostly from traditional feeder schools...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

You are really the definition of a retard. Pity your kids.

I don’t have any. I just happen to know TJ better than anyone on these boards and I come here because it is the leading source of disinformation about TJ anywhere on the Internet.

You seem certifiably a retard. You just happen to know TJ better than anyone on this board. How? Why? What makes you so?

Anyone who is exceptional in whatever way - math, science, art, language, music; who would be rated say top 50 to 100 in a broadly defined field should have a place at TJ. A kid who can make USAJMO in 7th grade is the very definition of such a kid. I dont happen to know anyone personally like that but almost anyone who knows anything about USAJMO and TJ would agree. You might disagree. But there are people who argue that the earth is flat and you would fit right in.

Someone else replied to you underneath - whatever.

The kid you are talking about in 7th grade? You have no idea what the rest of that kid's profile is like.

I will say this - you are the first person I've seen advocate for exceptional talents in art and music to have a place at TJ, and there's something to be said for that.

But you've now used the R word twice - which means neither I nor anyone else should listen to word one of what you have to say about anything regarding children and education.

DP. The problem is that no one knows what the rest of the kid's profile is like, including the TJ admissions selectors. The application fundamentally lacks substance. If a comprehensive application packet reveals a kid who is elite at math but highly problematic, that's one thing. In this case, it's likely that the kid was not at all problematic, but was leapfrogged by the other 4.0 Longfellow or Carson kids who had parents write the essays, had parents proofread the essays, googled the science question answer, or are very good at writing canned answers to generic questions. This is what happens when admissions is based mostly on unproctored essays with no credit given for elite accomplishments.

The kid I know who got into TJ should not have been picked under any real application process. The fact that he got in shows that the process is quite broken.

How in the world can you possibly know this?

And how do you possibly know specifically what the admissions committee was looking for in evaluating the essay responses?

I know that the kid needed absurd amounts of tutoring to keep up with middle school AAP classwork. I also know that none of the kid's teachers would have given a positive recommendation suggesting that TJ would be a good fit. I actually feel very sorry for this kid. He's being set up to either be one of those kids working on homework until 2 am every night, or he's going to wash out of TJ.

I am guessing you'd be surprised at the number of TJ kids who received an absurd amount of tutoring and continue to when at TJ.

(whispers) ... they come mostly from traditional feeder schools...

I'd suspected this all along. All that prep skews things so that an average kid appears gifted and ends up in way over their head.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

You are really the definition of a retard. Pity your kids.

I don’t have any. I just happen to know TJ better than anyone on these boards and I come here because it is the leading source of disinformation about TJ anywhere on the Internet.

You seem certifiably a retard. You just happen to know TJ better than anyone on this board. How? Why? What makes you so?

Anyone who is exceptional in whatever way - math, science, art, language, music; who would be rated say top 50 to 100 in a broadly defined field should have a place at TJ. A kid who can make USAJMO in 7th grade is the very definition of such a kid. I dont happen to know anyone personally like that but almost anyone who knows anything about USAJMO and TJ would agree. You might disagree. But there are people who argue that the earth is flat and you would fit right in.

Someone else replied to you underneath - whatever.

The kid you are talking about in 7th grade? You have no idea what the rest of that kid's profile is like.

I will say this - you are the first person I've seen advocate for exceptional talents in art and music to have a place at TJ, and there's something to be said for that.

But you've now used the R word twice - which means neither I nor anyone else should listen to word one of what you have to say about anything regarding children and education.

DP. The problem is that no one knows what the rest of the kid's profile is like, including the TJ admissions selectors. The application fundamentally lacks substance. If a comprehensive application packet reveals a kid who is elite at math but highly problematic, that's one thing. In this case, it's likely that the kid was not at all problematic, but was leapfrogged by the other 4.0 Longfellow or Carson kids who had parents write the essays, had parents proofread the essays, googled the science question answer, or are very good at writing canned answers to generic questions. This is what happens when admissions is based mostly on unproctored essays with no credit given for elite accomplishments.

The kid I know who got into TJ should not have been picked under any real application process. The fact that he got in shows that the process is quite broken.

How in the world can you possibly know this?

And how do you possibly know specifically what the admissions committee was looking for in evaluating the essay responses?

I know that the kid needed absurd amounts of tutoring to keep up with middle school AAP classwork. I also know that none of the kid's teachers would have given a positive recommendation suggesting that TJ would be a good fit. I actually feel very sorry for this kid. He's being set up to either be one of those kids working on homework until 2 am every night, or he's going to wash out of TJ.

I am guessing you'd be surprised at the number of TJ kids who received an absurd amount of tutoring and continue to when at TJ.

(whispers) ... they come mostly from traditional feeder schools...

Not at all. The old system correctly identified the kids who are outliers and who need TJ, but it also identified a lot of prep kids. The new system has no substance to it whatsoever and more or less randomly identifies kids. You have just as many prep kids as you've always had, but now you're not even finding those top 50 kids in the new system. I'm all for giving the selection a lot of information and then letting them make holistic decisions. I'm not a fan of giving them almost nothing and then expecting them to be psychics.

The kid is almost certainly a curie kid. He might have managed to sneak in with the old system, but I think the teacher recs would have killed his chances. He would definitely not get in through any real holistic system. It's absurd to pretend that a system that rejects USAJMO level elite mathematicians and accepts wholly unqualified kids based on some generic unproctored essays is anything other than horribly broken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone posted here that kids who made USAMO or Jr USAMO in 7th grade did not get in, despite those taking either the top high school math students or top thru 10th grade.

So? Excellent scores on one math exam, or a limited series of math exams, do not equate to "best suited for TJ".

If a kid qualifies for USAJMO in middle school, that kid is one of the top 50 or so mathematicians in their grade level in the entire country. It's hard to argue that such a kid is not best suited for one of the 550 slots at TJ. It's also hard to argue that the base school could even come close to meeting the needs for that kid.

There is so much more to being a quality TJ student than being good - or even exceptional - at math.

Failing to understand that betrays a lack of understanding of TJ as an institution.

You are really the definition of a retard. Pity your kids.

I don’t have any. I just happen to know TJ better than anyone on these boards and I come here because it is the leading source of disinformation about TJ anywhere on the Internet.

You seem certifiably a retard. You just happen to know TJ better than anyone on this board. How? Why? What makes you so?

Anyone who is exceptional in whatever way - math, science, art, language, music; who would be rated say top 50 to 100 in a broadly defined field should have a place at TJ. A kid who can make USAJMO in 7th grade is the very definition of such a kid. I dont happen to know anyone personally like that but almost anyone who knows anything about USAJMO and TJ would agree. You might disagree. But there are people who argue that the earth is flat and you would fit right in.

Someone else replied to you underneath - whatever.

The kid you are talking about in 7th grade? You have no idea what the rest of that kid's profile is like.

I will say this - you are the first person I've seen advocate for exceptional talents in art and music to have a place at TJ, and there's something to be said for that.

But you've now used the R word twice - which means neither I nor anyone else should listen to word one of what you have to say about anything regarding children and education.

DP. The problem is that no one knows what the rest of the kid's profile is like, including the TJ admissions selectors. The application fundamentally lacks substance. If a comprehensive application packet reveals a kid who is elite at math but highly problematic, that's one thing. In this case, it's likely that the kid was not at all problematic, but was leapfrogged by the other 4.0 Longfellow or Carson kids who had parents write the essays, had parents proofread the essays, googled the science question answer, or are very good at writing canned answers to generic questions. This is what happens when admissions is based mostly on unproctored essays with no credit given for elite accomplishments.

The kid I know who got into TJ should not have been picked under any real application process. The fact that he got in shows that the process is quite broken.

How in the world can you possibly know this?

And how do you possibly know specifically what the admissions committee was looking for in evaluating the essay responses?

I know that the kid needed absurd amounts of tutoring to keep up with middle school AAP classwork. I also know that none of the kid's teachers would have given a positive recommendation suggesting that TJ would be a good fit. I actually feel very sorry for this kid. He's being set up to either be one of those kids working on homework until 2 am every night, or he's going to wash out of TJ.

I am guessing you'd be surprised at the number of TJ kids who received an absurd amount of tutoring and continue to when at TJ.

(whispers) ... they come mostly from traditional feeder schools...

Very true! The old system favored the preppers who would not be able to pass muster without the extraordinary help that they received to appear gifted. The new system focuses on the top talent from all schools so the less talented but overprepped students are less of an issue.