TJ Admissions question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the schools decide the top 1.5 percent by reading the apps?

Well, no clue how it's done now, but it used to be decided by a test that wealthy families could buy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the schools decide the top 1.5 percent by reading the apps?

Well, no clue how it's done now, but it used to be decided by a test that wealthy families could buy.

#fakenews

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the schools decide the top 1.5 percent by reading the apps?

No. There is an admissions committee for TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does admissions work if our kid goes to an Arlington middle school and more than 1.5% of kids have the highest possible GPA? Does it matter if most of those kids don't apply to TJ?

Arlington is not part of the 1.5% set aside. That is a FCPS thing. Any kid meeting the minimum requirements can apply and sit for the essays. The students are then selected to fill the 20 seats allotted to Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does admissions work if our kid goes to an Arlington middle school and more than 1.5% of kids have the highest possible GPA? Does it matter if most of those kids don't apply to TJ?

Arlington is not part of the 1.5% set aside. That is a FCPS thing. Any kid meeting the minimum requirements can apply and sit for the essays. The students are then selected to fill the 20 seats allotted to Arlington.

PP here, thanks!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the schools decide the top 1.5 percent by reading the apps?

Well, no clue how it's done now, but it used to be decided by a test that wealthy families could buy.

Ya, those were the good old days where you could buy the test at the prep center for a few grand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does admissions work if our kid goes to an Arlington middle school and more than 1.5% of kids have the highest possible GPA? Does it matter if most of those kids don't apply to TJ?

Arlington is not part of the 1.5% set aside. That is a FCPS thing. Any kid meeting the minimum requirements can apply and sit for the essays. The students are then selected to fill the 20 seats allotted to Arlington.

I’m not sure that’s correct. Per the video presentation on TJ’s website regarding the admission process, the 1.5% allocation applies to all public schools in the sending jurisdictions, not just those in Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Rent an apartment in one of the school districts.

Another tiger tj parent.

I thought the schools with the highest admit rate were in McLean and Langley feeders.

Yes, but students who were not admitted at those schools had higher scores than students who were admitted at the weaker schools.

Well, if that is true, and there's no real evidence of that, some schools are demonstrably better than others. Many people pay hundreds of thousands more to live in those school boundaries. It isn't right to penalize kids who are just as bright but lack the same advantages.

DP. FCPS has not released the cutoff scores for the top 1.5% of each school. So you are correct that there's no evidence that a higher score is required to make it into the top 1.5% of a McLean school vs. a lower SES school. What we do know is that after the top 1.5% is taken, the rest of the applicants are selected from a common pool based on their scores. Some schools had zero kids selected. Others had 30. So, we flat out know that the 40th best kid at, say, Carson had a higher score than the 9th best kid (who didn't get picked in the general pool) at one of the schools only sending their top 1.5%.

The claim is that the 41st kid, and many more, at Carson is higher than the 8th best kid and thus would benefit from a transfer.

Well, maybe but likely they're only high because they go to a wealthy school that has advantages. At one of the lesser schools they'd also rank lower.

Yes, this is why transferring for 8th grade is suggested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So a student with a 4.0 vs. a 3.8 are given the same points in the holistic process?

No. The 3.8 will score 15 points lower.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rent an apartment in one of the school districts.

Another tiger tj parent.

I thought the schools with the highest admit rate were in McLean and Langley feeders.

Yes, but students who were not admitted at those schools had higher scores than students who were admitted at the weaker schools.

Well, if that is true, and there's no real evidence of that, some schools are demonstrably better than others. Many people pay hundreds of thousands more to live in those school boundaries. It isn't right to penalize kids who are just as bright but lack the same advantages.

DP. FCPS has not released the cutoff scores for the top 1.5% of each school. So you are correct that there's no evidence that a higher score is required to make it into the top 1.5% of a McLean school vs. a lower SES school. What we do know is that after the top 1.5% is taken, the rest of the applicants are selected from a common pool based on their scores. Some schools had zero kids selected. Others had 30. So, we flat out know that the 40th best kid at, say, Carson had a higher score than the 9th best kid (who didn't get picked in the general pool) at one of the schools only sending their top 1.5%.

The claim is that the 41st kid, and many more, at Carson is higher than the 8th best kid and thus would benefit from a transfer.

So you're sending your kid to a school that you acknowledge is weaker, and giving your child a lesser education in your own mind for a year or two, all for a gamble that you've properly evaluated that they're in that little sliver of kids who wouldn't get in from Carson but would get in from Poe?

And what happens when 20 other families in your community decide to do the same thing and you all show up on day 1 of school looking like the Spider-Man meme where everyone's pointing at each other? And you're all competing with each other for the same six spots - and then you realize that... oh wait... there are a few really bright kids here too who have straight A's and more bonus points than my kid does?

Yes, that will really hurt. Only I think it's more than a sliver. Not sure how big the schools are in Fairfax, but there might be not just 5 or 6, but maybe the kid ranked 100 at Carson would have a decent chance to get in if they transferred. I have heard of families who have done this in Loudoun, where they set a maximum quota per school. So they already had no chance at their base school, Stone Hill, and moved to Horace Greeley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn’t imagine doing this to my kid - “moved to an apartment in less competitive area for a year for a better admission chance “ - Social pressure already hard for most of middle schooler. My son already has his circle of friends and tribe in his competitive MS (which is actually positive peer pressure environment) and I can’t think of how I should ripped it apart from him.., the damage could probably worse than the benefit getting into TJ.

Not to mention their chances of admission are lower at those schools since they send fewer kids

I'm getting the feeling this is being posted by a parent who is adopting this plan, and is discouraging the competition from copying it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does admissions work if our kid goes to an Arlington middle school and more than 1.5% of kids have the highest possible GPA? Does it matter if most of those kids don't apply to TJ?

Well obviously they can only select among those kids who apply. GPA is not the only criterion or primary criterion. They will take a look at anyone who has at least 3.5 GPA and look at essay scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the schools decide the top 1.5 percent by reading the apps?

The schools don't read them, except maybe for some verification. FCPS has a group that handles admissions for TJ and they will read the apps and essays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn’t imagine doing this to my kid - “moved to an apartment in less competitive area for a year for a better admission chance “ - Social pressure already hard for most of middle schooler. My son already has his circle of friends and tribe in his competitive MS (which is actually positive peer pressure environment) and I can’t think of how I should ripped it apart from him.., the damage could probably worse than the benefit getting into TJ.

Not to mention their chances of admission are lower at those schools since they send fewer kids

I'm getting the feeling this is being posted by a parent who is adopting this plan, and is discouraging the competition from copying it.

Just the opposite, the parent who encourages strong students to leave the feeder schools is doing so to thin the real competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rent an apartment in one of the school districts.

Another tiger tj parent.

I thought the schools with the highest admit rate were in McLean and Langley feeders.

Yes, but students who were not admitted at those schools had higher scores than students who were admitted at the weaker schools.

Well, if that is true, and there's no real evidence of that, some schools are demonstrably better than others. Many people pay hundreds of thousands more to live in those school boundaries. It isn't right to penalize kids who are just as bright but lack the same advantages.

DP. FCPS has not released the cutoff scores for the top 1.5% of each school. So you are correct that there's no evidence that a higher score is required to make it into the top 1.5% of a McLean school vs. a lower SES school. What we do know is that after the top 1.5% is taken, the rest of the applicants are selected from a common pool based on their scores. Some schools had zero kids selected. Others had 30. So, we flat out know that the 40th best kid at, say, Carson had a higher score than the 9th best kid (who didn't get picked in the general pool) at one of the schools only sending their top 1.5%.

The claim is that the 41st kid, and many more, at Carson is higher than the 8th best kid and thus would benefit from a transfer.

So you're sending your kid to a school that you acknowledge is weaker, and giving your child a lesser education in your own mind for a year or two, all for a gamble that you've properly evaluated that they're in that little sliver of kids who wouldn't get in from Carson but would get in from Poe?

And what happens when 20 other families in your community decide to do the same thing and you all show up on day 1 of school looking like the Spider-Man meme where everyone's pointing at each other? And you're all competing with each other for the same six spots - and then you realize that... oh wait... there are a few really bright kids here too who have straight A's and more bonus points than my kid does?

Yes, that will really hurt. Only I think it's more than a sliver. Not sure how big the schools are in Fairfax, but there might be not just 5 or 6, but maybe the kid ranked 100 at Carson would have a decent chance to get in if they transferred. I have heard of families who have done this in Loudoun, where they set a maximum quota per school. So they already had no chance at their base school, Stone Hill, and moved to Horace Greeley.

DP, but there is a huge difference in the two situations. Presumably, from Horace Greeley, fewer than the allocated number of kids even apply for TJ.

I think the PP has a point, though. People shouldn't assume that the top 5 or 6 kids from Poe or Whitman wouldn't have very high scores. It's reasonable to imagine that there are 5 or 6 kids who are FARMS and would get the enormous point boost for that, have perfect GPAs, and can write decent essays. If they can write about any adversity they've overcome, they're likely to earn very high scores in the essays.