TJ admissions change from Merit to Essay impact to Asian American Students

[Anonymous]

What is the point of being a fantastic, brilliant student in the sciences, if you don't have the capacity to communicate that knowledge with the rest of the world? If you can't write an academic essay, that's a pretty big waste of scientific talent. Makes perfect sense to require that skill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of being a fantastic, brilliant student in the sciences, if you don't have the capacity to communicate that knowledge with the rest of the world? If you can't write an academic essay, that's a pretty big waste of scientific talent. Makes perfect sense to require that skill.

Yeah, because FCPS makes us believe that kids who barely survived Alg 1 in 8th grade and never excel in anything can write better essays about how they will excel in a STEM-focused school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of being a fantastic, brilliant student in the sciences, if you don't have the capacity to communicate that knowledge with the rest of the world? If you can't write an academic essay, that's a pretty big waste of scientific talent. Makes perfect sense to require that skill.

Yep but it’s pointless to admit kids to a STEM school that don’t have strong STEM skills. The essay doesn’t measure this and the testing results for 2025 prove this.

You need both, tests and an essay.

The SAT scores of the bottom third at TJ will end up being on par with average students at Lake Braddock and Chantilly.

But at least we have equity. Hahaha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People act as though MIT didn't also change their admissions policies over the years. They had a tons of suicides and lawsuits over them. They made a concerted effort to not take lopsided kids with no life. Didn't impact their rankings at all.

My memory is they shut down frats because a student died from drinking too much.

They have a thriving Greek scene. More than half of the MIT students are Greek today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of being a fantastic, brilliant student in the sciences, if you don't have the capacity to communicate that knowledge with the rest of the world? If you can't write an academic essay, that's a pretty big waste of scientific talent. Makes perfect sense to require that skill.

That is a skill normally taught in high school. Foolish to grade on this to get accepted to high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People act as though MIT didn't also change their admissions policies over the years. They had a tons of suicides and lawsuits over them. They made a concerted effort to not take lopsided kids with no life. Didn't impact their rankings at all.

My memory is they shut down frats because a student died from drinking too much.

They have a thriving Greek scene. More than half of the MIT students are Greek today.

Seems they shut out freshman from frats the last 20 years. They also shut down two dorms that were deemed too nonconforming- Bexley and Senior House.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of being a fantastic, brilliant student in the sciences, if you don't have the capacity to communicate that knowledge with the rest of the world? If you can't write an academic essay, that's a pretty big waste of scientific talent. Makes perfect sense to require that skill.

That is a skill normally taught in high school. Foolish to grade on this to get accepted to high school.

If you believe they would select based on this skill at all. All a sudden, mediocre and unmotivated kids can write better essays hahaha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of being a fantastic, brilliant student in the sciences, if you don't have the capacity to communicate that knowledge with the rest of the world? If you can't write an academic essay, that's a pretty big waste of scientific talent. Makes perfect sense to require that skill.

That is a skill normally taught in high school. Foolish to grade on this to get accepted to high school.

Have you paid no attention to your DC at all? They have been teaching this skill to students throughout grade school and middle school. How well a student picks it up varies. But some of them certainly get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of being a fantastic, brilliant student in the sciences, if you don't have the capacity to communicate that knowledge with the rest of the world? If you can't write an academic essay, that's a pretty big waste of scientific talent. Makes perfect sense to require that skill.

That is a skill normally taught in high school. Foolish to grade on this to get accepted to high school.

Have you paid no attention to your DC at all? They have been teaching this skill to students throughout grade school and middle school. How well a student picks it up varies. But some of them certainly get it.

Somehow students who fell behind in math and science and also didn't care of those subjects can suddenly write convincingly that they would excel in a STEM HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This part is true.

"Admissions changed to Essay based, and increased enrollment of 8th grade algebra1 students”

If you didn’t enroll Algebra 1 in 7th grade, then it tells us that you failed to meet the benchmark score on the Iowa test and failed to achieve an advanced pass on the SOL. One thing FPCS knows for sure is that most of those students who enrolled in entry level math 7 honors are definitely non-Asian. Therefore, even without knowing your background, they do know where your background excels. They can recruit from just about any school across the county and be certain that those applicants who present Geometry HN or higher at the time of application are mostly likely Asians. So, skim from the bottom and not from the top. No need to rely exclusively on the applicants zip code. They can just look at the math course in 7th grade.

Is it a coincidence that Algebra 1 offers went up and Asian American student quota came down?

Merit Test based Admissions:
Class of 2019, Asian American 70.20%; algebra 1 offers 5%
Class of 2020, Asian American 71.34%; algebra 1 offers 5%
Class of 2021, Asian American 74.90%; algebra 1 offers 4%
Class of 2023, Asian American 72.87%; algebra 1 offers 4%
Class of 2024, Asian American 73.05%; algebra 1 offers 4%

Admissions changed to Essay based, and increased enrollment of 8th grade algebra1 students:
Class of 2025, Asian American 54.36%; algebra 1 offers =31%
Class of 2026, Asian American 59.82%; algebra 1 offers >25%
Class of 2027, Asian American 61.64%; algebra 1 offers >25%
Class of 2028, Asian American 57.27%; algebra 1 offers >25%

Page 10 has Algebra1 numbers:
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/BWE23Y004896/$file/TJ%20White%20Paper%2011.17.2020.pdf
Increase in Algebra 1 admits:
https://fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

[Anonymous]

Lame excuse to exclude

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of being a fantastic, brilliant student in the sciences, if you don't have the capacity to communicate that knowledge with the rest of the world? If you can't write an academic essay, that's a pretty big waste of scientific talent. Makes perfect sense to require that skill.

[Anonymous]

Maybe they need to get rid of tests and grades and have a more inclusive approach. A committee of teachers to vote on the top 25 percent?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
How do innocent algebra 1 kids benefit when they're placed at the bottom, enduring four years of misery as they strive to catch up with peers in the upper two-thirds, who are two years ahead in math and science? While the upper two-thirds may enjoy the supposed benefits (whatever they are) of diversity introduced by the inclusion of the bottom third, why impose the burden on the bottom third by subjecting them to a rigorous TJ curriculum they would struggle with? It seems like Algebra 1 students are getting the short end of the stick with admissions change.

Not to mention, these students never make it to teams representing TJ in STEM competitions. If they want to make TJ more like NOVA's demographics, why don't they have more diverse teams for those competitions?

Because they can't, even if they wanted to. Those STEM competitions you're referring to are beyond 100% merit. They wouldn't exist in any other form.

So, where is equity if TJ's top 25% is still dominated by the same demographics? It does seem to me that TJ should also change their courses and evaluations rather than just admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People act as though MIT didn't also change their admissions policies over the years. They had a tons of suicides and lawsuits over them. They made a concerted effort to not take lopsided kids with no life. Didn't impact their rankings at all.

My memory is they shut down frats because a student died from drinking too much.

They have a thriving Greek scene. More than half of the MIT students are Greek today.

Seems they shut out freshman from frats the last 20 years. They also shut down two dorms that were deemed too nonconforming- Bexley and Senior House.

Freshman join sororities and fraternities freshman year, but live on campus. Bexley had structural issues that were beyond repair and senior house had a lot of issues that they felt needed a culture change for the better (less drugs, better grades, better mental health).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This part is true.

"Admissions changed to Essay based, and increased enrollment of 8th grade algebra1 students”

If you didn’t enroll Algebra 1 in 7th grade, then it tells us that you failed to meet the benchmark score on the Iowa test and failed to achieve an advanced pass on the SOL. One thing FPCS knows for sure is that most of those students who enrolled in entry level math 7 honors are definitely non-Asian. Therefore, even without knowing your background, they do know where your background excels. They can recruit from just about any school across the county and be certain that those applicants who present Geometry HN or higher at the time of application are mostly likely Asians. So, skim from the bottom and not from the top. No need to rely exclusively on the applicants zip code. They can just look at the math course in 7th grade.

Is it a coincidence that Algebra 1 offers went up and Asian American student quota came down?

Merit Test based Admissions:
Class of 2019, Asian American 70.20%; algebra 1 offers 5%
Class of 2020, Asian American 71.34%; algebra 1 offers 5%
Class of 2021, Asian American 74.90%; algebra 1 offers 4%
Class of 2023, Asian American 72.87%; algebra 1 offers 4%
Class of 2024, Asian American 73.05%; algebra 1 offers 4%

Admissions changed to Essay based, and increased enrollment of 8th grade algebra1 students:
Class of 2025, Asian American 54.36%; algebra 1 offers =31%
Class of 2026, Asian American 59.82%; algebra 1 offers >25%
Class of 2027, Asian American 61.64%; algebra 1 offers >25%
Class of 2028, Asian American 57.27%; algebra 1 offers >25%

Page 10 has Algebra1 numbers:
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/BWE23Y004896/$file/TJ%20White%20Paper%2011.17.2020.pdf
Increase in Algebra 1 admits:
https://fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

from the boardocs document page 10, Figure 2, it shows there are consistently over 200+ applicants with Algebra 2 trig, how many of those are likely from FCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This part is true.

"Admissions changed to Essay based, and increased enrollment of 8th grade algebra1 students”

If you didn’t enroll Algebra 1 in 7th grade, then it tells us that you failed to meet the benchmark score on the Iowa test and failed to achieve an advanced pass on the SOL. One thing FPCS knows for sure is that most of those students who enrolled in entry level math 7 honors are definitely non-Asian. Therefore, even without knowing your background, they do know where your background excels. They can recruit from just about any school across the county and be certain that those applicants who present Geometry HN or higher at the time of application are mostly likely Asians. So, skim from the bottom and not from the top. No need to rely exclusively on the applicants zip code. They can just look at the math course in 7th grade.

Is it a coincidence that Algebra 1 offers went up and Asian American student quota came down?

Merit Test based Admissions:
Class of 2019, Asian American 70.20%; algebra 1 offers 5%
Class of 2020, Asian American 71.34%; algebra 1 offers 5%
Class of 2021, Asian American 74.90%; algebra 1 offers 4%
Class of 2023, Asian American 72.87%; algebra 1 offers 4%
Class of 2024, Asian American 73.05%; algebra 1 offers 4%

Admissions changed to Essay based, and increased enrollment of 8th grade algebra1 students:
Class of 2025, Asian American 54.36%; algebra 1 offers =31%
Class of 2026, Asian American 59.82%; algebra 1 offers >25%
Class of 2027, Asian American 61.64%; algebra 1 offers >25%
Class of 2028, Asian American 57.27%; algebra 1 offers >25%

Page 10 has Algebra1 numbers:
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/BWE23Y004896/$file/TJ%20White%20Paper%2011.17.2020.pdf
Increase in Algebra 1 admits:
https://fcag.org/documents/TJ_Class_of_2025_analysis.pdf

You seem to be equating URM with Algebra 1 and Asian with not-Algebra 1. Actually, the admissions process was designed to select for location - and not all middle schools push Algebra in 7th grade. Many highly discourage it, in Fairfax and other districts. The new admissions process does not select for race, it selects for location, for all the middle schools in Nova.