Let's think of ALL the ways that families might game the new TJ admissions process

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We all know it wil happen! I'll start!

We already know that TJ attracts families from all across the globe and that they move here to attend TJ.

Given that this year is virtual, how about a parent living in another country "rents" an apartment in one of the low-yield regions. They then "enroll" their child virtually, have them attend classes and then put their child's name in the hat to see what happens? MANY children are logging into FCPS classes from outside of the area, so this is not a new thing. If they are worried about getting caught, they can always just use a VPN.

Okay, I can actually see this happening. If you have spent anytime at Carson, you will know that some kids discuss that they will go back to their home country if they do not get into TJ.

So, I can see families living outside of the county (and the country) renting an apartment/room from afar, saying that their child is being “homeschooled” and throwing their hat into the ring. If the child wins the lottery, they then actually come to the US. If they don’t win the lottery, no harm no foul.

Those folks likely will not be placed into the merit lottery.

Why not?

If they can produce documentation for residency (lease) and GPA (homeschool GPA) and Algebra I (homeschool ciriculum), they can 100% throw their child’s name into the lottery.

FCPS is going to be swamped with international applications pretending to be Fairfax County residents. A free education at the #1 high school in America! So easy to just lie a little and give your child a shot!

The admissions office will decide who is in the lottery. It will be a small subset of who applies in each region and may very well have higher standards in some cases than the original TJ selection process did because there are fewer barriers to application.

Wrong. Anyone that meets the criteria (GPA, Algebra 1, some sort of essay) will be placed into the lottery pool. The criteria will be clear and anyone that meets it must be in the lottery.

The admissions staff will not be given broad authority to pick and choose who is in the lottery pool.

That's just not correct. In the town hall they confirmed that there would be a holistic review to determine who from the applicant pool would be placed in the merit lottery. That will be the job of the same people who used to get us from semifinalist pool to offers in the old system - not the admissions staff, but the admissions committee.

It would be extremely helpful to get a sense of how many - or maybe what percentage of - applicants would be targeted for the merit lottery.

You can probably have something approximating TJ if you're talking about drawing from 800-1000 kids. If it's 2000 or 2500 or something like that, it will be very problematic.