TJ Admissions question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

How sad and pathetic that any parent feels compelled to play these games. Feel sorry for their kids. It sets a bad example and the real world doesn't work this way. TJ isn't the ticket people think it is. It's just a high school.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Thanks that is helpful!! What is there are 20 kids who apply (for 6 spots) and all have the highest possible GPA and same classes? I'm asking because our school doesn't really have honors classes (other than accelerated math) and it's pretty easy to get straight As.

The essays.

[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?

Some folks get confused about what the 1.5% allotment actually means.

It does not mean that spaces are automatically offered to the top 1.5% of students within your middle school class.

It DOES mean that each middle school is allotted a number of spaces equal to 1.5% of your school's 8th grade class. So if your school has, say, 400 8th graders, your school would be allotted 6 spaces.

If only 6 students apply from your middle school and all of them meet the minimum qualifications, they will all be admitted to TJ.

If 20 of them apply and meet the minimum requirements, then six of them will be granted admission through the allocated spaces at your school and the other 14 will compete for the remaining unallocated spaces with all of the other qualified students in the applicant pool who were not selected for allocated spaces.

Thanks a lot for this info. Earlier I thought it this way: ABC school has 100 students and the top 1.5% of the 100 students are given admission regardless they are applying to TJ or not. If 1.5% is 7 students and 2 of those students have applied, will get the TJ seat.
As per your explanation top 1.5% of those applied to TJ are getting admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Some folks get confused about what the 1.5% allotment actually means.

It does not mean that spaces are automatically offered to the top 1.5% of students within your middle school class.

It DOES mean that each middle school is allotted a number of spaces equal to 1.5% of your school's 8th grade class. So if your school has, say, 400 8th graders, your school would be allotted 6 spaces.

If only 6 students apply from your middle school and all of them meet the minimum qualifications, they will all be admitted to TJ.

If 20 of them apply and meet the minimum requirements, then six of them will be granted admission through the allocated spaces at your school and the other 14 will compete for the remaining unallocated spaces with all of the other qualified students in the applicant pool who were not selected for allocated spaces.

Thanks a lot for this info. Earlier I thought it this way: ABC school has 100 students and the top 1.5% of the 100 students are given admission regardless they are applying to TJ or not. If 1.5% is 7 students and 2 of those students have applied, will get the TJ seat.
As per your explanation top 1.5% of those applied to TJ are getting admission.

Also the 1.5% accounts for far less than 100% more like 50% of the spots. The other half are simply the top kids from the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Thanks a lot for this info. Earlier I thought it this way: ABC school has 100 students and the top 1.5% of the 100 students are given admission regardless they are applying to TJ or not. If 1.5% is 7 students and 2 of those students have applied, will get the TJ seat.
As per your explanation top 1.5% of those applied to TJ are getting admission.

No, you were closer with the first thought. If the school has 800 8th graders, the top 12 students of those who apply will be given admission. If less than 12 students apply, they will be given admission. If more than 12 students apply, the top 12 will be given admission, and the remainder will be placed in the at-large pool and the top students will be selected from all schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

PP here. Thanks that is helpful!! What is there are 20 kids who apply (for 6 spots) and all have the highest possible GPA and same classes? I'm asking because our school doesn't really have honors classes (other than accelerated math) and it's pretty easy to get straight As.

The essays.

I think Curie has an excellent class on how to write a winning essay for the application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Arlington has 20 seats and 6 public middle schools and a number of private schools. Fewer than 1.5% of Arlington middle schoolers get to go to TJ.

[Anonymous]

How does school decide top 1.5 % student? How is GPA calculated? FCPS only gives A grade (row score 93-100), does that mean all student have 4.0 GPA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does school decide top 1.5 % student? How is GPA calculated? FCPS only gives A grade (row score 93-100), does that mean all student have 4.0 GPA?

A 93 - 100
A- 90 - 92
B+ 87 - 89

Any students getting raw score of 93-100 will have GPA of 4.0.If more than 1.5% studnet qualifies with equal GPA then probably students are selected randonly.If student is taking Algbra 1 Honors then they get extra 0.5 GPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does school decide top 1.5 % student? How is GPA calculated? FCPS only gives A grade (row score 93-100), does that mean all student have 4.0 GPA?

A 93 - 100
A- 90 - 92
B+ 87 - 89

Any students getting raw score of 93-100 will have GPA of 4.0.If more than 1.5% studnet qualifies with equal GPA then probably students are selected randonly.If student is taking Algbra 1 Honors then they get extra 0.5 GPA.

Incorrect on several fronts. At many schools, there will be more students with 4.0 GPAs than there are TJ spots. The students are picked primarily based on their essay responses. Scoring for the top 1.5% is the essay score + the GPA score + any experience factor points, with the essays being pretty heavily weighted. There is no GPA bump for math level or Honors classes. The kid taking the minimum required courseload, meaning Algebra I Honors, Honors Science, Honors Social Studies, and gen ed English who earns a 93% in each class will earn more points for GPA than the kid taking Pre-Calc Honors and AAP in all subjects, with 100% in everything except a 92% in AAP English. It is likely, however, that the second kid would have much better essays and still come out ahead of the first kid in the final rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does school decide top 1.5 % student? How is GPA calculated? FCPS only gives A grade (row score 93-100), does that mean all student have 4.0 GPA?

A 93 - 100
A- 90 - 92
B+ 87 - 89

Any students getting raw score of 93-100 will have GPA of 4.0.If more than 1.5% studnet qualifies with equal GPA then probably students are selected randonly.If student is taking Algbra 1 Honors then they get extra 0.5 GPA.

Incorrect on several fronts. At many schools, there will be more students with 4.0 GPAs than there are TJ spots. The students are picked primarily based on their essay responses. Scoring for the top 1.5% is the essay score + the GPA score + any experience factor points, with the essays being pretty heavily weighted. There is no GPA bump for math level or Honors classes. The kid taking the minimum required courseload, meaning Algebra I Honors, Honors Science, Honors Social Studies, and gen ed English who earns a 93% in each class will earn more points for GPA than the kid taking Pre-Calc Honors and AAP in all subjects, with 100% in everything except a 92% in AAP English. It is likely, however, that the second kid would have much better essays and still come out ahead of the first kid in the final rankings.

AAP kids have no choice but to take AAP courses in 7th/8th grade, are you saying, admission is designed to give priority to non-aap courses/expereince factor? 96% in AAP English will be much better than 98% in non-aap English. Same is true for 96% in Algebra 1 Honors vs 98% Algebra 1 (moin requirement).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does school decide top 1.5 % student? How is GPA calculated? FCPS only gives A grade (row score 93-100), does that mean all student have 4.0 GPA?

A 93 - 100
A- 90 - 92
B+ 87 - 89

Any students getting raw score of 93-100 will have GPA of 4.0.If more than 1.5% studnet qualifies with equal GPA then probably students are selected randonly.If student is taking Algbra 1 Honors then they get extra 0.5 GPA.

Incorrect on several fronts. At many schools, there will be more students with 4.0 GPAs than there are TJ spots. The students are picked primarily based on their essay responses. Scoring for the top 1.5% is the essay score + the GPA score + any experience factor points, with the essays being pretty heavily weighted. There is no GPA bump for math level or Honors classes. The kid taking the minimum required courseload, meaning Algebra I Honors, Honors Science, Honors Social Studies, and gen ed English who earns a 93% in each class will earn more points for GPA than the kid taking Pre-Calc Honors and AAP in all subjects, with 100% in everything except a 92% in AAP English. It is likely, however, that the second kid would have much better essays and still come out ahead of the first kid in the final rankings.

AAP kids have no choice but to take AAP courses in 7th/8th grade, are you saying, admission is designed to give priority to non-aap courses/expereince factor? 96% in AAP English will be much better than 98% in non-aap English. Same is true for 96% in Algebra 1 Honors vs 98% Algebra 1 (moin requirement).

The minimum bar is that the kid needs to be in Algebra I Honors by 8th grade and needs to take at least Honors for 3 out of the 4 core classes. There is no bonus weighting for anything above the minimum bar. Likewise, they're just looking at GPA and not the kid's percent in the class. They cannot tell the difference between a 100% A and a 93% A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Arlington has 20 seats and 6 public middle schools and a number of private schools. Fewer than 1.5% of Arlington middle schoolers get to go to TJ.

I’m the poster you’re responding to. Can you provide a cite for this? Genuinely asking, as this is inconsistent with information in the presentation on the FCPS TJ website.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Arlington has 20 seats and 6 public middle schools and a number of private schools. Fewer than 1.5% of Arlington middle schoolers get to go to TJ.

Where are you getting this information? It is in direct conflict with what the TJ admissions person told everyone at the meeting in Arlington for students interested in TJ. She said 1.5% of EVERY middle school from any of the eligible counties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does school decide top 1.5 % student? How is GPA calculated? FCPS only gives A grade (row score 93-100), does that mean all student have 4.0 GPA?

A 93 - 100
A- 90 - 92
B+ 87 - 89

Any students getting raw score of 93-100 will have GPA of 4.0.If more than 1.5% studnet qualifies with equal GPA then probably students are selected randonly.If student is taking Algbra 1 Honors then they get extra 0.5 GPA.

Incorrect on several fronts. At many schools, there will be more students with 4.0 GPAs than there are TJ spots. The students are picked primarily based on their essay responses. Scoring for the top 1.5% is the essay score + the GPA score + any experience factor points, with the essays being pretty heavily weighted. There is no GPA bump for math level or Honors classes. The kid taking the minimum required courseload, meaning Algebra I Honors, Honors Science, Honors Social Studies, and gen ed English who earns a 93% in each class will earn more points for GPA than the kid taking Pre-Calc Honors and AAP in all subjects, with 100% in everything except a 92% in AAP English. It is likely, however, that the second kid would have much better essays and still come out ahead of the first kid in the final rankings.

AAP kids have no choice but to take AAP courses in 7th/8th grade, are you saying, admission is designed to give priority to non-aap courses/expereince factor? 96% in AAP English will be much better than 98% in non-aap English. Same is true for 96% in Algebra 1 Honors vs 98% Algebra 1 (moin requirement).

The minimum bar is that the kid needs to be in Algebra I Honors by 8th grade and needs to take at least Honors for 3 out of the 4 core classes. There is no bonus weighting for anything above the minimum bar. Likewise, they're just looking at GPA and not the kid's percent in the class. They cannot tell the difference between a 100% A and a 93% A.

Then how will they calculate GPA? many kids will have 'A' grade with raw score between 93-100 raw. Does that mean all kids having A grade are having 4.0 GPA?