Official TJ Admissions Decisions Results for the Class of 2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1

+2

that's obvious to most anyone with common sense

That is not what you sai. You said the students only made the cut because of the prep center and that you know that for a fact. Show us the basis for that "fact".

Also, I, PP above, never said anything about it being a fact. Someone else might have, and that’s fine - there are many pro-reform voices on this board, some of whom have no idea what they’re talking about. The assertion that Curie moved the needle for a large number of students is neither provable nor disprovable, but the circumstantial evidences that it did is OVERWHELMING - and that’s just one prep place out of dozens.

And before anyone climbs on here begging for an investigation: they didn’t commit any crime as far as I know. All they did was play by the rules of a flawed game as far as I know. So the rules changed, in no small part because they shouted from the rooftops that they had 28% of the class of 2024.

This discussion got started because someone posted that the students made the cut only because of prep. Maybe it was you or maybe it was one of the other moron now hiding but take responsibility for what you claim. Where is the evidence students made the cut only because of the prep center?

You’re asking for something that has no value to the discussion. You can keep repeating yourself all you want - you still lost.

Bottom line is this - Curie and places like it exist in one of two realities:

1) They are, often enough, responsible for a substantial number of students moving from “not offered” to “offered”, thus justifying the enormous expenditure of money and time. This reality confers a significant advantage in the TJ admissions process to families able and willing to spend that time and money, and has a chilling effect on students and families who would otherwise be interested, but for whatever reason don’t want to commit this extraordinary amount of additional resources on something that appears to confer that advantage.

OR

2) They don’t have a significant impact on the admissions process - the kids who get in would have gotten in anyway and no one is excluded from the school by someone who spent these resources - and the existence of TJ has been used as a means for Curie to bilk Indian families out of literally millions of dollars over the years.

There isn’t a third option. And both are reasons to dissolve the market.

SMH it's 2021 and we've reached the point where people are really saying the system should favor people who don't want to spend time on education over those that do.

Working hard is one thing. Paying for strategies to succeed on an exam that basically measures test taking ability is quite another.

I'm not automatically going to assume that you're not a biased hatemonger and that those prep programs don't impart any legitimate intellectual growth.

That’s not a sentence but go off. They’re TJ prep courses. They’re marketed as such.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's obvious by now that the "prepping" posters are just straight up lying. They have no evidence or facts to back up their ridiculous accusation that most of TJ students got in because of prepping. They keep saying it because of the racial bias they have. The only fact known is that most of the cheaters caught in the recent college admission scandals are white parents. Prepping is too hard for them, so they hired someone to take the tests.

FCPS shouldn't base its policy based on innuendos or racial biases. It should be based on facts and logic.

White parents also bribed SAT employees to change the SAT scores of their children as well. They deserve maximum prison sentences. I think they are projecting their twisted and guilty conscience on to Asian parents.

Who prepped the most for travel sports (which is legal)? White parents too.

How are travel sports relevant to this conversation at all?

How is prepping relevant to this TJ 'reform' change?

Because apparently the biggest and most successful provider of it charges $5K for their flagship that literally only serves students of one race.

Isn’t it about 1-5 thousand per year is hi h works out to about 30-40 per hour?

Also, I think the courses are open to anyone interested but of course lazy ones don’t attend. I hear white parents prefer private one to one prepping by paying hundreds of dollars per hour so that they can deny any prepping which is funny.

You’re still talking about an insane investment of time for a 12 year old kid. Not to mention the amount of pressure that that massive expenditure places on them.

Those of us who are pro-reform, to be clear, are against the idea of any sort of admissions system that is easily optimized by spending large sums of money that many people don’t have. We hate when white people are jerks too.

Indian dad here. DS is entering 7th grade. We are so relieved that we don’t feel any pressure any more to pay for tutoring. Our boy wants to go to TJ but I wouldn’t have felt like I was doing everything I could if we didn’t do something like Curie.

Maybe he gets in, maybe he doesn’t, but he doesn’t have to spend his whole 7th grade year studying for the quant. Far more productive things to do with his time.

He’s not getting in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's obvious by now that the "prepping" posters are just straight up lying. They have no evidence or facts to back up their ridiculous accusation that most of TJ students got in because of prepping. They keep saying it because of the racial bias they have. The only fact known is that most of the cheaters caught in the recent college admission scandals are white parents. Prepping is too hard for them, so they hired someone to take the tests.

FCPS shouldn't base its policy based on innuendos or racial biases. It should be based on facts and logic.

White parents also bribed SAT employees to change the SAT scores of their children as well. They deserve maximum prison sentences. I think they are projecting their twisted and guilty conscience on to Asian parents.

Who prepped the most for travel sports (which is legal)? White parents too.

How are travel sports relevant to this conversation at all?

How is prepping relevant to this TJ 'reform' change?

Because apparently the biggest and most successful provider of it charges $5K for their flagship that literally only serves students of one race.

Isn’t it about 1-5 thousand per year is hi h works out to about 30-40 per hour?

Also, I think the courses are open to anyone interested but of course lazy ones don’t attend. I hear white parents prefer private one to one prepping by paying hundreds of dollars per hour so that they can deny any prepping which is funny.

You’re still talking about an insane investment of time for a 12 year old kid. Not to mention the amount of pressure that that massive expenditure places on them.

Those of us who are pro-reform, to be clear, are against the idea of any sort of admissions system that is easily optimized by spending large sums of money that many people don’t have. We hate when white people are jerks too.

Indian dad here. DS is entering 7th grade. We are so relieved that we don’t feel any pressure any more to pay for tutoring. Our boy wants to go to TJ but I wouldn’t have felt like I was doing everything I could if we didn’t do something like Curie.

Maybe he gets in, maybe he doesn’t, but he doesn’t have to spend his whole 7th grade year studying for the quant. Far more productive things to do with his time.

He’s not getting in.

Why not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1

+2

that's obvious to most anyone with common sense

That is not what you sai. You said the students only made the cut because of the prep center and that you know that for a fact. Show us the basis for that "fact".

Also, I, PP above, never said anything about it being a fact. Someone else might have, and that’s fine - there are many pro-reform voices on this board, some of whom have no idea what they’re talking about. The assertion that Curie moved the needle for a large number of students is neither provable nor disprovable, but the circumstantial evidences that it did is OVERWHELMING - and that’s just one prep place out of dozens.

And before anyone climbs on here begging for an investigation: they didn’t commit any crime as far as I know. All they did was play by the rules of a flawed game as far as I know. So the rules changed, in no small part because they shouted from the rooftops that they had 28% of the class of 2024.

This discussion got started because someone posted that the students made the cut only because of prep. Maybe it was you or maybe it was one of the other moron now hiding but take responsibility for what you claim. Where is the evidence students made the cut only because of the prep center?

You’re asking for something that has no value to the discussion. You can keep repeating yourself all you want - you still lost.

Bottom line is this - Curie and places like it exist in one of two realities:

1) They are, often enough, responsible for a substantial number of students moving from “not offered” to “offered”, thus justifying the enormous expenditure of money and time. This reality confers a significant advantage in the TJ admissions process to families able and willing to spend that time and money, and has a chilling effect on students and families who would otherwise be interested, but for whatever reason don’t want to commit this extraordinary amount of additional resources on something that appears to confer that advantage.

OR

2) They don’t have a significant impact on the admissions process - the kids who get in would have gotten in anyway and no one is excluded from the school by someone who spent these resources - and the existence of TJ has been used as a means for Curie to bilk Indian families out of literally millions of dollars over the years.

There isn’t a third option. And both are reasons to dissolve the market.

SMH it's 2021 and we've reached the point where people are really saying the system should favor people who don't want to spend time on education over those that do.

Agreed. It's a fact of life that a competitive process raises the end result in everything. If you have motivated people working hard for the same goal, everyone gets better excepts those unwilling to work hard.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1

+2

that's obvious to most anyone with common sense

That is not what you sai. You said the students only made the cut because of the prep center and that you know that for a fact. Show us the basis for that "fact".

Also, I, PP above, never said anything about it being a fact. Someone else might have, and that’s fine - there are many pro-reform voices on this board, some of whom have no idea what they’re talking about. The assertion that Curie moved the needle for a large number of students is neither provable nor disprovable, but the circumstantial evidences that it did is OVERWHELMING - and that’s just one prep place out of dozens.

And before anyone climbs on here begging for an investigation: they didn’t commit any crime as far as I know. All they did was play by the rules of a flawed game as far as I know. So the rules changed, in no small part because they shouted from the rooftops that they had 28% of the class of 2024.

This discussion got started because someone posted that the students made the cut only because of prep. Maybe it was you or maybe it was one of the other moron now hiding but take responsibility for what you claim. Where is the evidence students made the cut only because of the prep center?

You’re asking for something that has no value to the discussion. You can keep repeating yourself all you want - you still lost.

Bottom line is this - Curie and places like it exist in one of two realities:

1) They are, often enough, responsible for a substantial number of students moving from “not offered” to “offered”, thus justifying the enormous expenditure of money and time. This reality confers a significant advantage in the TJ admissions process to families able and willing to spend that time and money, and has a chilling effect on students and families who would otherwise be interested, but for whatever reason don’t want to commit this extraordinary amount of additional resources on something that appears to confer that advantage.

OR

2) They don’t have a significant impact on the admissions process - the kids who get in would have gotten in anyway and no one is excluded from the school by someone who spent these resources - and the existence of TJ has been used as a means for Curie to bilk Indian families out of literally millions of dollars over the years.

There isn’t a third option. And both are reasons to dissolve the market.

1) They are, often enough, responsible for a substantial number of students moving from “not offered” to “offered”, thus justifying the enormous expenditure of money and time. This reality confers a significant advantage in the TJ admissions process to families able and willing to spend that time and money, and has a chilling effect on students and families who would otherwise be interested, but for whatever reason don’t want to commit this extraordinary amount of additional resources on something that appears to confer that advantage.

Response: Where is any evidence that there are "substantial number of students moving from “not offered” to “offered"? In addition, the test is ridiculously easy for most Asian students and passing the test will not result in getting "offered". You show your ignorance by not even being aware of the admissions process prior to 2021. Passing the test only moves you to the semi-finalist stage and the admissions office then reviews LoRs, essays, SIS, GPA etc. to make the "offers".

2) They don’t have a significant impact on the admissions process - the kids who get in would have gotten in anyway and no one is excluded from the school by someone who spent these resources - and the existence of TJ has been used as a means for Curie to bilk Indian families out of literally millions of dollars over the years.

Response: Who are you to dictate how parents choose to parent and educate their children? Nobody is forcing you to send your kids to prep centers or SAT tutoring, sport teams, private tutoring and other activities. Asian parents may spend 1 or 2 K a year to send their kids to prep centers but white parents spend much more than that on private one on one academic tutoring, private SAT tutoring etc. These costs $100-$500 per hour.

Oh man, you are throwing down with the wrong person here. I know the previous admissions process better than just about anyone on this board.

Here’s why the prep mattered on the admissions exam:

1) Making the semifinalist pool wasn’t about achieving some hard and fast cutoff score. Students had to achieve a percentile score relative to the rest of the population that was taking each of the three exams to qualify - meaning that if one student gets a better score, that makes someone else’s score look worse.

Students had to score in the 75th percentile or above on the ACT Aspire English and either 75th or above on both the Quant-Q and the ACT Aspire Science, or 50th on QQ and 90th on Science. Prep was readily available for the ACT Aspires, but NOT for the Quant-Q, which was selected by Admissions precisely because it was a secured exam. Even so, a student could score in the 99th percentile on Math and Science - but if that kid was 74th percentile on English, they were out of luck.

So if you have a huge chunk of kids who are artificially raising their scores through prep, that’s not only getting kids into the semifinalist pool who don’t belong there - it’s also removing kids who DO belong in the pool. Not good.

2) Your assertion that the admissions committee “moves on” to the other areas of the application once the semifinalists are selected and does not use the exam scores is incorrect. The exam scores were included in the applicant profile - this was part of the presentation every year - and the statistics that the admissions office showed every year showed huge jumps between the average percentiles of semifinalists versus offered students - especially in (you guessed it!) the Quant-Q.

I would also challenge your assertion that the previous exams were “ridiculously easy for most Asian students”. Kinda showed your true colors on that one.

Tldr don’t come at me and tell me that I don’t know the old process. Shame on you.

Thank you so much for your insight. Please do not leave this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1

+2

that's obvious to most anyone with common sense

That is not what you sai. You said the students only made the cut because of the prep center and that you know that for a fact. Show us the basis for that "fact".

Also, I, PP above, never said anything about it being a fact. Someone else might have, and that’s fine - there are many pro-reform voices on this board, some of whom have no idea what they’re talking about. The assertion that Curie moved the needle for a large number of students is neither provable nor disprovable, but the circumstantial evidences that it did is OVERWHELMING - and that’s just one prep place out of dozens.

And before anyone climbs on here begging for an investigation: they didn’t commit any crime as far as I know. All they did was play by the rules of a flawed game as far as I know. So the rules changed, in no small part because they shouted from the rooftops that they had 28% of the class of 2024.

This discussion got started because someone posted that the students made the cut only because of prep. Maybe it was you or maybe it was one of the other moron now hiding but take responsibility for what you claim. Where is the evidence students made the cut only because of the prep center?

You’re asking for something that has no value to the discussion. You can keep repeating yourself all you want - you still lost.

Bottom line is this - Curie and places like it exist in one of two realities:

1) They are, often enough, responsible for a substantial number of students moving from “not offered” to “offered”, thus justifying the enormous expenditure of money and time. This reality confers a significant advantage in the TJ admissions process to families able and willing to spend that time and money, and has a chilling effect on students and families who would otherwise be interested, but for whatever reason don’t want to commit this extraordinary amount of additional resources on something that appears to confer that advantage.

OR

2) They don’t have a significant impact on the admissions process - the kids who get in would have gotten in anyway and no one is excluded from the school by someone who spent these resources - and the existence of TJ has been used as a means for Curie to bilk Indian families out of literally millions of dollars over the years.

There isn’t a third option. And both are reasons to dissolve the market.

1) They are, often enough, responsible for a substantial number of students moving from “not offered” to “offered”, thus justifying the enormous expenditure of money and time. This reality confers a significant advantage in the TJ admissions process to families able and willing to spend that time and money, and has a chilling effect on students and families who would otherwise be interested, but for whatever reason don’t want to commit this extraordinary amount of additional resources on something that appears to confer that advantage.

Response: Where is any evidence that there are "substantial number of students moving from “not offered” to “offered"? In addition, the test is ridiculously easy for most Asian students and passing the test will not result in getting "offered". You show your ignorance by not even being aware of the admissions process prior to 2021. Passing the test only moves you to the semi-finalist stage and the admissions office then reviews LoRs, essays, SIS, GPA etc. to make the "offers".

2) They don’t have a significant impact on the admissions process - the kids who get in would have gotten in anyway and no one is excluded from the school by someone who spent these resources - and the existence of TJ has been used as a means for Curie to bilk Indian families out of literally millions of dollars over the years.

Response: Who are you to dictate how parents choose to parent and educate their children? Nobody is forcing you to send your kids to prep centers or SAT tutoring, sport teams, private tutoring and other activities. Asian parents may spend 1 or 2 K a year to send their kids to prep centers but white parents spend much more than that on private one on one academic tutoring, private SAT tutoring etc. These costs $100-$500 per hour.

Oh man, you are throwing down with the wrong person here. I know the previous admissions process better than just about anyone on this board.

Here’s why the prep mattered on the admissions exam:

1) Making the semifinalist pool wasn’t about achieving some hard and fast cutoff score. Students had to achieve a percentile score relative to the rest of the population that was taking each of the three exams to qualify - meaning that if one student gets a better score, that makes someone else’s score look worse.

Students had to score in the 75th percentile or above on the ACT Aspire English and either 75th or above on both the Quant-Q and the ACT Aspire Science, or 50th on QQ and 90th on Science. Prep was readily available for the ACT Aspires, but NOT for the Quant-Q, which was selected by Admissions precisely because it was a secured exam. Even so, a student could score in the 99th percentile on Math and Science - but if that kid was 74th percentile on English, they were out of luck.

So if you have a huge chunk of kids who are artificially raising their scores through prep, that’s not only getting kids into the semifinalist pool who don’t belong there - it’s also removing kids who DO belong in the pool. Not good.

2) Your assertion that the admissions committee “moves on” to the other areas of the application once the semifinalists are selected and does not use the exam scores is incorrect. The exam scores were included in the applicant profile - this was part of the presentation every year - and the statistics that the admissions office showed every year showed huge jumps between the average percentiles of semifinalists versus offered students - especially in (you guessed it!) the Quant-Q.

I would also challenge your assertion that the previous exams were “ridiculously easy for most Asian students”. Kinda showed your true colors on that one.

Tldr don’t come at me and tell me that I don’t know the old process. Shame on you.

Thank you so much for your insight. Please do not leave this thread.

Please remain and keep being a punching bag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's obvious by now that the "prepping" posters are just straight up lying. They have no evidence or facts to back up their ridiculous accusation that most of TJ students got in because of prepping. They keep saying it because of the racial bias they have. The only fact known is that most of the cheaters caught in the recent college admission scandals are white parents. Prepping is too hard for them, so they hired someone to take the tests.

FCPS shouldn't base its policy based on innuendos or racial biases. It should be based on facts and logic.

White parents also bribed SAT employees to change the SAT scores of their children as well. They deserve maximum prison sentences. I think they are projecting their twisted and guilty conscience on to Asian parents.

Who prepped the most for travel sports (which is legal)? White parents too.

How are travel sports relevant to this conversation at all?

How is prepping relevant to this TJ 'reform' change?

Because apparently the biggest and most successful provider of it charges $5K for their flagship that literally only serves students of one race.

Isn’t it about 1-5 thousand per year is hi h works out to about 30-40 per hour?

Also, I think the courses are open to anyone interested but of course lazy ones don’t attend. I hear white parents prefer private one to one prepping by paying hundreds of dollars per hour so that they can deny any prepping which is funny.

You’re still talking about an insane investment of time for a 12 year old kid. Not to mention the amount of pressure that that massive expenditure places on them.

Those of us who are pro-reform, to be clear, are against the idea of any sort of admissions system that is easily optimized by spending large sums of money that many people don’t have. We hate when white people are jerks too.

Indian dad here. DS is entering 7th grade. We are so relieved that we don’t feel any pressure any more to pay for tutoring. Our boy wants to go to TJ but I wouldn’t have felt like I was doing everything I could if we didn’t do something like Curie.

Maybe he gets in, maybe he doesn’t, but he doesn’t have to spend his whole 7th grade year studying for the quant. Far more productive things to do with his time.

He’s not getting in.

Troll

[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: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.

+1

+2

that's obvious to most anyone with common sense

That is not what you sai. You said the students only made the cut because of the prep center and that you know that for a fact. Show us the basis for that "fact".

Also, I, PP above, never said anything about it being a fact. Someone else might have, and that’s fine - there are many pro-reform voices on this board, some of whom have no idea what they’re talking about. The assertion that Curie moved the needle for a large number of students is neither provable nor disprovable, but the circumstantial evidences that it did is OVERWHELMING - and that’s just one prep place out of dozens.

And before anyone climbs on here begging for an investigation: they didn’t commit any crime as far as I know. All they did was play by the rules of a flawed game as far as I know. So the rules changed, in no small part because they shouted from the rooftops that they had 28% of the class of 2024.

This discussion got started because someone posted that the students made the cut only because of prep. Maybe it was you or maybe it was one of the other moron now hiding but take responsibility for what you claim. Where is the evidence students made the cut only because of the prep center?

You’re asking for something that has no value to the discussion. You can keep repeating yourself all you want - you still lost.

Bottom line is this - Curie and places like it exist in one of two realities:

1) They are, often enough, responsible for a substantial number of students moving from “not offered” to “offered”, thus justifying the enormous expenditure of money and time. This reality confers a significant advantage in the TJ admissions process to families able and willing to spend that time and money, and has a chilling effect on students and families who would otherwise be interested, but for whatever reason don’t want to commit this extraordinary amount of additional resources on something that appears to confer that advantage.

OR

2) They don’t have a significant impact on the admissions process - the kids who get in would have gotten in anyway and no one is excluded from the school by someone who spent these resources - and the existence of TJ has been used as a means for Curie to bilk Indian families out of literally millions of dollars over the years.

There isn’t a third option. And both are reasons to dissolve the market.

1) They are, often enough, responsible for a substantial number of students moving from “not offered” to “offered”, thus justifying the enormous expenditure of money and time. This reality confers a significant advantage in the TJ admissions process to families able and willing to spend that time and money, and has a chilling effect on students and families who would otherwise be interested, but for whatever reason don’t want to commit this extraordinary amount of additional resources on something that appears to confer that advantage.

Response: Where is any evidence that there are "substantial number of students moving from “not offered” to “offered"? In addition, the test is ridiculously easy for most Asian students and passing the test will not result in getting "offered". You show your ignorance by not even being aware of the admissions process prior to 2021. Passing the test only moves you to the semi-finalist stage and the admissions office then reviews LoRs, essays, SIS, GPA etc. to make the "offers".

2) They don’t have a significant impact on the admissions process - the kids who get in would have gotten in anyway and no one is excluded from the school by someone who spent these resources - and the existence of TJ has been used as a means for Curie to bilk Indian families out of literally millions of dollars over the years.

Response: Who are you to dictate how parents choose to parent and educate their children? Nobody is forcing you to send your kids to prep centers or SAT tutoring, sport teams, private tutoring and other activities. Asian parents may spend 1 or 2 K a year to send their kids to prep centers but white parents spend much more than that on private one on one academic tutoring, private SAT tutoring etc. These costs $100-$500 per hour.

Oh man, you are throwing down with the wrong person here. I know the previous admissions process better than just about anyone on this board.

Here’s why the prep mattered on the admissions exam:

1) Making the semifinalist pool wasn’t about achieving some hard and fast cutoff score. Students had to achieve a percentile score relative to the rest of the population that was taking each of the three exams to qualify - meaning that if one student gets a better score, that makes someone else’s score look worse.

Students had to score in the 75th percentile or above on the ACT Aspire English and either 75th or above on both the Quant-Q and the ACT Aspire Science, or 50th on QQ and 90th on Science. Prep was readily available for the ACT Aspires, but NOT for the Quant-Q, which was selected by Admissions precisely because it was a secured exam. Even so, a student could score in the 99th percentile on Math and Science - but if that kid was 74th percentile on English, they were out of luck.

So if you have a huge chunk of kids who are artificially raising their scores through prep, that’s not only getting kids into the semifinalist pool who don’t belong there - it’s also removing kids who DO belong in the pool. Not good.

2) Your assertion that the admissions committee “moves on” to the other areas of the application once the semifinalists are selected and does not use the exam scores is incorrect. The exam scores were included in the applicant profile - this was part of the presentation every year - and the statistics that the admissions office showed every year showed huge jumps between the average percentiles of semifinalists versus offered students - especially in (you guessed it!) the Quant-Q.

I would also challenge your assertion that the previous exams were “ridiculously easy for most Asian students”. Kinda showed your true colors on that one.

Tldr don’t come at me and tell me that I don’t know the old process. Shame on you.

Thank you so much for your insight. Please do not leave this thread.

Please remain and keep being a punching bag.

That poster is embarrassing all of the numbskulls on here who think they know what they’re talking about.

- TJ Class of 2019

[Anonymous]

I would just as soon they eliminate TJ as eliminate Currie. People will always try to deconstruct and game the admissions process and the amount of time the narcissist parents and students and the befuddled School Board spend obsessing over TJ has become a diversion that erodes the larger school system.

[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: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.

+1

+2

that's obvious to most anyone with common sense

That is not what you sai. You said the students only made the cut because of the prep center and that you know that for a fact. Show us the basis for that "fact".

Also, I, PP above, never said anything about it being a fact. Someone else might have, and that’s fine - there are many pro-reform voices on this board, some of whom have no idea what they’re talking about. The assertion that Curie moved the needle for a large number of students is neither provable nor disprovable, but the circumstantial evidences that it did is OVERWHELMING - and that’s just one prep place out of dozens.

And before anyone climbs on here begging for an investigation: they didn’t commit any crime as far as I know. All they did was play by the rules of a flawed game as far as I know. So the rules changed, in no small part because they shouted from the rooftops that they had 28% of the class of 2024.

This discussion got started because someone posted that the students made the cut only because of prep. Maybe it was you or maybe it was one of the other moron now hiding but take responsibility for what you claim. Where is the evidence students made the cut only because of the prep center?

You’re asking for something that has no value to the discussion. You can keep repeating yourself all you want - you still lost.

Bottom line is this - Curie and places like it exist in one of two realities:

1) They are, often enough, responsible for a substantial number of students moving from “not offered” to “offered”, thus justifying the enormous expenditure of money and time. This reality confers a significant advantage in the TJ admissions process to families able and willing to spend that time and money, and has a chilling effect on students and families who would otherwise be interested, but for whatever reason don’t want to commit this extraordinary amount of additional resources on something that appears to confer that advantage.

OR

2) They don’t have a significant impact on the admissions process - the kids who get in would have gotten in anyway and no one is excluded from the school by someone who spent these resources - and the existence of TJ has been used as a means for Curie to bilk Indian families out of literally millions of dollars over the years.

There isn’t a third option. And both are reasons to dissolve the market.

SMH it's 2021 and we've reached the point where people are really saying the system should favor people who don't want to spend time on education over those that do.

Working hard is one thing. Paying for strategies to succeed on an exam that basically measures test taking ability is quite another.

I'm not automatically going to assume that you're not a biased hatemonger and that those prep programs don't impart any legitimate intellectual growth.

That’s not a sentence but go off. They’re TJ prep courses. They’re marketed as such.

I think one of the classes is how to write your essay to get the maximum impact. If that's not coaching simply to game the system, I'm not sure what is...

[Anonymous]

So much drama. My kid did not prep for TJ. Didn’t do any activities with the goal of getting into TJ. Followed her natural interests. Some science. Some not. Got in this year with all As and Geometry in 8th. If she hadn’t, she would’ve gone to her base school and been very happy. Excited for TJ. But not worth all this drama and anxiety and nastiness we see from parents on here. Hoping it will not be a big thing among the students. If it is, she might go back to her base school. So much unnecessary drama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So much drama. My kid did not prep for TJ. Didn’t do any activities with the goal of getting into TJ. Followed her natural interests. Some science. Some not. Got in this year with all As and Geometry in 8th. If she hadn’t, she would’ve gone to her base school and been very happy. Excited for TJ. But not worth all this drama and anxiety and nastiness we see from parents on here. Hoping it will not be a big thing among the students. If it is, she might go back to her base school. So much unnecessary drama.

my ds is same as your dd but he is on wait list, would you mind to share her school? TY

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would just as soon they eliminate TJ as eliminate Currie. People will always try to deconstruct and game the admissions process and the amount of time the narcissist parents and students and the befuddled School Board spend obsessing over TJ has become a diversion that erodes the larger school system.

Defund AAP first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So much drama. My kid did not prep for TJ. Didn’t do any activities with the goal of getting into TJ. Followed her natural interests. Some science. Some not. Got in this year with all As and Geometry in 8th. If she hadn’t, she would’ve gone to her base school and been very happy. Excited for TJ. But not worth all this drama and anxiety and nastiness we see from parents on here. Hoping it will not be a big thing among the students. If it is, she might go back to her base school. So much unnecessary drama.

Possibly better off in base school. TJ is not suited to teach kids like yours. But I hope I am wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would just as soon they eliminate TJ as eliminate Currie. People will always try to deconstruct and game the admissions process and the amount of time the narcissist parents and students and the befuddled School Board spend obsessing over TJ has become a diversion that erodes the larger school system.

Defund AAP first.

Defund everything. Fund unemployment checks instead.