Official TJ Admissions Decisions Results for the Class of 2025

[Anonymous]

Working hard is no more appreciated.. schools, jobs, within families..

If anyone work hard in any office, lot of negatively talk about the person

Same with school students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Working hard is no more appreciated.. schools, jobs, within families..

If anyone work hard in any office, lot of negatively talk about the person

Same with school students

Works at dvd Olympics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a student that got accepted into the TJHSST Class of 2025, and I'd like to clarify a few things as you parents seem to know absolutely nothing about this year's admissions system.

First off, you parents HAVE to stop obsessing over the change in race demographics at TJ. The admissions system this year was 100% RACE-BLIND, and everyone who got in deserved it.

If you believe your child "should have gotten in" but didn't, suck it up. Get over it. Absolutely everything in life is unfair, but to clarify, this is not specifically because of the change in admissions system.

The average GPA of everyone who applied to TJ was nearly 3.9. If you're angry that you're 4.0-Algebra 2 child did not get in, you should know that this year's admissions system was extremely competitive and HUNDREDS of kids had a 4.0 GPA and took Algebra 2. It is not merely based on grades.

How about, I don't know, be proud of your kid? Maybe think for a second that your kid isn't fit for TJ? Maybe that the competition was so high this year that the essays were stellar to the sentence and that the average GPA of every kid admitted was nearly a perfect 3.99 or 4.0?

For everyone saying "Oh, the kids should have gotten in! The kids worked so hard!" Suck it up and get over yourself. Did your kid work hard? Yes. But EVERYONE who applied worked hard. Every single kid who got in had worked their butt off and excelled higher than anyone else. So yes, it's sad that your hard-working kid didn't get in, but someone shouldn't get in JUST because they work hard.

Again, I'd like to clarify that checking off the box "multiracial" or "black" or "hispanic" is not a "golden ticket" to getting into TJ. It was race-blind. STOP blaming the demographics of TJ and maybe, start thinking about your child and what they feel when you go on and on about how TJ is horrible.

I'd also like to make it clear that the admissions system is extremely flawed. In no way am I saying that it is perfect, because it is not, but everything in life is that way. College admissions system, I believe, is more unfair than TJ's admissions system. But that does not mean you should trash talk TJ and trash talk colleges, because what's the point in that?

In addition, as someone who is accepted in to the TJ class of 2025, I almost feel GUILTY that I got accepted. Parents are saying that all the kids who got in got a "golden ticket" and "their kid" should have gotten in instead. Why do WE have to feel bad that we worked extremely hard, and got accepted into an incredible school?

For every parent who sees this, stop complaining about the admissions system and get over yourself. Care about your child and shift your focus to their wellbeing. Stop complaining about every little detail because your child, I can guarantee, is sick of it, and is sick of your complaining, because that negativity is not something that will encourage them to move forward and work harder. So please, PLEASE, try to be more positive and think more about your kid.



Sincerely, an accepted teenager who is tired of other parents talking bad about the admissions system.

says the one who got in...

Not all 4.0s are created equal. There are the 4.0s who average 99s, then there are the majority who barely average 93s and 94s. If you are a student, you would know that. Night and day, Algebra 2 99 vs. Algebra 1 93. The past system was a joke for other reasons. The current system a joke for this reason.

You know what's also a joke? People who buy the entrance exam because their kids couldn't otherwise pass it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a few things I haven't been able to quite square away yet.

Picture some hypothetical situation where a teacher, as an experiment, introduces some brand new subject which nobody in her class has ever heard of before. On a preliminary test, everyone in the class gets similar grades, since they're all starting from the same place. Then, a handful of students start studying for it, and a few weeks later, they do another test, and for some reason, those kids are scoring a lot better than everyone else. The teacher gets panicked, and says, "the grades aren't evenly balanced anymore - I have to change something to take away the advantage from the small group of students who are doing disproportionately well." Or even worse, "Those students are only showing good test-taking skills, so that most likely means that they're actually mediocre compared to everyone else." How is that fundamentally different than what we're seeing here?

Ok - people would point out that there's the money that is involved. That might even approach fair. On the other hand, last I checked Fairfax County was one of the - if not the - wealthiest counties in the nation. The Curie students are mostly grouped by ethnicity, not by wealth. I don't have the numbers, but I'd intuit that the group in question is at best only moderately wealthy compared to the rest of the county. That would mean that for the vast majority of the county, prep would be seen as an option rather than a privilege. Those taking that route would probably see it as pursuing an opportunity that's available to many - a far cry from the haves vs have nots rhetoric that we're seeing dominating this board.

Does that mean that there aren't any students for whom there is a true wealth barrier? Sure there are - but I'd assume that it's a special case, not a representative one. Just like the "super-nerds" who need TJ and who seem to be left out of the revised system. The "anti-prepper" posters often pretend these kids don't even exist. I don't want to sound callous, but if is a forced choice between trampling the nerds and trampling the poor, I'm not sure why it's necessarily more right to side with the poor.

The money is the problem.

Parents are entitled to spend their money in any way they want to to enrich their children’s lives - more power to them.

But there simply shouldn’t be a market for parents to spend a couple of mortgage payments - or for poorer families, several month’s rent - explicitly for privileged access to TJ. And that’s what’s happening right now - regardless of how effective these companies’ products are, there is clearly a belief that they are, and that creates an elite market.

And even though they were the only ones to market as explicitly as they did, let’s not pretend that Curie is the only one out there. Kate Dalby, Optimal TJ Prep, Sunshine - there is a ton of money to be made off of parents desperate for a leg up in TJ Admissions. And an admissions process that incentivizes that behavior is a non-starter if there is further reform to be done.

Spend your money however you want, but don’t expect it to do your resource hoarding for you.

That's certainly one way to look at the situation. A different way would be to say: if we want to counteract a disparity in how much money different cultures are willing to invest in education, we should start by alleviating the concerns that people certain cultures have about the degree of seriousness of base-level American education.

That’s a fancy way of saying “fix the pipeline” - but it’s a false choice to suggest we should do one or the other, or one THEN the other. Creating additional opportunities for demonstrably excellent students (a 3.95+ average unweighted GPA is exceptional no matter how you slice it) who happen to be born into less wealthy families energizes the pipeline work.

Not a false choice. Just a lazy solution by gaming the system. You could have worked on a better test and kept teacher recommendations. Instead you used Covid to do your nasty business so that TJ spots could be gifted by the politicians, to their constituents. Ironically, reduces the incentive to fix the pipeline. Why fix pipeline when you can game the process to punish a certain race. You can never ever defend evil, even if you sometimes get away with it. Truth stands on its own!

Your hateful nonsense aside, I personally believe in teacher recs. I think it was a mistake to remove them.

Very Trumpian deflection! You can't refute the argument or the truth and therefore just call it hateful nonsense. I guess at some level you see that hate is behind your actions victimizing a group although it is couched in fanciness. I hope you are embarrassed at least.

I love teacher recs too! We gave DC's teacher an all expense vacay to Hawaii and she wrote the best rec ever!

[Anonymous]

I think it's appropriate to fix the pipeline at the HS level so if it were up to me each high school would get an equal percentage. The changes are a good start but they need to take it to the next level.

[Anonymous]

I hate it when people don't just trust the school system to pick the Whitest, most promising candidates out of a homogenously-presented full-county candidate pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a student that got accepted into the TJHSST Class of 2025, and I'd like to clarify a few things as you parents seem to know absolutely nothing about this year's admissions system.

First off, you parents HAVE to stop obsessing over the change in race demographics at TJ. The admissions system this year was 100% RACE-BLIND, and everyone who got in deserved it.

If you believe your child "should have gotten in" but didn't, suck it up. Get over it. Absolutely everything in life is unfair, but to clarify, this is not specifically because of the change in admissions system.

The average GPA of everyone who applied to TJ was nearly 3.9. If you're angry that you're 4.0-Algebra 2 child did not get in, you should know that this year's admissions system was extremely competitive and HUNDREDS of kids had a 4.0 GPA and took Algebra 2. It is not merely based on grades.

How about, I don't know, be proud of your kid? Maybe think for a second that your kid isn't fit for TJ? Maybe that the competition was so high this year that the essays were stellar to the sentence and that the average GPA of every kid admitted was nearly a perfect 3.99 or 4.0?

For everyone saying "Oh, the kids should have gotten in! The kids worked so hard!" Suck it up and get over yourself. Did your kid work hard? Yes. But EVERYONE who applied worked hard. Every single kid who got in had worked their butt off and excelled higher than anyone else. So yes, it's sad that your hard-working kid didn't get in, but someone shouldn't get in JUST because they work hard.

Again, I'd like to clarify that checking off the box "multiracial" or "black" or "hispanic" is not a "golden ticket" to getting into TJ. It was race-blind. STOP blaming the demographics of TJ and maybe, start thinking about your child and what they feel when you go on and on about how TJ is horrible.

I'd also like to make it clear that the admissions system is extremely flawed. In no way am I saying that it is perfect, because it is not, but everything in life is that way. College admissions system, I believe, is more unfair than TJ's admissions system. But that does not mean you should trash talk TJ and trash talk colleges, because what's the point in that?

In addition, as someone who is accepted in to the TJ class of 2025, I almost feel GUILTY that I got accepted. Parents are saying that all the kids who got in got a "golden ticket" and "their kid" should have gotten in instead. Why do WE have to feel bad that we worked extremely hard, and got accepted into an incredible school?

For every parent who sees this, stop complaining about the admissions system and get over yourself. Care about your child and shift your focus to their wellbeing. Stop complaining about every little detail because your child, I can guarantee, is sick of it, and is sick of your complaining, because that negativity is not something that will encourage them to move forward and work harder. So please, PLEASE, try to be more positive and think more about your kid.

Sincerely, an accepted teenager who is tired of other parents talking bad about the admissions system.

Congrats you won the lottery!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re previous post, with all due respect- do you understand the concept of middle school quotas, caps, quotas for URMS, FARMS, ELLS, and extra weightage for experience factors? Do you understand that GPAs and Essays are subjective? Did you know 7th graders in Loudon got a grade bump while FCPS didn't? You're comparing apples and oranges and this is in no way fair for many many deserving kids. If someone who haven't taken Geometry or advanced courses in middle school and plan to do it at TJ isn't it a lost opportunity for an advanced kid? Look at the bigger picture...fcps needs to fix the pipeline issue starting in elementary instead of changing TJ'S admissions and curriculum to accommodate everyone.

DP. There are no quotas for URMs, FARMs or ELLs. Stop lying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re previous post, with all due respect- do you understand the concept of middle school quotas, caps, quotas for URMS, FARMS, ELLS, and extra weightage for experience factors? Do you understand that GPAs and Essays are subjective? Did you know 7th graders in Loudon got a grade bump while FCPS didn't? You're comparing apples and oranges and this is in no way fair for many many deserving kids. If someone who haven't taken Geometry or advanced courses in middle school and plan to do it at TJ isn't it a lost opportunity for an advanced kid? Look at the bigger picture...fcps needs to fix the pipeline issue starting in elementary instead of changing TJ'S admissions and curriculum to accommodate everyone.

why not both? The old system punished kids attending the wrong middle school, this one balances it

Nonsense. The old system rewarded merit and hard work, and the new system creates hard quotas by middle school and soft ones that serve as a proxy for race/SES.

TJ is a public school. Nothing wrong with deciding it should serve all geographic regions of the county. Getvover it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was problematic for FCPS that slightly over 70% of the admits to TJ had been Asian, but 82% of the players selected in the NBA draft were Black.

Clearly Adam Silver needs the FCPS School Board and TJ AAG to give him advice on how to ensure more diversity entering the ranks of professional basketball.

If you could just understand that admissions to a public highschool is nothing like the NBA this thread would end.

Or, if you could realize there are people that believe the deck shouldn't be stacked against someone to favor another this thread would end.

I agree the deck shouldn't be stacked against kids who can't afford to go to $4,000 prep centers in favor of those who can't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re previous post, with all due respect- do you understand the concept of middle school quotas, caps, quotas for URMS, FARMS, ELLS, and extra weightage for experience factors? Do you understand that GPAs and Essays are subjective? Did you know 7th graders in Loudon got a grade bump while FCPS didn't? You're comparing apples and oranges and this is in no way fair for many many deserving kids. If someone who haven't taken Geometry or advanced courses in middle school and plan to do it at TJ isn't it a lost opportunity for an advanced kid? Look at the bigger picture...fcps needs to fix the pipeline issue starting in elementary instead of changing TJ'S admissions and curriculum to accommodate everyone.

why not both? The old system punished kids attending the wrong middle school, this one balances it

Nonsense. The old system rewarded merit and hard work, and the new system creates hard quotas by middle school and soft ones that serve as a proxy for race/SES.

TJ is a public school. Nothing wrong with deciding it should serve all geographic regions of the county. Getvover it.

Also worth noting that the old system mainly rewarded people who bought the test from a prep center which isn't exactly merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was problematic for FCPS that slightly over 70% of the admits to TJ had been Asian, but 82% of the players selected in the NBA draft were Black.

Clearly Adam Silver needs the FCPS School Board and TJ AAG to give him advice on how to ensure more diversity entering the ranks of professional basketball.

If you could just understand that admissions to a public highschool is nothing like the NBA this thread would end.

Or, if you could realize there are people that believe the deck shouldn't be stacked against someone to favor another this thread would end.

I agree the deck shouldn't be stacked against kids who can't afford to go to $4,000 prep centers in favor of those who can't.

We’ll, you just circled back to the sports analogy or band or the spelling bee or …
If preparation and practice is stacking the deck, then time to look at experience factors and quotas for these other public school activities. See how this works? Asians are saying you can have it one way or the other - but it needs to be across the board. Either apply equity to everything, or apply merit in a race-blind competitive process.

[Anonymous]

Public education =/= sports.

In any way.

However there are many ways you can foster your child’s educational success with money. It’s just a public high school should at least strive for equity in admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public education =/= sports.

In any way.

However there are many ways you can foster your child’s educational success with money. It’s just a public high school should at least strive for equity in admissions.

That’s where people disagree. In a public school sports, spelling bees, band, cheerleading, etc. usually have a try out and the top performers get selected. You just don’t want that to apply to TJ. I find your argument of striving for equity to be better placed by advocating shutting down TJ since there isn’t room for everyone. It’s not equitable if only a handful of the student body of Fairfax gets to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Public education =/= sports.

In any way.

However there are many ways you can foster your child’s educational success with money. It’s just a public high school should at least strive for equity in admissions.

Only lame uses equity to get in. Money doesn’t get one to TJ, can you also list the ways one can foster educational success, doesn’t make any sense